She leaned over, just shy of letting her head rest on my chest. I went ahead and made it easier for her, wrapping an arm around her, then curling her into me.
“Feeling any better?”
“The throbbing has become a dull ache. But I feel no motivation to get off of this bed.”
“Me either,” I agreed.
“Would you be in any more trouble by waiting a couple of hours before calling in?”
“Doubt it.”
“Then maybe we can just stay here for a bit. I can force you to watch a Christmas movie,” she said, waving to the TV set on the dresser across from the bed that we had yet to turn on.
“Sounds good to me,” I said, finding the remote and passing it to her.
And the crazy thing was, it did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stephanie
Honestly, I dozed in and out. Not because I didn’t absolutely love“While You Were Sleeping,”but because there was something undeniably comforting about being snuggled up with Venezio in bed without a single distraction from the outside world.
Each time I woke up, I found Venezio’s attention pinned to the TV and managed to be awake to watch him watch the final scene.
“What did you think?” I asked as the credits rolled.
“That was funnier than I was expecting from a movie based around someone in a coma on Christmas.”
“Jack and Lucy are one of my favorite TV show couples ever,” I said as the streaming service automatically started playing one of those low-budget made-for-TV Christmas movies. Which I also usually loved. But I couldn’t focus on them when Venezio’s hand was drifting up and down my side.
“Yeah, they handled the whole lie thing pretty well.”
“I think it’s because Jack understood why the lie kind of spiraled out of control.”
We weren’t talking about the movie, and we both knew it.
“I should go get the damn cord.”
“Or,” I said, turning my head up to look at him, “you could stay here with me.”
“And watch another Christmas movie?” he asked.
“Actually,” I said, moving to straddle him, “I was thinking something else.”
Venezio’s chest expanded wide as his hands went low on my hips. “Oh, yeah?” he asked, eyes warming.
“Mmhmm,” I agreed, leaning forward to press my lips into his neck. This time, when he sucked in a breath, I could feel the way it shook through his chest as my tongue found the pulse point in his neck.
His hands shifted up to press against the bare skin of my back, but he didn’t explore, didn’t try to take control.
My lips kissed a path upward to his earlobe. And when my teeth grazed it, a jolt moved through him.
I got the feeling that a man like Venezio wasn’t often the recipient of teasing. And I was all too happy to be the first to let him experience it. Even if my own need was a coiled sensation deep in my core that tightened with each passing second.
Venezio’s breath went quick and shallow as I kissed down his jaw, then across toward his other ear.
When my lips found their way to his, they were soft and explorative. And while every muscle in his body seemed tense, he didn’t try to deepen it. Even if his fingers were digging into my hips with the effort to rein in his desire to move things along.
