He chuckled softly, tucking his face back into my neck. “Deal.”
There had beentimes in my life where I’d often dreamed up moments back in time where I’d find myself being driven up to the McAllister mansion and passing through those wrought iron gates, the radio playing softly and Avery humming to it in the driver’s seat, one hand on the steering wheel and the other wrapped around mine.
He’d squeeze my fingers every so often, reminding me just how vivid fantasies could be when you weren’t paying close enough attention to the outliers or the details that never quite added up the closer you looked.
But in those moments, I never cared. I’d let myself dream and pretend like it was all real until my alarm became my untimely tolling of the bell. Waking up tangled in my bed sheetswith nothing but those familiar touches that had once been impressed into my skin now slowly fading into nothingness.
This morning had felt like that—being woken up by the morning light coming in through my uncovered windows, coiled around Avery with one hand woven into his hair and the other pressed against his sternum. His heartbeat was steady under my palm, thrumming along in time with mine as I laid in the quietness of the early morning.
I prayed that none of it was some fucked up delusion my brain had cooked up to torture me. To tease me with the possibility that last night had been real. Thatwe’dbeen real.
My sore limbs were, thankfully, a stark reminder. One that stung my eyes with relief as I slowly slid out of bed to head to the bathroom to shower while Avery buried his face into my pillow.
I wasn’t sure where we went from here, or if it was even the time to be having some kind of conversation about our futures with Avery’s own being so up in the air right now.
What I knew for certain, while staring into the eyes of my own reflection while I brushed my teeth, was that I was never going back to the way things were before all of this. I couldn’t. My own sanity wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I couldn’t simply move on and chalk all of this up to a one-time thing. Not when my literal heart was on the line here. Avery wouldn’t hurt me intentionally, even if all of this was far more new to him than it was to me.
Last night had given me confidence that whatever happened, he wouldn’t be shattering me to a million pieces by cutting loose and running back to the city where it was safe to deny things. He had far too much integrity than that, and above all else, respected me too much to do something that heinous.
He was a good man. Far better than most I knew.
As I bent to spit out my toothpaste and to dip my hand under the running water to cup and use to rinse my mouth out, thedoor to the bathroom was slowly pushed open, and soon, a pair of arms encircled around my waist.
Popping my head up from the sink, the mess of Avery’s blond hair was all that I saw in the mirror before he buried his face into my neck and pulled me back against his chest until we were practically molded together. He let out a soft sigh, his naked chest hot against my back.
I stared at his figure in the mirror, my chest blooming with affection at the carelessly sweet gesture. Slowly, I lifted my hand up to graze through the tangled lengths of his hair that leaned over my shoulder.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Mmm,” was all he grunted out, his voice still hoarse from sleep.
It had me smiling. “Don’t tell me I wore you out.”
He puffed out a laugh against my neck. “Funny.”
The second his lips smoothed over my skin up near my ear, warmth pooled into my gut.
Not mad. Not avoiding me.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
“You’re coming over to the estate,” he said. Not a question, just simply stating a fact.
I liked that.
“You did promise me breakfast,” I teased.
When he lifted his head, a small smile played on his lips. He brought his hand up to cup my jaw, pulling me back into a soft kiss. He held me there, keeping his mouth pressed against mine in a chaste way but still somehow managed to make my body flush with heat.
The fact that this man could do something so simple and still get me all hot and bothered was ridiculous. Charming, sure, but ridiculous nonetheless.
And I lapped that shit right up.
He traced his thumb along my chin and jaw when he finally pulled away, leaving only a hair’s breadth between us. All of this sudden affection was dizzying. “Areyouokay?”
What a question.
