More footsteps follow and my brows scrunch up when I hear the faint whisper of my best friend getting closer and closer.
“Em! He’s awake!”
“Hatley,” I hiss at his yell with a damn wince. “I’m right fuckinghere.”
The bastard just snickers and takes back off down the hallway.
“What the hell!”
It’s not even all the way off my lips before the doorway is filled with light hair and dark energy.
But there’s a slight tip to his lips and a …plate?
My chest inflates at the sight of him regardless, some part of me almostusedto the cloud that Emmett carries with him, and I instinctively reach for him.
His cheeks flush and he thrusts out the plate to fill my hands instead.
My eyes immediately burn.
“You … brought me toast?”
He nods and hides behind his hair, those honey irises nearly glowing from behind the strands.
“With peanut butter.”
My heart thumps wildly and I avert my gaze down so that he doesn’t see how badly my eyes water.
“Thank you,” I manage to say past the thickness in my throat, but it comes out more like a whisper. Setting breakfast on the bed beside me, I reach across and offer a palm up to him again. “Can I?”
He steps closer and slides his soft hand along mine.
It’s gentle. Subtle.
But I feel it all the way to the top of my head.
It makes me tug on him, bringing him close enough that his shins hit the mattress. “Okay?”
His nod knocks more of his hair into his face.
I both hate that … and love it.
“I want you in my lap.”
His sudden sharp inhale pierces the air around us and I hold my breath. Keep my grip on his fingers steady. Stare right into those sweet eyes of his.
His teeth sink into his bottom lip, and I nearly groan at the sight.
“O-okay. But how?”
I pull and he falls into me, his knee jamming right into the meat of my thigh. Hiding the wince, I pull my leg until both are between his.
“Now sit, bubbles.”
His throat bobs with his swallow before he settles back on my thighs, straddling me.
At first, he’s stiff. His eyes wide with fear but shining with something else. Something I wish I could name or understand better.
“Tell me where I can touch you,” I whisper thickly. “Move my hands. I don’t care where, just please show me where.”
