“Mm,” I grumble, I’d meant it as a joke but the longer I lay here, the quicker the fatigue sets in. Fuck, I am exhausted. “Lay down with me.”
“River, I don’t think–”
“Don’t think,” I interrupt her, reaching for her blindly. My hand bumps her arm, and I circle my fingers around it, giving her a gentle tug toward me, “Just do.”
“I feel like this is a very bad idea,” She lands beside me.
“We’re all a little bad, princess,” I lift my arm and invite her to lay against me and to my absolute fucking surprise, her head gently lays against my shoulder and her arm reaches across my abdomen.
“This okay?” She whispers.
Instead of answering, I tuck my arm around her, holding her to me. Her breath whispers at the base of my throat and she wiggles a little to get comfortable, but I can’t fight the sleep pressing in and I give in to it.
I wake to sunlight streaming in through the window, Marly still pressed to my side, except I’m facing toward her, my mouth against her head and her leg thrown over mine. She is still sleeping soundly, hair spread across my arm, every part of her body touching all of mine.
That was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long damn time. My mouth widens in a yawn which stirs Marly awake beside me.
“Five more minutes,” She snuggles in deeper, her fingers curling against my side, nails teasing against the skin beneath my shirt. I give it a few seconds and already guessing it would happen, she bolts up, eyes wide and hair mused, staring down at me like she forgot we just shared a bed.
“Good morning,” I rasp, voice still edged with sleep.
“Hi,” She breathes, eyes trailing down me. We didn’t even make it fully into the bed nor did I take my shoes off and my feet are hanging off the edge. My shirt has bunched up around my abdomen, showing skin and it’s where her eyes snag, lingering.
“Pull it up,” I tease, “Have a look. You can touch it too if you like.”
Her cheeks bloom with color, “I wasn’t – I was just–”
I reach for the hem of my shirt, pulling it up to my pecs, “Go ahead.”
Her eyes widen even further but she doesn’t immediately balk at me and when she lifts her hand, my heart starts to race a little.
I lay still as I watch her shift a little closer, eyes on where her hand is lowering. She isn’t even fucking touching me and yet my heart is pounding like a kid about to kiss his crush. Pathetic really.
The first brush of her fingers makes my muscles jump. She follows the ridges of my abdomen, tracing the lines of themuscles I’ve worked to get and maintain. Her pink lips part, seemingly entranced by what she’s doing.
But I’m watching her, her face, her eyes, the way she licks her bottom lip as she watches what she’s doing. My cock jerks, semi hard but that quickly changes when I notice the outline of her nipples through my shirt. You’d think I’d never seen a girl before with the way my body reacts to the mere sight of her tight nipples and her rapid breathing.
Is she wet? Aching?
Fuck.
Her hand trails up my sternum and then across my pec, to the bottom edge of my burns where she then lingers, not quite touching the scar tissue but only a centimeter away.
Finally, her blue eyes lift to mine, the pupils blown, her cheeks a little rosy. Fuck, she’s pretty.
“These are burn scars,” she says gently, her throat working on a swallow. I stiffen as she drops her eyes and watches her fingers move closer to the scar tissue, tracing it so gently with the very tip of her finger. The sensitivity of my skin is something I still haven’t gotten used to and while it isn’t painful, it is uncomfortable. All my muscles bunch together and my teeth grind, “How did you get these?” She finally asks.
I sit up suddenly, her hand dropping away as I yank my shirt back into place, “It’s none of your business.”
She pulls her hand back as I climb off the bed, heading straight for the window.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
I freeze at the window, “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got to get to work.”
I don’t stick around for another second. I climb through the window and take the trellis down before I break into a jog toward the wall closest to where I parked the jeep. I’m over it and in my car in less than five minutes, my heart still pounding, and my skin still lit up by her touch.
And then I’m fucking kicking myself the entire drive back to Sinclair Motors because what the fuck was that reaction!?
