And then he’s gone, leaving me to the silence and the feel of his lips still lingering against mine.
Chapter Twenty-one
Iwill my cock to go down as I make my way through the house, trying not to remember how she tasted or how she felt pressed up against me. I certainly don’t replay the way she fit in my hands or the sweet little moans that sounded like fucking music.
Running my hand down my face, I push the image of the blush on her cheeks and the kiss swollen lips away.
I open the door just in time to greet the delivery guy, handing him a cash tip before I take the two pizza boxes from him and shut the door.
I was so ready to fuck her, strip her bare, kiss and lick and bite every inch of her body, explore which parts made her cry and which parts made her sigh. I’d have spread her pretty thighs and teased until she begged me to fuck her, and then I would have flipped her over, yanked on her hair and buried myself so far into her, she would have felt me there for days. I would have shown her what it’s really like to be fucked by a man, Idoubt anyone who came before me would have done it quite so thoroughly.
Pushing on the door, I find her sitting at her vanity unit applying some kind of cream to her face. The bloom of color has calmed from her cheeks and her eyes are clearer, less lust addled and more focused. They meet mine in the mirror but then she lifts her nose a little and whips around to look at me.
“That smells amazing.”
We’re not going to address the fact that she’s never had take out. Who the fuck goes this long without tasting pizza? It’s a crime on its own.
“On the bed?” I ask.
She nods and lifts from the stool, slowly walking over before she climbs onto the bed and sits cross legged, watching me set the boxes down and sit on the opposite side. I reach for the first box, a simple four cheese can’t be beat and then open the second, showing the meat pizza. Best of both and since I didn’t know what she would like, I went for the easiest options.
“Go ahead, princess,” I wait while she reaches for a slice of cheese and watch, waiting to see her verdict. She takes a bite and fucking moans.
And my cock gets hard again.
Goddamn it.
She’s almost finished the whole slice when I realize I’ve been watching the entire time, but seeing her enjoy it satisfies some unknown craving inside of me. Content that I’ve made her happy, I reach for my own slice and sate my own hunger.
Both pizzas are pretty much devoured by the time we are done and when neither of us reach for any more pizza, she closes theboxes and places them on the bedside table to be taken down later.
Now this can go two ways. She can pretend the kiss and everything after didn’t happen or she’ll want to explore some more and honestly, I don’t know what she’ll pick. Her fear of me, ofthis,is stopping her but either way, I’ll get her to open up, to trust me.
For a long while we sit in a comfortable kind of silence but then my thoughts start to whirl and my stomach churns with it.
She’ll trust me. She’ll open up, let me in, and then –
“Are you staying the night?” She asks me, breaking the quiet. There’s a hopeful lilt to her tone and I know I should leave and go back to the garage, perhaps I should set a couple of boundaries so the fall out won’t be quite so bad but fuck, I slept the best I have in ages last night, and there was a strange sense of rightness I’d woken up with that hadn’t left me all day.
It’s the same feeling that brought me back here, climbing that fucking trellis and slipping through her window.
“Only if you’d like me to,” I answer eventually.
“I would.” She climbs from the bed and heads for the bathroom, “Make yourself comfortable. There’s another bathroom just down the hall if you need to use it.”
The door clicks closed behind her, and I hear the faucet start to run. I grab the pizza boxes and head downstairs, transferring the rest of the food into one box before I put it in the fridge and discard the other, then I make my way to the bathroom just outside the bedroom. I’m in my favorite pair of grey sweats and white tee already and while I’d much prefer to sleep naked, I can’t do that here, not yet at least so I do my business, take off my top and head back to the bedroom. Marly is still in thebathroom when I return so I pull down the sheets and climb into her bed, making it fully onto the mattress tonight and wait for her to come out.
She’s in a pair of sleep shorts and a cami when she finally does, her long blonde hair in twin braids that fall down each shoulder. She pauses, lets her eyes flick down my bare chest and then shakes her head, walking across to me where she then climbs into the bed on the other side.
It’s so fucking casual, so normal you’d think we’ve done this a hundred times. I roll onto my side, pressing my chest into her spine and wrap an arm around her, pulling her closer.
“This okay?” I mimic her words from the night before.
She doesn’t answer, much like I didn’t, instead she lays her arm above mine and grasps my hand, snuggling in deeper. Pressing a kiss to her bare shoulder, I revel in the shudder of her breath before I lay my head down and I sleep, and I don’t let her go for a single minute throughout the night.
Chapter Twenty-two
River has stayed with me for the past four nights. I’d woken this morning in his arms, comfortable, warm and yet a panic has set in.
