I nodded. “I love when you touch me there. It makes me feel special.”
“This?” He kneaded the spot between my neck and shoulder.
“Ohhhhh yeah.” I rocked back and forth, swaying from the drinks and how good it felt. “I always saw you do this on your dates and wondered what’d it feel like to be yours. I like it a lot.”
“You’ve always been mine.” He took a deep breath. “I’m staying with you.”
“You have plans though.” I pouted and then giggled at myself. My lips tingled in an odd way. It had to do with the beer. Yeah, that was science. I’d read about this. “Did you know drinking alcohol can lower your blood sugar?”
“I did.”
“It also effects women and men differently because of something in our stomach. Man, I can’t remember. Alcohol also damages your memory and brain capacity. Oh, I love these flowers.” I needed to smell them. We were somewhere near my building where there were pretty bushes lining the road. They were royal blue. “They remind me of your eyes.”
“Yeah, I’m definitely cancelling my plans.” Callum chuckled and intertwined our fingers. “I’ve never seen drunk Ivy before. I really want to learn everything about you.”
“You know everything now that you’ve slept with me.” I hiccupped, then laughed. “Your face is cute.”
“I don’t know everything yet, but I will. Like…how grumpy are you gonna be in the morning?”
“I won’t be!” I pointed a finger at his chest, but he just caught it. “So wait, you’re staying the night with me?”
He nodded, a shadow crossing his eyes. “Is that okay?”
“Yes!” I jumped onto him. He was so tall and strong, and I loved being held by him. Oh, yes, when he wrapped his arms around me and ran his nose along my neck, it was perfection. “I love sleeping with you.”
“And this is the best feeling in the world, seeing you happy. Now, let’s get some snacks and hydrate your cute ass.”
22
CALLUM
Okay, quick update. I loved drunk Ivy. She had no filter and giggled a lot. She told me how her biggest fear was a snake coming out of the toilet while she was on it. Weird, but now I knew. It was good intel on my future wife. I wanted to know her fears, dreams, hopes, and wishes. I also learned that she refused to send important emails on her phone out of fear she’d include a dumb photo. That I understood a little. I had photos that if they ever got out I’d never recover from the damage.
She also had strong opinions on her neighbor’s doormats. I stanned a strong woman with an opinion. Who was I to argue with her?
She hummed to herself while drunk too. It was horribly off-key and held no rhythm, yet I couldn’t stop smiling as she swayed her trim hips. Again, no rhythm.
Yet she rode you with rhythm.
Yeah, she did!
I shut off the voice and appreciated how she crawled onto her bed with a little sigh. Would this ever get old? Probably, butI couldn’t see that happening for years. Every sound or small expression made me want to keep her forever.
Ivy changed into little cotton shorts and a bright orange tank top with a football on it. Her tattoo peeked out as her thin shorts slid down her thighs, and her hair was down. She sat crisscrossed on top of her bed and patted the spot next to her as she took a bite of pretzel. “Sit. Sit by me.”
“With food? In your bed?” I arched a brow. “A guy has standards.”
“Yes in my bed. Are you still a neat freak about beds?”
“I don’t like to mix my snacks with my sleep. Just a rule. Probably stems from my mom being obsessive about cleaning. Which, we later found out, was working out stress from my dad. But that’s cool. No need to dive into that today.”
“We can dissect that later. I love a middle-of-the-night trauma dump.” She leaned against her wall and closed her eyes, her glasses sliding down her nose. Her face turned serious, and I tensed.
I never knew what the hell she was gonna say, but a furrowed brow look meant business.
“You know I don’t care about your past right? You became so tense.” She opened her moss-colored eyes and smiled. “If anything, your scandalous past has really benefited me.”
I tilted my head. “How is that?”
