My brave, gorgeous ray of sunshine.
Mine.
She stirs, those gorgeous silver-blue eyes fluttering open to meet mine. I can’t help but smile.
“What are you grinning at, weirdo?”
I know that I shouldn’t push my luck, and that just having her here with me is a miracle I could only have prayed for. But right now, at this moment, I give up all pretense.
“I just can’t believe I’m lucky enough to wake up next to you,” I murmur. “How are you feeling?”
Alexis scrunches her nose. “Sore.”
“Did you have fun while I slept, Sunshine?”
Alexis rolls her eyes, and the sight fuels me more than coffee ever could. “No, I’ll leave that task to you. You’re decent enough at it.”
My thoughts must show on my face as she starts to laugh, bringing out the smallest dimple in her cheek. I prop myself up on one arm, running my thumb along her lower lip. “That sounds awfully tempting. If I didn’t know better I’d think it a proposition.”
“Well, Iamin your bed.” Alexis’s soft fingers run along the stubble on my jaw, her eyes mapping out every inch of my face. My breath catches and I freeze at her touch as if the slightest movement will scare her off. But this tiny bit of contact is enough to set me alight, and I lose my fear to her fire.
“That you are.” I press a kiss to her palm before it travels down my throat, settling right over my heart. I hope she can feel it skip a beat at her smile.
I’d told her she would set the pace, but shit if that choice isn’t haunting me now. If I hadn’t, I would be closer, so much closer to that pretty mouth until my tongue is fully?—
My thoughts wash away as her lips crash into mine, soft and warm and steady. Her slender fingers snake around my neck to pull me into her, keeping me nice and close. As if I’d ever break away willingly.
Kissing Alexis Moore is a fucking dream. Even half-awake and with morning breath galore, this is the best kiss I’ve ever had. For the first time in my life, I don’t have a great flood of thoughts—or thoughts at all. She has quieted the demons in my mind and managed the impossible: she got me to focus.
Sure, my focus is on her. How she tastes and feels. How I can make it so she never stops kissing me. But still, it must be some sort of progress.
“You should tell me to stop,” she manages between kisses. I laugh.
“Never.”
When we finally break apart, all I can do is stare at her. This wonderful, quiet, angelic wrecking ball of a woman who laughed her way into my life and refused to ease her grip on my heart. It’s strange how one person can change your sense of self. I never believed love to be real. I mean, if my own mother couldn’t be bothered to love me, why would anyone else? But when I’m with Alexis…I think it might be.
“Why are you sore?” I ask. “Talk to me.”
Her gaze falls and she shakes her head like she’s about to blow me off. “Oh, it’s nothing.”
There you go.
“I have a chronic illness called Fibromyalgia, which basically means my body is nuking itself for no reason, and the cold is making it flare up—or making it worse, as healthy people might say. In short, it gives me full-body pain, completely drains me of energy, and a myriad of other things I won’t bore you with.”
“You never bore me. You couldn’t.” I run my thumb along her cheekbone. “If you don’t feel like talking about it, that’s fine too. But maybe you can send me a link so I can read up on it?”
She pauses for a moment, her eyes wide with surprise as she nods. A small smile plays her lips as she settles back into her pillow, looking almost relieved. I wasn’t wrong, then, when I figured she expected me to blow her off. How many people have done that to her? Ignored her struggles like they don’t matter, made no effort to understand what it’s like being in her shoes?
She’s looking at me, expecting me to say something. But there is nothing I can say to right that wrong. “I’ll whip us up some breakfast. You stay put and look pretty.”
“Well, if youinsist,” Alexis says, burying herself deeper in the pile of blankets. I have no sooner left the bed when Lucky crawls up to take my place, curling up against her chest with his snoutpressed against her nose, begging for cuddles. I linger in the doorway for a moment, drinking in the moment before it’s gone.
The house is quiet, so I curse under my breath when I see my teammates lounging in the kitchen. Guess my secret sleepover is about to become public. I should not be surprised they have gathered here; Levi is very strict about us not going out during the game season, so there are no hangovers to keep them rotting in bed.
“There he is! Finally ended that dry spell, huh, Taylor?” Eric smirks.Dick.
I push past him to get to the fridge. Hopefully these pigs left some food for the rest of us. “You’re the only one who has those. Must be your dazzling personality.”
