Eden moans. “Holy shit.”
“Is it that good?”
“Mphf,fuck yeah.”
He kisses her cheek as he turns up the volume on the TV. “Good.”
She eats, thoroughly famished, as they watch an episode of Jeopardy together. Eden answers a couple of questions while Alexander makes a good effort. If they played for real, he’d be at least two thousand dollars in the hole.
“God, I suck at this,” he grumbles when he gets yet another answer wrong. “I swear I’m smart.”
Eden giggles quietly to herself, her eyelids drifting close. She finds him so soothing that she can barely stay awake. She likes the warmth of his skin, the smell of his shirt, the way he gently strokes her arm as she drifts off. For the first time in a very long time, she doesn’t go to bed counting the money in her coffee tin. Right now, she isn’t concerned about urgently saving for the future.
When she’s with Alexander, she has time to slow down, to relax. She can let go of her worries, be present and in the moment. When she’s with him, she feels safe and warm and so impossibly content that she can’t even put it into words. She adores everything about this man. Hell, she might even—
“Love you,” she mumbles as sleep drags her under.
Love you.
She said it casually, in passing—like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Two simple words spoken in a broken sentence, but it still leaves Alexander’s head spinning.
On one hand, it makes him feel good. Excited. He really,reallylikes Eden. He’s never felt this strongly about anyone before, never felt this protective and adoring.
But it doesn’t stop the doubts from creeping in.
Are they moving too fast? Is she sure she wantshim? Alexander knows he’s not a catch. He’s moody, famous for his temper. It’s one of the many reasons why he’s never had a long-term girlfriend before. They don’t tend to stick around for very long once they realize what a handful he is. There’s the added issue of his demanding job. He’s married to his work. The restaurant is basically his second home.
Will Eden leave when she realizes her mistake? Sure, things are good right now, but will she think he’s worth the hassle when he inevitably fucks this all up?
Alexander’s never stayed over at a girl’s place before. Even when he was still seeing Bea, their dalliances never evolved into sleepovers. It was his way of keeping things separate, clinical. No need to worry about the morning after and the tiptoeing around each other and the awkward ‘see you later maybe’ conversations when he left as soon as the deed was done.
But when he rolls over first thing in the morning to find Eden there beside him, he’s never felt more at peace. He carried her to bed and tucked her in some time around one in the morning. He fully intended on leaving, but Alexander doesn’t have a key to her apartment and he didn’t like the thought of leaving her alone with the door unlocked.
He had every intention of sleeping on the couch so she could have some space, but Eden literally wouldn’t let go of his hand. Alexander had no choice but to curl up behind her, not that he had any complaints.
She’s hogged all the blankets, curled up in her own little burrito of warmth. All he can see is the tip of her nose poking out from beneath, as well as a few strands of her hair. He smiles to himself. She really is the most adorable thing he’s ever seen.
He slings an arm over her and holds her close. The clock on the nightstand reads 5:00 AM. There’s still plenty of time to sleep.
The next time he stirs, it’s to the smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.
He reaches to his side, groggy and mildly disoriented, but finds Eden’s half of the bed vacant. He can hear her humming a soft tune elsewhere in the apartment, so he rubs the sleep from his eyes and shuffles out of the bedroom toward the kitchen.
Eden is a sight to behold.
She’s put on his black sweater, the one he’d worn yesterday and taken off in great haste last night. Her hair is a tousled mess, somehow effortlessly ethereal as it catches the sunlight. It doesn’t appear that she’s wearing much else. Alexander, naturally, is overcome with the strong urge to check.
While Eden flips a pancake, he slides up behind her and slips an arm around her waist. He brushes her hair to the side so he can kiss the part of her neck he just bared. Eden giggles, suggestively grinding her ass up against him.
“This looks delicious,” he murmurs against her skin. “Feeling better?”
“Yes, a lot better. I wasn’t sure what you wanted, so I made a bit of everything.”
“I wasn’t talking about the food.”
She throws her head back and laughs. “Oh, wow. Can you be any cheesier?”
He chuckles. “Yes. I bought an entire book of awful pick-up lines to test out on you.”
