“I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.”
“Don’t care,” I said, reaching out to tug him back down, grinning as he let me, sliding my fingers into his hair and closing my eyes as our mouths met.
“Don’t care,” I repeated as Ryder’s hand curled around my shoulder, sleep-warm skin rubbing against mine, cozy and intimate and just like I’d always known we could be. Comfortable.
Even though this was only our first morning after, it was as comfortable as though we’d spent the last ten years together. Highschool sweethearts turned old married couple who were still into each other.
“Sorry if I’m weird,” Ryder said between kisses, lips swollen and eyes dark, so beautiful in the morning light that I could’ve cried if I didn’t know I was allowed to touch and kiss and hold him as much as I wanted.
Because we’d gotten there. Finally. Even if it’d taken a long time and a couple of detours along the way.
“No one’s ever stayed the night before,” he said, and for once it was him looking shyly away.
I brushed a finger along his jaw to get him to look at me, smiling when he finally did.
My Ryder.
And no one else had ever seen him like this? I was the luckiest man alive.
“I live here,” I said, trying to hold a straight face but failing a half-second later, grinning up at him. I couldn’t stop smiling, and I didn’t want to.
Ryder snorted, swooping down for another no-holds-barred kiss. He squeaked adorably when I grabbed a handful of his butt, and I took advantage of it to roll us both over, pinning him to the mattress so I could kiss him as much as I wanted.
I got a yelp out of him as my fingers skimmed under his ribs, and he squirmed under me, laughing helplessly.
“In my head I was going to be so sexy this morning,” Ryder said, hair mussed and cheeks flushed and pretty eyes so dark they were barely ringed with amber right now.
“You are sexy this morning,” I said, running my thumb along the line of his throat. “You’re incredible.”
Ryder looked away, and I loved that I could make him shy. I was always the shy one, Ryder always confident, but knowing I could make him feel the way he’d always made me feel, like I was the luckiest person in the whole world that he’d even noticed I existed…
That was kind of sexy, too.
“Hey,” I said, tilting his chin so he’d have to look me in the eyes. “Youareincredible. And I mean… I’m maybe not speaking from the broadest possible experience, but… you’re really not terrible in bed, if you’re worried about that. You don’t have to try so hard. I’m happy just being here with you. If you’re happy?”
The look Ryder gave me was so open and vulnerable that I knew I’d said the right thing without having to wonder at all. He reallyhadbeen worried about it.
Matt was an asshole.
I couldn’t believe anyone would give Ryder up if they had a chance to keep him.
“I’m happy. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time,” Ryder said. “Here. With you.”
“Good,” I said, tilting my head for another kiss and then laughing as Ryder took me by surprise, rolling us both over so I was on my back again.
“This is usually the moment we get interrupted, isn’t it?” Ryder asked, perched on my hips.
We both paused to listen for a second.
Ryder’s phone was still switched off, there was no sound of footsteps or knocks at the door. The breeze rustled the trees outside, but…
“I think we’re safe,” I said, grinning up at him.
Thenmyphone went off.
Ryder burst into laughter, bracing both hands on my stomach to hold himself up. “I asked for that,” he said.
“You did.” I reached out, running my hand along his thigh. Ryder couldn’t help looking at his phone the moment it went off, and I didn’t blame him.
