“Oh yeah?” Milo asked, turning his head to press a kiss to my cheek, swaying the two of us gently.
“I might be a little addicted to a lot of things about you,” I admitted.
“Feeling’s mutual,” Milo said, turning his face again and catching my lips. There was no urgency in it, like before. Just... comfort. Contact. I wasn’t about to pretend it wasn’t turning me on alittle, but we were both too tired to do anything about it.
We didn’t need to, though. For all that I’d tried to convince myself this thing with Milo was just sex, sex with someone I liked and trusted, but stilljust sex, I knew it wasn’t.
I knew it wasn’t because I was dead on my feet and we’d both just been through a whole lot of stress and all I wanted right now was to sleep, but I wanted it to be next to him.
“Come to bed,” I said, tugging on his hand and pulling him toward it.
“I don’t know if—”
“To sleep, I mean,” I clarified. “You’re tired, I’m tired. Tomorrow’s Sunday, we don’t have anywhere else to be. If you don’t come to bed you’ll pass out on the floor anyway.”
Milo laughed, but let me tug him down to the bed and undress him down to his underwear before I stripped off to join him. By the time I was crawling in beside him he was already half asleep, dozing, but he hummed as I curled up against his chest, and shifted to wrap his arms around me.
“Sleepy,” he said, as though that wasn’t the most obvious thing in the world.
“I know,” I murmured, running my fingers through his hair, just the once. “Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Better be,” Milo said. “Dunno what I’d do without you.”
28
MILO
Xander was still curledaround me when I woke with the sun, limbs too heavy to move but brain too overactive to doze off again right away.
“Hey,” he said, shifting in my arms, long eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks as he fought to open his eyes.
“Go back to sleep,” I said, tucking a stray strand of hair behind his ear. Xander was even more exhausted than I was, and I didn’t want him lying here awake just because there was too much onmymind for rest.
“Baker’s sleep schedule,” he murmured. “I’m awake whether I like it or not.”
I sighed and brushed my thumb over his cheek, giving in to the urge to kiss him now that I more or less had permission to keep him up a little while longer.
“How’s Uncle Milo feeling this morning?” he asked, smiling a sleepy smile at me.
I groaned, but I didn’t really mean it. I hadn’t been sure how I’d feel about being an uncle until I’d been holding one of my tiny nieces in my arms, and then it’d all fallen into place. I loved them. Of course I loved them. I wanted to give them the world, or as much of it as I could, anyway.
I was starting college funds for both of them as soon as I was awake enough to handle internet banking. What was Dawn naming them? I needed a card. And flowers, although I wasn’t sure you were meant to give a florist flowers. Chocolates, though, she’d appreciate those.
“Excited? Am I allowed to be excited?” I asked, smiling ridiculously at him.
Xander laughed quietly, pulling me in for another kiss. “You’re allowed to be excited,” he murmured against my lips, running a hand down my side. “You’re cute when you’re happy.”
“I’m always happy around you,” I confessed, risking a glance up at him to meet his eyes.
“Good,” he said, throat working. “I’m always happy around you, too.”
I love you.
Even with all my self-esteem issues, I could hear that loud and clear. He didn’t need to say the words to tell me.
And I’d just told him, hadn’t I? Without having to say the words.
I kissed him again, smiling against his mouth as he squeezed my waist, wriggling closer for more skin-to-skin contact. I’d never touched anything I liked as much as his skin, and I couldn’t ever imagine having enough of it.
