“Not nearly all of them, but yeah. I realized who you were the second time we met. The first time…”
“You were too busy being soaked with hot coffee,” Felix finished for me.
“It was a little distracting,” I admitted with a smile, stroking his hair again. “But I did notice your eyes.”
“Really?” Felix raised a brow.
I laughed. “Really. You can ask my dad. First thing I said about you was that you had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.”
“Wow,” Felix said. “You told your dad that?”
I shrugged. Felix’s dad might’ve been a pathetic excuse for a father, but mine wasn’t. I couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like not to have a great dad. I’d always felt like he had my back, whatever happened. Still did. “We’ve got a good relationship. I don’t feel like I have to hide things from him.”
Felix nodded, his fingers flexing lightly against my chest. He’d never moved his hand once we curled up together again.
“I wish you could’ve seen me on stage,” he said, pushing his head into my hand. “In person, I mean.”
“I like the way I’ve seen you.”
He looked up at me, lips parted. Surprised.
“I think you’re incredible,” I said. “Notwere.Are. I want you to hear that.”
Felix stared for another moment, then turned his head to press a kiss against the heel of my palm. “Thank you.”
“I mean it.”
I wished there were words I could use to convince him of that, but if there were, I didn’t know them. All I could do was say it and hope it’d get through.
Felix kissed my hand again, then sighed.
I let the silence stretch out for a handful of heartbeats. The world outside was quiet but for a light breeze rustling the leaves, andthe only sound in the room was Felix’s breathing falling into rhythm with mine.
“I gotta get home,” I said again, eventually. “But,” I added, “there’ll be pancakes on the table at eight. Enough for five, if you wanted to come over for breakfast. No pressure.”
Felix’s lips quirked against my hand, and my own twitched in response.
“Morning after breakfast,” he murmured. “I’ll be there.”
“I’d like that.”
I stayed where I was for another few heartbeats, then slipped out of bed and hunted down my clothes. Felix had fallen asleep again by the time I was dressed.
I pulled the blankets up over him and pressed a kiss to his hair before I left.
15
FELIX
If I buriedmy face in the mattress where Cooper had slept when I woke up, soaking in the traces of his warmth and scent lingering there, no one ever had to know but me and the sun peeking in through the window.
I was sore all over, a broad array of muscles that hadn’t been used likethatin a long time making their objections known. I didn’t regret any of it except that morning after sex wasn’t an option.
On the tail end of that thought, I slipped a hand down over my stomach and between my thighs, tracing circles on the insides of them. Cooper hadn’t left a mark on me anywhere, except maybe some long-gone stubble rash, but as I trailed my own fingers over all the places he’d touched me, I could almost feel the ghost of his hands on my skin.
I rocked my hips against the mattress, already half-hard. The memory of last night was enough to make me desperate, urgency rising in the pit of my stomach as I licked my palm clumsily and curled it around my cock.
I hadn’twantedto get myself off in so long I’d almost forgotten what it felt like, but with last night flooding back to me in a stream of sights and sounds and touches and feelings, I couldn’t help myself.
