LillysLibrary:It’s a publicity stunt. She never posts about him.
MrGonnaMakeYouFall:Have you guys seen the kind of books she writes? You know she’s gotta be a freak in the sheets.
DownBadCryingAtTheBookstore:He’s a womanizer. She can do so much better.
BigBucksNLiftedTrucks:Fucking simp. Women-folk need a man in charge. Not some weak-ass city boy.
Irolled my eyes as the comments flooded in, one after the other. I had posted a photo of Willow and me that I had snapped last night while we sat beneath the willow tree. Her hair caught the sunset, sending prisms of light dancing across the lens.
I had cropped the photo to comply with the terms of our agreement. In all honesty, I wasn’t posting it to feed the online algorithms or play into what had happened on stage at Rom-Con.
I just wanted to show her off. Why wouldn’t I?
Morning light slowly lifted the shadows in the bedroom. As soon as Willow had asked me to switch sleeping arrangements, and we lay together, I was out.
I hadn’t slept this well in years. Which was why I had woken up at the crack of dawn and started scrolling the internet.
Willow was still sound asleep, peacefully cocooned in the blankets. I deleted the troll comments and left the nice ones, just in case she decided to take a peek at my feed. GymBro302 wasn’t wrong. Willow was hot. And she was mine.
Like she knew I had been thinking of her, Willow rolled over and nestled in beside me. I set my phone on the nightstand as she curled around my side and laid her head on my chest.
God, that felt so fucking good.
I wrapped my arm around her and held her close. Willow’s soft breaths danced across my chest. I could have scored another hour or two of sleep, but I didn’t want to.
She was the perfect sunrise; warm and full of possibilities. Something in her dreams must have startled her because she jerked awake, gasping for breath.
“Hey,” I whispered. “What’s the matter?”
Willow’s eyes popped open, soft greens glowing in the dawn light. She looked around in a panic as her chest heaved, then looked at me as realization set in. “You’re here.”
“You asked me to come in. Remember?”
Slowly, she nodded. Still, I couldn’t tell if she actually remembered or not.
“I’ll go back to the couch,” I whispered as I pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Willow’s hand wrapped around my wrist. “No.” Her grip softened. “I mean . . . Will you stay?” Her eyes lifted and met mine. “Just a little longer?”
There wasn’t a moment of hesitation. “Of course,” I murmured as I ran my fingers up and down her side. Whether it was because she was cold or ticklish, she curled into me, burrowing deeper.
“You can sleep,” I soothed as I buried my nose in the top of her hair. Whatever she sprayed on her hair before bed smelled so fucking good.
“Promise you won’t tell?” Willow mumbled.
“Your secrets are always safe with me.”
And with that promise, she drifted back to sleep.
My arm was asleep.I hadn’t been able to feel my hand for the better part of an hour, and circulation to my calf was slowly being cut off. But Willow was still tucked into my side with her head on my chest and had her thigh slung across mine.
Her waist was velvet-soft. Even though it made incessant pins prick at my fingers, I held her closer.
“You awake?” she murmured into my chest.
“Yeah.”
“We should probably get up.”
