Another giggle escaped. I’d forgotten all about putting on a show for the moment, too caught up in trying to make Simon laugh.
“Now you’re just naming foods,” he hissed, still tryingnotto laugh.
I crawled another inch or two up the bed, holding his gaze. “Sugar lump?”
“No,” Simon hissed again, laughing louder this time.
“But you’re so sweet,” I said, grinning even wider at him. “My unbroken stallion? I don’t think you qualify as a bear. Maybe a little one. What are those—oh, my moon bear?”
“Theo,” Simon said. He was trying to do his stern voice, which wasn’t all that stern to begin with, but the fact that he was barely stopping himself from dissolving into giggles again didn’t help at all.
“Tiger,” I said. “Stag?”
“I’m not an animal.”
“No, that’s true,” I conceded, tilting my head as I considered my next option.
Once I had it, I leaned in to whisper in his ear.
“Daddy.”
Simon burst into laughter, and the next thing I knew I was being flipped back onto the mattress, Simon looming over me.
A jolt of arousal made me panic. The rush of blood flowing south would be difficult to hide at the best of times, and especially while he was so close. I needed to put some distance between us.
Normally, I would have hesitated to use the ultimate weapon at my disposal, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Simon hissed as my fingers found his sides, howling with laughter as I tickled him through his shirt. He was ridiculously susceptible to tickling. Like all of his weaknesses, I tried not to use it against him.
“No, no,no,”he objected, squirming away from me. “Oh my God, that’scheating.”
His breath was already coming in harsh pants, face flushing as I mercilessly dug my fingers in under his ribs.
“Theo,Theo,” he cried out, curling in on himself before rolling off me and flopping on the mattress beside me, still laughing.
I didn’t realizeIwas laughing until I sat up on the bed again, turning to look down at him. I wasn’t just laughing, I wascackling, and I couldn’t stop.
Which meant I missed the glint in Simon’s eyes for just a split second too long. When he surged up again, he caught me by surprise.
I yelped as I overbalanced, rolled onto my back, then kept rolling with the momentum until we ran out of bed, both of us tipping over the edge.
Simon landed under me with a thud and a windedoof, and I landed on top of him with a squeak.
We were both still laughing.
“Fuck,” he said between giggles, both hands thumping on the floor beside him in defeat.
I sat up on top of him, my stomach starting to hurt from how hard I wasstilllaughing. This was possibly not the world’s most convincing fake sex, although the thud we’d made would probably explain why we’d stopped to anyone listening in.
“You okay?” Simon asked. He was out of breath, but his voice was low and gentle.
I took a breath to say something, but when I met his eyes—still behind his glasses—it caught in my chest.
He was gorgeous like this.
I stared at him, lips parted, panting for breath, trying to figure out what I couldpossiblysay that wasn’tI love you.It was the only thought in my head when I looked at him, still chuckling intermittently, hair disheveled and face flushed, lying under me without complaint like he didn’t mind me being on top of him at all.
I shifted my weight so my hips weren’t directly on top of him and hoped he’d assume he felt my phone in my pocket.
