We don’t do anything more than kiss and hold each other, not letting things get heated the way they did before. We let our bodies wind down until we’re tired enough to sleep. And when I close my eyes, I can still picture her face smiling at me. Then I feel the light weight of her hand on my hip, a warm, gentle reassurance that this night was real.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ADDISON
Wakingupthenextmorning in Riley’s room, I expect things to be a little awkward, but they’re not. Riley rolls over and smiles at me as I turn off my alarm. She doesn’t look like she regrets what we did last night, which was my biggest concern. Because I know it was her first time with a woman, and I’m not sure if she intended for things to go that far when she invited me up here.
I don’t thinkIintended for things to go that far. I hadn’t really thought past my wanting to kiss her, honestly. But I feel like the farther I let things go, the more likely it is for this to end badly. Which is my other concern.
But when presented with the opportunity to get her naked, what did you expect me to do?
Seeing her now—just woken up, no makeup, in her pajamas looking all comfortable and satisfied—I can’t help but think about getting her naked again. I won’t, though. And not only because I need to get moving if I’m going to have time to sneak home and get ready before coming back for work.
“You need to go?” she asks, her voice adorably fuzzy from sleep.
“I’m opening the kitchen. I need to run home and shower.” A long yawn escapes me as soon as I get the words out.
“You could shower here,” she suggests. “Maybe get a few more minutes of sleep.”
The extra twenty minutes isn’t really going to do much for me, but she’s looking at me hopefully, and I don’t want to disappoint her. She’s also just too tempting to resist.
“Why not?” I say, rolling around to grab my phone and set a new alarm before I turn back to face her.
I could be mistaken, but I think she’s scooted a few inches closer. When I reach out and run my fingers through her hair, she closes her eyes, a serene smile forming on her face. I lean in and press a light kiss to the corner of her jaw, making the smile grow.
“Come here,” I tell her.
She opens her eyes and looks at me for a second, then happily snuggles into my outstretched arms, resting her head against my collarbone. We both start to doze off, my fingers trailing idly up and down her arm. Getting out of bed after this is going to be even harder now.
I jolt at the sound of the alarm going off again, having only barely fallen back asleep. Riley makes a murmuring noise that lets me know she’s at least half awake, so I don’t feel bad pulling her body in tighter against mine for a moment. Then I reluctantly let her go and reach for my phone.
When I get out of bed, she gets up too. She points me to a clean towel in the bathroom, tells me to help myself to any of her shower products, then leaves me to it.
I let the water warm up a minute before stepping in. It’s funny that the water wasn’t working in here before, because the pressure is really amazing now. Much better than my shower at home. But I don’t want to dwell on the fact that I’m using a guest room shower at work. It’s too weird if I think about it.
The sweet strawberry scent of Riley’s shampoo fills the small space as I wash my hair, and it makes me smile. I’m going to smell like her. And I’m not upset about it.
After I finish up, I don’t have much choice but to get dressed again in my clothes from yesterday. When I come out of the bathroom, Riley is sitting on the bed reading a book.
She sets it down beside her, giving me a warm smile. Then she stands and walks with me to the door. She’s still in her tiny, silky pajamas, and I can’t resist reaching out and pulling her in closer to me. I run my thumb back and forth over the silky camisole material at her waist.
“Will you come down for breakfast?” I mean that as an innocuous question, only checking if she plans on having breakfast here. But it comes out sounding like I’m asking her to do it. Like I want her to.
And I suppose I do.
At this point, it’s hard to deny how much I enjoy any chance to see her.
I don’t want to push too hard, though. Don’t want to make it seem like I think this thing we did is more than it is. It wasn’t anything serious. It was only two people acting on their mutual attraction to each other. It was letting her explore her bisexuality for the first time. It was only meant to be one time.
Okay, so maybe I’m still trying to deny the truth.
Maybe, truthfully, I’m already hoping she’ll want to do it again.
But I’m certainly not going to blurt that out to her right now, the morning after, without giving her time to think about what happened.
“Yeah,” she tells me, tilting her chin up in a way that tempts me to dip down and kiss her. “I’m going to shower, and then I’ll be down. Do you work all day again?”
I shake my head. “No, I’m only here for breakfast and lunch.”
