She did not pull away.
If anything, she sank back into me.
Nothing was said and to be honest nothing needed to be said. But while she drifted, my mind was wide awake.
I stared at the ceiling, my chest still rising and falling a little too fast, my hand spread across her stomach like I was staking a claim I had no business making.
I should have been thinking about what this meant, how messy this could get, how much she said she did not want nothing serious.
Instead, all I could think was one thing.
She is mine now.
The thought came so natural it scared me for half a second.
Then I accepted it.
Because it was already true for me, whether she knew it yet or not.
I pulled her a little closer, pressed my face into her hair, and let my eyes close.
Yeah… I was gone.
And I had a feeling this was only the beginning of the kind of trouble loving Melissa was about to bring out of me.
The first thing I felt was weight.
Not like heavy-on-my-chest panic weight. Just… warm. Solid. Like somebody’s arm was laying across my waist like it belonged there.
For a split second, my brain tried to tell me it was Jordan, and my whole body got ready to snap.
Then that clean, expensive cologne hit my nose, and Roman Blake came to mind.
Everything from last night rushed me at once.
The way his voice dropped when he told me I wasn’t by myself no more.
The way my body reacted to every touch like it’d been waitin’ on him.
The way he looked at me like I already belonged to him.
I opened my eyes slow. The room was dim, curtains pulled just enough for the sun not to slap me too hard. The sheets smelled like us. My legs were sore in a good way, and my chest felt tight in the worst way.
I really woke up in bed next to Roman Blake.
“Stupid,” I whispered under my breath.
Roman’s arm tightened around my waist like he heard me talkin’ crazy.
“I know you ain’t in here callin’ me stupid,” he mumbled, voice low and rough from sleep, chest rumblin’ against my back.
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see me. “I was talkin’ to myself.”
“Then say ‘self,’ so I know the difference,” he said, voice deeper now. I could hear the little smirk without even lookin’ at him.
I shifted, turning in his hold so I was facing him. He moved his arm but didn’t let me go, just slid his hand to my hip instead. His eyes were half-open, lazy and dark, watchin’ me like he had all the damn time in the world.
And that was a problem.
