Page 132 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

His eyes drifted closed in annoyance.

Why me?

But he couldn’t tell if the two words were posed as a plea or praise.

He tried turning his face into the pillow, maybe suffocating himself would do the trick.

“You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?” he breathed silently into the fabric. The same fabric that smelled like her.

“So what if I am?”

Nohen could have choked on his own breath as her sleep soaked voice filled the air. He’d barely muttered the rhetorical question and hadn’t expected a response.

“Are you awake?” he whispered after a long pause.

It wasn’t likely she was sleep talking into the conversation, but maybe he wanted to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

“Yeah, been waiting for you to wake up,” she said softly.

Nohen almost groaned aloud and pulled her close, nuzzling her neck until he could press his lips to her skin.

She arched her neck up, making room for him, and he started softly, tracing gentle good morning kisses into her creamy skin before he shifted his arm up for his fingers to reach her chin. Tilting her head to his, he brushed a soft kiss over her lips, waiting for her reaction.

She sighed, her bottom lip brushing over his for a split second before he kissed her and pressed every ounce of jealousy and need and want he’d been harboring into the action.

Lyric met him with just as much pent-up want. He tasted it on her lips, felt it in the way she cradled his arm to her chest, her nails biting into his skin and jolting him awake.

He pulled back, their heavier breaths matching pace.

“Good morning,” he drawled.

Lips curling into a smile, she rolled over and faced him. “Good morning. Want some help with that?”

Her hand dropped between them to brush her fingers over the bulge in his boxers.

Nohen swallowed sharply. “That’d be a hell of a way to start the day.”

“Good. I dreamed about you all night,” she said, and his cock jerked as she molded her hand around him through the fabric.

“You did?” he asked, barely able to string the words together.

Her hum was drenched in desire before she continued. “Want to know what about?”

“I think I have an idea,” he breathed, tracing the outline of her collarbone. Her nipples were tiny pebbles pressing against the fabric of her shirt, and he lowered his touch to swipe his thumb over the tip.

She arched into his touch, and Nohen gently pushed her to her back, following her to hover a few inches above her.

“But do share,” he prompted her, painting a kiss on her lips before dropping lower, tugging the loose hem of her tank top down with him.

He ended up out of her reach, but as he wrapped his lips around one of her nipples, pulling a soft, breathy sigh from her lips, he figured the trade-off was well fucking worth it.

Sleep wrinkles were creased in her skin, and he traced each one he could see with his lips and tongue. Goosebumps lifted and pebbled across the pale expanse, and he lowered his hands to her hips, itching to remove her shorts as he stared up at her.

“So? The dreams?” he prompted.

She shimmied into his touch, catching his fingers inside her shorts and trying to rush him. “Each one happened the exact same,” she breathed. “We’d wake up in different positions and you’d be touching me—caressing my hip.” She tilted her hip at him. “Tracing my thigh, just, everywhere.”

He tugged her shorts down and off, dragging her underwear with them as a reward for sharing. “And what else?”