Chapter 46
1411words
When I woke up the next morning, it was to the sight of two green eyes staring at me.
Because I hadn't been expecting it—because I was so used to waking up alone everyday—it freaked me out and I screamed. I drew back with so much force that I slipped off the bed and landed on the floor.
"Ow," I groaned and rubbed the back of my head where it had smacked against the floor from my fall.
"Shit. Sorry," a familiar voice said before an equally familiar face appeared from the side of the bed.
Ladies and gentlemen, the owner of the pair of green eyes.
For a moment, all I could do was stare. Stare at his spectacular face, his perfectly chiseled jaw, the hint of stubble that had just begun to form, his lips that I'd spent so much time kissing last night, and those beautiful beautiful green eyes.
"You scared me." The words came out breathy and weightless, and I flushed because he'd heard it.
Flustered. I was flustered.
"I'm sorry," he said absently.
His eyes roved over my face, touching my eyes, nose, lips, hair and every line and curve of my face. But he didn't make any move to lift me off the floor.
I blinked. "You're not going to help me up?"
He blinked. Once. Twice. A haze seemed to clear from his eyes as they swept over my form, widening in alarm. He looked like he was only just realizing I was on the floor.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one who was distracted this morning.
Something that felt suspiciously like a butterfly came alive in my stomach and started fluttering around, giving me this warm, fuzzy feeling that was equal parts exhilarating and alarming.
"I—I'm sorry." Alex shook his head hard as though trying to clear his thoughts. "I was just so—" he cut himself off. He slid off the bed, dropped to his haunches, slipped his hands under me, then rose up off the floor in one fluid move.
Him lifting me like that—so effortlessly like I didn't weigh more than a feather—had to be the sexiest thing I had ever seen and it made me hot for him.
Not the usual out-of-my-mind had-to-have-him-hot, but a new kind of hot I'd only become acquainted with recently. This was the wanting-to-draw-him-closer-to-myself kind.
With the way he placed me on the bed so carefully, you'd think I was made of glass and not flesh and blood just like him. Leaning over me, he braced his hands on either side of me on the bed and just stared.
When I casually lifted a brow as though my heart wasn't running one thousand miles a second in my chest, he grinned softly. "Hi."
I didn't want to smile. Didn't make any real efforts to. But before I knew it, I was smiling back at him. "Hi," I breathed.
My body was carrying out actions without my permission. Get that.
The effect he had on me should have terrified me. I was usually very good at masking my emotions and even on the rare occasions when my feelings got the best of me, I hid them quickly, taking control of the situation before anyone could notice.
Not with Alex.
He made it difficult for me to stop whatever I was feeling from showing on my face. Most of all, he made me feel like I didn't have to hide anything from him.
He made me feel safe. He made me feel at ease. He knew my secret, he'd seen me at my weakest and possibly at my worst, yet he still looked at me like I'd hung the fucking moon.
Alex made me want to bare myself to him. I had last night and he'd made it seem easy.
He made talking about my mother seem easy. What more was there?
"This doesn't feel real."
The whispered words dragged me out of my thoughts and back to the present, to the hot man hovering over me. It was only then that I realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt. When my eyes dropped lower, I saw that he wasn't wearing anything at all, save for black briefs.
Feeling the peculiar heat of his eyes on my body, I looked up and saw him watching me. My cheeks flamed.
His eyes softened, the look becoming more intimate. "You're so beautiful when you blush." His knuckles grazed my cheek. "I want to see you blush more."
This man said he loved me.
I couldn't get in enough air. My heart, at this point, was dangerously close to making an appearance and I just knew that I needed to get this situation under control else risk having a heart attack at such an early age—which would be a total tragedy, mind you.
"What doesn't feel real?" I changed the topic.
His brow lifted, telling me that he knew what I was doing but thankfully, he was going to let me get away with it. I honestly didn't know what I would have done had he decided to call me out on it, seeing as I couldn't lie to him anymore.
I mean, I could. It just didn't seem right to keep doing it.
"You," he answered. "On my bed. Smiling and talking to me." His eyes swiped over my face as he spoke, fingers absently following the path his eyes touched. "It feels surreal waking up next to you. Laura, you have no idea..." I sucked in a sharp breath at the emotion in his eyes, the longing in his words. "I've wanted you for such a long time that having you now seems impossible. I couldn't sleep all night because I kept feeling like if I did, I'd wake up and find you gone." He shook his head hard, throat working on a swallow. "It still feels like a dream, Laura. Any second now, I feel like I'm going to blink and realize that you're not here anymore."
I was rocked to the very core of my being by his honesty. There were so many things that I could say to him in that moment. So many things that I wanted to tell him. A huge part of me wanted to reassure him that I was here, that I wasn't going anywhere.
Saying those words to a person was frightening but it Alex and he was worth it.
But I still couldn't bring myself to say them no matter how hard I tried because it was still too new, this thing between us. I felt like I was still standing on uneven ground.
So I kissed him.
I cupped his jaw in my hands and sealed my lips to his. He groaned, hands bending at the elbow so that he could hold himself in a more comfortable position.
His bare chest was a few inches from my shirt-clad one and I couldn't quite feel him the way that I wanted to so I pulled him closer until his body was flush against mine, pouring everything that I felt but couldn't say into the kiss.
His hips settled between my thighs and a sigh escaped my lips. He took that as his cue to slip his tongue into my mouth, taking the kiss right from innocent to hot in two seconds flat.
Suddenly, he pulled back. It took me a while before I could force my eyes open because of how heavy with desire my lids were.
Alex was staring at me like that again. Like he still couldn't believe I was here and half expected me to vanish into thin air.
"I loved watching you sleep," he said out of nowhere, a tiny smile on his lips.
My brows touched my hairline. "You watched me sleep?"
"Yeah."
My eyes trailed to the window as I tried to regulate my breathing. "That's creepy. How long have you been awake?"
"Since 6."
"And you couldn't find anything better to do than—" My eyes jumped to the window again, just now noticing the bright rays of sunlight trickling in. "Did you say 6? What time is it?"
I didn't wait for him to respond. I glanced at the bedside clock. It was upside down from the position I was currently in, but I managed to make out the time.
7:23 am.
I shoved Alex off me. "Shit, I'm going to be late for work."
Then I flew out of bed.
