Be My December (25 page)

Eden stood by the sink, with a glass of water in her hand. So it wasn’t just me that couldn’t sleep. I knew I should just turn around and go back to my room and pretend I didn’t see her standing there; I knew I should ignore the need to be in her presence but of course I didn’t. I crossed my arms over my naked chest and walked through the living room and toward the kitchen.

Eden’s body spun around and her shocked expression greeted me. “Couldn’t sleep?” she asked softly as her eyes dropped to my chest and an embarrassed smile tugged on her lips.

“Nope.”

I grabbed a clean glass from the dish rack and poured myself a tall glass of water then moved through the kitchen and stood on the opposite side of the kitchen island.

“Why can’t you sleep?” I lifted the glass to my mouth and looked at her over the rim. 

“I guess I’ve got a lot on my mind,” she admitted softly.

“I know what you mean.”

Her question back was immediate. “What are you thinking about?”

Why did she have to ask me that? I thought of my options; I thought that maybe I could lie and say that I was thinking about work; maybe I could just shrug it off, but the need to be honest with her overcame me. I needed to be honest with her. I already had way too many lies in my life that I was trying to overcome, and I couldn’t lie about this.

My response was simple and brutally honest.

“You.”

Her mouth dropped open in the shock of my truth, but her eyes never left mine. I had no expectations about how she would react although I had the strong feeling that she would flee at any moment. A second passed and then a minute yet she didn’t move. To say I was shocked was an understatement, to say I was excited was a given. 

“Let’s go to my room. We can watch a movie until we fall asleep.”

Once again my dick spoke in place of my brain.

I didn’t give her a chance to answer. I grabbed her hand and led her down the hall, switching off the lights and darkening the apartment as we passed. We walked into my room and the dim light from the lamp provided perfect shadows to bounce off the walls and crowd us. Nerves sailed off her as she took in my room. Her hand ran along the satin stripes on my comforter and her eyes scoped out every corner. 

“Tell me what you are thinking?” I questioned, my voice edged with intrigue.

“I don’t know what I am thinking.”

“If you could say one thing to me right now what would it be?”

She hesitated over her words; her eyes darted from mine as she continued to take in my room. A large king-size bed took up the space, draped with a black and silver striped comforter, side tables sat on either side, with oversized lamps courteous of Ashlyn and her need to decorate my apartment. A flat screen television hung on the wall opposite and floor to ceilings windows filled another entire wall, giving me the perfect view of the Atlantic Ocean. I chose this apartment purely on that view alone.

“I’m nervous of being this close to you.”

I sat down on the edge of my bed and took in her words. Her honesty surprised me, but it allowed me to understand the stiffness of her body language. I didn’t know whether she was nervous about what I could do or whether her nerves were based on her feelings of what she wanted to do. I knew I was coming to the end of my tether. Those moments when her perfume would hit my nose was like an extra stab to the heart and all I wanted to do was bury my face in her neck and become completely undone. I knew it was only a matter of time before I lost this battle.

“Come over here Eden,” I hummed through a thick voice.

I swallowed at the sight of her nodding and lowering herself to my bed. I wanted nothing more than for her to say no to me, but then that would mean that she wasn’t the girl who could only say yes. All I wanted to do was tell her that she was the first girl to stay in here, that usually I would take girls to the spare room, but I knew that wouldn’t sit well. She was already nervous enough. I pulled back the covers and climbed under the comforter and waited.

“You can say no to me Eden,” I said in a low tone.

She froze and looked over at me. “I can’t,” was her immediate response.

“You can, but you won’t.” I sighed in frustration.

“I can’t.” She pleaded with wide eyes.

“Why. Tell me why in the world you can’t say no?”

“Ky, please. Don’t make me talk about this. Not now.” Her voice cracked with emotion and those perfect blue eyes begged me to stop.

“Okay.” I said reluctantly. “Do you want to climb in?”

She reacted straight away, pulling back the covers on the side of the bed that she was sitting on and she slid in. She remained on her back, staring at the ceiling, and it was the most awkward situation I’d ever been when it came to being in bed with a woman. After what felt like an eternity, she finally looked over and I swear to God she smirked at me, her face flooding with mischievous intent. 

“Shit Eden, your feet are fucking freezing!” I gasped as her feet touched mine swiftly causing me to ball myself up and roll to face her.

Her muffled laughter filled my ears as she covered her face with her arm but continued to press her icy feet against me.

“My feet always get cold. They are my secret weapon.” She giggled and before I could say another word her feet slid down my legs until they touched my feet again causing me to shriek.

“Want to know what my secret weapon is?” My eyes narrowed in on her and her giggle ceased. Two could play this game. “This!”

I rolled over and pinned her down and commenced tickling her. She squealed and giggled as her arms and legs kicked around desperate to stop the assault of my fingers. I couldn’t hold in the laughter and soon my deep laughter mixed with her high pitched giggles filled my bedroom. Our bodies smashed together and our hands touched and prodded each other like it was the most usual thing in the world.

“Stop, Ky! I promise no more cold feet. I’ll wear socks!” she choked out between attempts to take a breath and laughter and her hands fell to my bare chest.

I rolled onto my back in victory and rested my hands behind my head. I tried to concentrate on everything around me, but all I could hear was Eden’s heavy breathing as she struggled to get over my attack of tickles. This wasn’t the best idea I had because now all I was thinking about was hearing her heavy breathing due from an attack of my mouth, fingers, or my cock. How had this gone from wanting her to open up to me, to a tickle fight, and now sexual innuendos?

Yep, I was fucked.

“Okay, now that we have that settled, you need to pick a movie,” I declared and handed her the remote.

“What do you feel like watching?” she asked and began flicking through channels much to my amusement.

“Nope, it’s totally up to you. I’ll watch anything.”

Ten minutes later, Eden was curled up on her side, her hair feathered out against the white pillow as she hummed along to the familiar intro of
Dirty Dancing
. This was new. One; I had never watched
Dirty Dancing
in bed with a girl before. Two; I hadn’t had a girl in this bed before. Three; Eden almost looked at peace. 

“Eden, come here,” I blurted out. Her head turned and looked at me warily. “If I only have you for a month, I want you in my arms while we watch a movie, especially if it’s
Dirty Dancing
.”

She moved across the bed and hesitantly rested her head over my heart and her arm rested over my bare stomach. I hissed, and I knew she heard me because she stopped breathing momentarily. She waited for my reaction. I knew my heart was thundering in my chest, right under her head, and I knew she felt it. She was getting a reaction from me that she probably would never have imagined.

“I can move,” she stuttered and began pulling her body away.

My hand fell down onto her arm halting her escape. “You are staying right here Eden. I’m not letting you go.”

I wrapped my arm around her back and curled her closer, breaking the distance that she had put between us. Her arm went loose over my stomach, all tension she had lost, and we fell into an awkward and highly charged silence as the movie played out. Eden hummed along to every single song and quoted most of the movie in a hushed voice. Her tone and the comfort of her in my arms slowly lulled me into sleep and the last thing I heard was her singing “I’ve Had The Time of My Life”. 

The feeling of fingertips sweeping over my skin and goosebumps rising from the sensation woke me. A strong pressure was over my stomach, pinning me to the bed. For a brief moment everything was confusion and a mass of shock. My eyes fluttered open and jumped around the room trying to work out what was happening. The credits rolled on the television and the glow from the screen allowed me to make out the sea of dark hair that was on my chest and it hit me.

Eden.  

Eden was touching me.

I shut my eyes and tried to calm my breathing, not wanting her to know that I had woken. Her soft fingertips continued to run along the muscles of my stomach, dipping lower until she was tracing the band of my cotton pants. Her feather like touch was so enticing; I almost thought I was dreaming. She was still against my heart and I felt her breath dancing on my highly reactive skin. The most amazing and intriguing thing was that I felt her increased breathing as she got closer to the band of my pants just above my cock. This was all her, this wasn’t anything to do with me. Knowing that she was doing this on her own accord set something on a wild course within me. I remained still, concentrating on my breathing so I wouldn’t give away that I was completely awake and enjoying every moment.

This was all for her.

Sunlight caressed my face as my eyes fluttered open to a new day. I had finally fallen asleep just before five a.m. The warmth of being cocooned against Ky’s body had left me and now I was in his bed on my own. I pulled the comforter up to my chin and sighed into the pillow. My fingertips still felt like they were tingling at the sensation of touching his body; it had been risky and how could I have possibly explained it if he knew. I stretched and allowed my body to fully wake before I sat up and put my feet to the floor. I needed to walk out there and act as if nothing had changed. I couldn’t allow him to know.

Ky sat on the couch, iPad in his lap, and a frown etched on his face. I stood in the doorway watching him briefly before he sensed I was there. The laziest of smiles graced his lips as he looked me over. On instinct I folded my arms over my chest because it was surprisingly cold in the apartment this morning. He was dressed in sweats and a hoodie and thankfully he had decided not to shave this morning so his strong jawline was peppered with stubble.

“Do you want some breakfast?” he asked with certainty.

“Yes.”

He shook his head and stood from the couch and walked toward me. He stood before me and once again took me in. “Go take a shower and get in your most comfortable clothes. You and I are having a day together, just us.”

“What are we doing?” I asked, trying to ignore the bubble of excitement that unleashed inside of me.

“See that couch?” He nodded toward the inviting chaise lounge. “You and I are going to be sitting on that couch all day, watching television, watching movies, talking, whatever you want.”

“Okay.”

I left the living room and headed straight to the guest room. We hadn’t said a thing about the night before, about me sleeping in his arms all night. I didn’t know if I could face that conversation because I didn’t need this to be any more awkward. I fished through my suitcase, grabbed my clothes and toiletries, and escaped to the confines of the bathroom where I could try and get my emotions in check.

Twenty minutes later I walked into the living room wearing my comfiest sweat pants and my lay around top, which sat loosely off my shoulder. Soft music floated through the air and the smell of bacon hit my nose. My stomach grumbled in want, and I headed straight for the kitchen. Ky had his back to me as he stood at the stovetop, and I took a moment to admire him in silence. I still couldn’t believe that this guy was so intent on having me in his life without any consequence. He had the looks, the life, the confidence to have any woman he wanted, yet here I was on a freezing cold Sunday standing in his apartment getting ready to spend the day on his couch. It was surreal.

“Are you going to come in here?” His question shocked me. He slowly turned around, a smirk on his lips as he took me in.
How did he even know I was there?
“I’ve become very accustomed to your coconut scented lotion, and I could smell it as soon as you walked in the room.”

And there was the return of the butterflies.

Butterflies that shouldn’t be there.

“Are you ready for a Ky Crawford breakfast extravaganza?”

I walked into the kitchen and stood on the other side of the island. Jesus, he knew how to put on a breakfast. Fresh juice, coffee, waffles, and eggs were waiting on the counter and the sound of bacon sizzling in the pan that Ky was tending to completed the meal.

We were soon eating in silence, and I couldn’t help the deep sigh that escaped as I dug into the fluffy eggs that he had piled high on my plate. I had never had eggs this good before. He watched me closely as I filled my plate with more eggs and under his gaze my nerves decided to kick into gear.