Chapter 11
Ryan never did well with sleeping in when he was sleeping next to someone else. That may have been one of the reasons why he didn't like women spending the night. If they snuck out before he woke up, he could sleep in and never realize they were gone. If they stayed, it was inevitable that he would wake up early and have to use Sydney to help him out of a jam.
This morning was no exception, which was kind of disappointing. He thought having Lucy spend the night — something he invited her to do — would be more comfortable than this. But it wasn't. It probably didn't help that she was apparently a covers hog and had wrapped herself up in the blankets overnight. He was one of those guys who got hot while he slept and didn't have many covers anyway. But he was wearing a pair of boxers and the air conditioning was on. There was no way he wouldn't notice a naked woman in his bed completely wrapped up in his sheets. At the same time, he didn't want to wake her. She looked so peaceful and quiet in his bed, like she belonged there. He wanted her to belong there, at least for now. He wanted her to stay.
"Stop staring at me."
Ryan gave her a lopsided smile. "I thought you were asleep," he said as he reached for her long dark hair. "And I wasn't staring."
She opened one eye to give him a menacing look. At least he assumed that's what she was trying to do.
"You look cute like that," he told her.
"I look tired like this."
"I like it."
He leaned over and kissed her, her lips sweet from the night before. But then she quickly pulled away.
"My mouth is gross."
"I find it pretty delicious."
Lucy rolled onto her back, pulling the sheets with her. Again. "Please tell me you have an extra toothbrush."
He did because he always did. He bought a 12-pack at Costco once and kept the extras around for guests. Sometimes his teammates would stay over after a night at the bars or some rude woman who spent the night would ask for one the next morning. Because overstaying her welcome wasn't bad enough.
"I have an extra toothbrush for you," he said. "But for the record, I want to reiterate that I thought your mouth was delicious."
"Noted," Lucy said. "What about clothes?"
"What kind of clothes?"
Lucy turned and looked at him. "I can't wear my green dress out of here. It would be a humiliating walk of shame."
"You should not be humiliated by how you looked in that dress last night."
Lucy gave him a small laugh and got up, dragging the entire sheet behind her like she was some queen. It made Ryan want to put his foot on the end of her blanket train and pull the whole thing off.
"Toothbrush is in there?" she asked.
"Yeah."
She stopped next to the bed and stared down at him. "You sound disappointed?"
"I prefer it when gorgeous women stay in my bed and don't get out of it."
Lucy leaned over and kissed him gently. "And I prefer clothes and a toothbrush in the morning, maybe some coffee too. I'm assuming you don't have that."
"I do!" Ryan sat up with a big smile on his face. "After, well, you know, spending time with you, I went home and kept asking my mom for coffee in the morning. She finally got sick of it and taught me how to make it. She was very appreciative of your influence."
Lucy gave him a strained look. "Don't tell me about what I influenced that your mother approved of."
"Ew, fair enough," he replied. "Anyway, I now have a coffee machine here and I don't have ugly flowered mugs."
"Thank you."
Lucy gave him one more smile and started walking towards the bathroom again.
