I heard the bedsprings creaking as, I imagined, Alara got up to get herself dressed again.
“Why?” Charlotte, perfectly ignorant of the adult thoughts going on around her, asked.
“She’s, uh, just… getting up from a nap,” I said.
Liam walked past me toward his room. “That’s what we’re calling it, huh?” he said under his breath.
“Shut it,” I replied in the same tone.
“Did I hear something about art I need to see?” Alara asked as she emerged from the bedroom.
I looked around the apartment, watching Char enthusiastically showing off her project to a rapt Alara, then Liam crossing the apartment with an eager Tuna.
And something about it all just felt… right.
Alara glanced over, almost as if hearing, and shot me a small smile. Like she felt it too.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Alara
The mattress depressed as Christopher slid in behind me, his body curling around me, legs cocking under mine, his arm draping over my hip, and his face nuzzling into my neck.
“Hey,” he murmured.
“Hey.”
“Were you sleeping?”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“I’m used to being more active. It’s hard to be tired when I spend most of my day in bed or on the couch with my leg up.”
“But the longer you stay off it, the faster you can get back on it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t come to me with your logic when I want to bitch.”
His silent chuckle shook through me as he leaned to press a kiss to my neck.
Heat bloomed, a slowly simmering fire that I sank into, not feeling the need to act on it. Not yet.
“You’re just in here because your back hurts from sleeping on the couch.”
“Says who?”
“That stiff gait you have every morning.”
“Noticed that, huh? Thought I was hiding it well.”
“Sorry, old man, your grunting and wincing give you right away.”
“This bed isn’t much better,” he admitted. “Bought the mattress without ever trying it out. It’s too soft.”
“Sometimes it feels like it’s grabbing onto me when I try to roll over,” I agreed. “I think if you made the mistake of rolling onto your stomach in your sleep, you might actually suffocate.”
“So, we’re in agreement about needing a firmer mattress the next time around.”
