Page 55 of Falling

Miles broke into a smile. “Morning,” he said. “I didn’t mean to sleep here all night.”

“Not the first time,” I reminded him.

“Won’t be the last,” he said, reaching out between us and taking my hand. “If you’re wondering how I feel now that I’ve slept on it.”

I looked down at Miles’s fingers wrapped around mine and felt another swell of awe.

“You said you were sensitive about rejection,” he added after a heartbeat. “I want you to be really positive that I’m not doing that.”

I swallowed past a lump in my throat, managing a nod but not trusting myself to speak.

“I don’t, umm. I don’t really know how to do this,” Miles said, meeting my eyes with his lip drawn between his teeth. “But I want to be good at it. I know you’ve been doing all the work. I’m not completely oblivious. I want to give you what you need. What you want.”

“I wouldn’t call it work,” I said, reaching out to touch him, running the pad of my thumb along his cheekbone, smiling as he leaned into it. “You’re not work. You’re not difficult, and there’s still nothing wrong with you. You can’t base your entire self-worth on someone else’s misjudgment,” I said, remembering Seth saying something similar to me.

Maybe he’d been right, after all.

“No?” Miles asked. He sounded like he was joking, but there was a note of uncertainty under it.

I wasn’t the only one who needed a little reassurance.

“From my perspective,” I said. “You’re perfect. Everything about you. From the tip of your nose to the ends of your toes,” I added, leaning over to kiss the tip of his nose.

Miles caught me then, as I went to back off, brushing his lips against mine.

“Sorry,” he murmured against my chin. “Too much?”

I blinked at him. “No?”

“Not too much?” Miles asked, hopeful. “If I wanted… to do what we did, umm. Last night. Again?”

My heart hurt for him. He’d just discovered that he could enjoy sex—and I was so glad he had, so happy I’d been able to give that to him—and now he was afraid he wanted it too much.

I could’ve told him that it was fine, that he was allowed to want things, that I’d say no if I really wasn’t up to it.

“C’mere,” I said instead, tugging him over to me, both of us laughing as I hauled him on top of me and settled him there. He was wearing an old pair of sweats that hung low on his hips, left behind from a fundraiser years ago that said Faith across the butt. They were a good look on him. Especially the way they rode just low enough for a glimpse of red hair to peek out over the waistband.

I couldn’t say I’d always had a thing for redheads. I could say was that I’d made a mistake not always having a thing for them.

“I didn’t mean now,” Miles said, but he was laughing, he was smiling, and he was so beautiful when he was happy that I could hardly draw breath.

“You didn’t?” I asked, watching the flush creeping up his neck and pooling on his cheeks, making his eyes look even brighter. He bit his lip as I slid a hand down his side, dipping my fingers past the waistband of the sweatpants, grinning up at him.

“Well…” he glanced down at me, following the line of my body.

“See something you like?” I teased.

“I like all of it,” he said, so sincere it made my breath catch again. “I love that you’re so big.”

I laughed again, stroking his side with my thumb. “You know how to flatter a man.”

“I didn’t mean… I’m not sure what my feelings are about, umm… Although I did like the way you felt in my hand, but I don’t… I mean. It wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t. Matter. To me. But I do like you. All of you. I like your body.”

I couldn’t stop chuckling the whole time Miles was talking, affection blooming in the pit of my stomach for him. He was trying so hard and I…

I felt a way about it. About him. A way that might have been terrifying if it hadn’t felt so damned good right now.

“Feeling’s mutual,” I said. “That I like your body, I mean. I just live in mine.”