Page 90 of Colliding with Ten

Minutes passed that way, both of us lost in our own thoughts. Then, she reached for the remote on the coffee table. That's when I spotted the little white jar beside her half-empty water glass.

I picked it up. “You didn’t use the cream they gave you?”

She glanced back. “Oh, yeah. I forgot. I’ll do it later.”

“Can I?”

She nodded, giving me better access to her injured leg as she flipped through the movie menu. I worked the cream into her smooth skin, massaging down the curve of her calf and back up over her thigh, putting less pressure on the injury itself.

“What are you picking?” I asked.

She grinned, starting the movie. “Remember the Titans. I’m going to convert you to my side.”

My hands had slowed their strokes, making small circles over her knee as the movie started. Each motion seemed to calm her breathing, her body melting further into mine.

She tucked her head beneath my chin, and I buried my nose into the mass of curls. Whatever that smell was in her hair was gonna become a new addiction of mine. Then, a sobering thought hit me. She wasn’t going back to California with me. She was staying here, taking her taste and her sweet smell with her.

The distance hadn’t mattered when she was just a person on a screen. But now I’d felt her, tasted her, and in a few hours I would smell like an airport instead of her. The thought of leaving made my chest hollow.

Soon, her eyes closed, shoulders sagging as her breathing slowed. Her hair had fallen across her face, a few curls resting against her cheek. The TV light flickered over her skin, and my chest tightened as I looked at her.

I reached for the throw blanket draped across the back of the couch and eased it over her, careful not to wake her. She whispered in her sleep and pressed closer. It made me smile.

The movie played on as Denzel appeared on screen, leading football players through drills, but I paid more attention to her. She stirred, whispering what sounded like my name. At first, I thought I had imagined it, but then she said it again, and I couldn’t help the giddy grin on my face. Was it too much to hope that I was in her dreams?

Still listening for any sound from her, I kept watching the movie, liking it more as I watched. She was right; it was better. The thought pulled me under, and before I knew it, I was asleep with her in my arms, dreaming of her too.

20

THE EXTENSION

AYLA

Daylight filtered through the gauzy curtains. I awoke, registering the unfamiliar smell of soap and mint. I frowned, chasing it. Then awareness arrived. Lennox.

I stayed still, taking in everything around me. My back pressed against something solid, not the couch cushion unless it had grown a human arm under my neck for support. Another arm lay across my middle, holding me in place. Without it, I probably would have rolled off.

His legs hung off the couch, mine tangled with his, our calves pressed together. We were spooning on a couch barely big enough for two, while a spacious bed sat a few feet away. I groaned. How did this happen?

We watched Remember the Titans. One minute I was awake, the next I was here. My heart raced. Okay. Move. Untangle. Don’t make this weird. I shifted, testing the waters. His arm tightened, leaving almost no room to breathe. He exhaled behind me with a low rumble in his chest. He was waking up.

I froze. “Shit.”

He shifted. “Sorry,” he said, voice rough with sleep. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.” I groaned, covering my face with one hand. “But I can’t believe we slept on the couch.”

He huffed a breath that might’ve been a chuckle. “Oh yeah, there was a bed.”

“A huge bed,” I added. “Like . . . ridiculously close.”

“I wanted to move you, but I swear last night the bed looked much farther away.”

“We’re in a hotel room. Everything in this space is less than 10 feet.”

“You had me up half the night watching Friday the 13th.” His voice was still slow and groggy. “And you passed out before I did.”

Still tangled, heat gathered low in my core at the feel of every inch of him. Suddenly, I wanted those hands to lose restraint.