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Chapter 27
Morning After
The house was quiet, but the sun rays flooding through the window warmed my skin. I felt a tickle at my nose, and my eyes fluttered open. I had fallen asleep on his chest, and his thick chest hair tickled my face awake. I smiled when I realized his chest hair matched the salt and pepper hues of his thick mane.
I slept like the dead, though I didn’t imagine he could have been very comfortable. I had his arm pinned under me, and nearly half of me was on top of him, my legs wrapped around his right leg.
As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, he shifted under me. “You awake?” His voice didn’t sound hoarse or groggy.
“Yeah. How long have you been awake?”
He caressed my shoulder. “An hour,” he admitted.
I pushed myself away from him, horrified. “I’m so sorry, Hector. You should have woken me so I could move. You must have been so uncomfortable.”
Hector only tightened his grip, pressing me to his naked body. “Come here. I wasn’t uncomfortable. Actually, it was heavenly. You looked so at peace, I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Well, thank you,” I said with doubt.
“Not that I could wake you up if I wanted to.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, my love, that you sleep like a log. I don’t think a freight train could wake you up. And don’t let me get started on that cute little snore of yours—”
“I do not snore!” I tried wiggling out of his grip, but who was I kidding? It was only a threat. I wasn’t going to willingly separate my skin from his. I settled back into the warm nook of his body, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt that safe—or if I ever had.
I covered my mouth for a yawn, preoccupied with my morning breath. “That was a yummy sleep,” I admitted and brought my hand back to his chest. I gathered some of his chest hair between my fingers and started twirling the locks around. This man wasmine,and I couldn’t believe it. As I played with the curls, something caught a ray of sunlight from within the chest hair and glimmered. I pulled my hand to my face and realized it was on my finger.
I shot up into a sitting position and grabbed the bed sheet to cover my breasts. Hector remained calmly lying down and drew circles on my naked back with the pad of his finger.
“Hector, wha-wha-what is this?” I held my left hand to my face and pushed aside the strands of hair obscuring my view. I was sure my locks were suffering from a severe case of sex hair, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. On my hand, staring back at me, was a classically cut round diamond on a sleek and simple platinum band.
“That’s your engagement ring, love. Guess I’m lucky you sleep like you do, or I would have never managed to get it on you without waking you.”
Love? He had gone frombabytolovein one night. “How did you get—”
“I’ve had it for a while now,” Hector said.
“How long isa while?” I asked, looking at him now.
“That ring has been here, in this house, for eight years.”
“What?” My eyes bulged to saucers. It was possible I was dreaming or still so groggy I hadn’t heard him right.
“I was only renting at first, but when you came over, you mentioned you liked the house, so I bought it.”
“You bought a house because I mentioned I liked it?”
“Yes.” Hector sat up in the bed and scooted me back toward him so we could both rest our backs on the headboard. He took my left hand in his and kissed it. “I bought it for you—for us. I told you, love. I fell in love with you back then, and I was ready to propose, but you were so damned mad at me, and well, you know what happened after that.”
“And it has been here this entire time?” I stared at the ring again. It was sizable and looked expensive, but it wasn’t too much. It felt elegant and classic on my hand, even to my untrained eye.
“Waiting for you. That ring was going to be on your finger one day, or it would never get to feel the skin of another human. The poor thing,” he teased.
“Would have been such a waste,” I teased back.
“The worst,” Hector said.
