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“Stay.”
Dorsey’s doesn’t open until noon on Sundays, and I’ve never been so grateful to be able to sleep in.
Trevor is a snuggler. He’s a big, muscle-bound beast of a man who crushes it on the ice and makes this almost purring sound when he pulls me into him while he’s sleeping.
Yes. I watched him sleep.
I’m telling myself it wasn’t the creepy kind of watching someone sleep, but the amazed and slightly disbelieving kind.
Seriously, how is this beautiful creature in my bed?
And we’re back to the not-creepy sleep-watching, because the sight of his blond bedhead and bare chest against my navy plaid sheets is like a fucking revelation. And those eyelashes—
Oops. Are opening.
“You watching me?” he rasps, reaching for me and pulling me in again with another contented sound that’s almost as good as the one from the middle of the night.
“Yep. Total creeper.” Guess even if I’m not ready to be straight with myself, I am with him.
He chuckles gruffly, pressing the stubble of his hard-cut jaw against my shoulder and then opening his mouth to bite it.
Fuuck, I like that.
Almost as much as the fact that he didn’t startle out of bed, going from zero to sixty excuses for why he needs to leave in two seconds flat.
“You want coffee?” I ask, teasing his foot with mine. “Made some not too long ago.”
He hums appreciatively and drags himself up to sit, elbows resting on the spread of his knees, hands scrubbing over the back of his head. “Give me a minute and I’ll be in.”
“Take your time. There’s a new toothbrush on the side of the sink.”
I’ve got the coffee poured and hand him a mug when he meets me in the kitchen wearing a pair of black boxer briefs and the same smile I’ve been admiring since he moved to town in the eighth grade.
My kitchen isn’t huge, but its U-shaped layout is perfect for him to lean into one corner and me in the other, our feet just touching.
This is the kind of morning I could get used to all too easily.
Which means it’s time for a reality check.
I take a swallow of coffee and hold the mug in my hands, watching as Trevor does the same. Time to man up. “Last night was incredible.”
He visibly tenses, meeting me with wary eyes. “More than that, even.”
“But in the light of day, I’ve got to ask if it’s something you want more of. Because if you ask me, the answer is yes. But—”
“Yes.” There’s nothing halfway about it. He sets his coffee on the stretch of counter between us and steps closer. “If you do, I do. No question.”
I can’t help smiling and then smiling bigger when his matches mine. Christ, it feels good to be with this man.
“Good. You know I do. But”— I set my coffee mug next to his, trying not to get caught up in how nice they look together — “even with some of the complications stripped away, there are some we can’t ignore.”
“Like what does this look like for the next few weeks?”
I take an unsteady breath because the more this clarifies in my mind, the less I like it. But I think I need it. “I don’t want to ask you to be my secret or to feel like we’re hiding. But at the same time, I know how easily I could get carried away with you. And if this isn’t going to last, I guess… I just don’t want everyone who’s been waiting for me to find a nice man and settle down thinking it’s happened.”
Those big blue eyes hold steady. He’s taking this seriously and, damn, I appreciate it. “So what do you want them to think? That we’re just friends?”
I give him a hard shake of my head but then soften, realizing I don’t know. What might be right for me might not be right for him. “If that’s what you want, then okay. Maybe it’s the simplest solution we’ve got.”
