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His laugh is nothing more than a quick rush of air through hisnostrils, and he turns my hand again to brush his lips against my knuckles. “I think we’d be right here.”
Butterflies swarm in my stomach and up into my chest, and for a moment it feels like I might float away if Aiden’s hand wasn’t tethering me to his bed. It’s an entirely new feeling, but not one I dislike.
“This still feels like a dream,” I whisper. “I keep thinking I’ll wake up.”
Aiden smiles, and I don’t even have time to be fully twitterpated by it before he rolls, bringing himself half on top of me again. “That’s fine,” he says, eyes flicking to my mouth for a moment before he lowers to kiss me. It’s slow, and sweet, and everything he is, and I can feel my lashes fluttering dazedly when he pulls away. “I don’t plan on letting you sleep tonight, anyway.”
“Pervert,” I tease.
I can feel him growing stiff against my thigh when he kisses me again. “Don’t worry,” he murmurs against my mouth. “You’re going to wake up right here in my bed.”
The weight of that sentiment feels heavier than his body, and I let it wrap around me like a blanket as I melt back into him, letting him dizzy me with his kiss and his touch and everything else.
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Maybe I could hold a rose. Like they do in The Bachelor. So you’d know it was me.
You watch The Bachelor?
I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.
CHAPTER 23
Cassie
I dream about my parents that night, which comes completely out of left field, considering that I haven’t spoken to them since I left home at eighteen. I dream about the day I left, about my dad’s disappointed expression and my mom’s irate ranting—a fight I can barely even remember anymore. Mom’s face is a fuzzy static that matches Dad’s, and even if I squint, I can’t make them out. Have I forgotten what they look like?
There’s an ache that comes with the dream, one I haven’t let myself feel for a very long time—some crushing anxiety about being alone. A stifling worry that comes from being such a disappointment to the two people whose love should have come easy.
I feel my feet sinking into the grass outside my house as my mother’s voice starts to fade, and panic claws at my chest as I struggle to climb back out. I throw out my arms as I open my mouth to scream, but no words come, and I realize that the groundis literally going to swallow me up without me being able to do a thing about it.
But then I hear my name, like a soft sigh on the wind, and strong hands grasp mine to pull me back up. There’s a flash of warm brown and green looking back at me, a blinding smile that comes with it. He whispers my name again and again, and the panic in my chest ebbs to some blooming heat that makes me tingly all over.
Cassie.
Cassie.
Cassie.
“Cassie.”
I wake to soft sheets beneath me and softer lips at my shoulder, groaning as I stretch my arms to shove them beneath the pillows as I come to. Aiden’s hand is rubbing gently against my spine as his lips continue to leave barely there kisses at my back.
What a weird dream,I think.
Not that I have time to dwell on it, humming like a content housecat when I feel his mouth at my scar, tracing one side.
“Good morning,” he mumbles against my skin.
I yawn, turning my face so I can peek back at him from over my shoulder. “What time is it?”
“Early, I think,” he answers. “My phone’s still in my pants.”
“Mine’s downstairs.” Moving sounds like the last thing I want to do right now. “How are you so chipper this early?”
He grins before he leans to kiss my shoulder again. “I had a great night.”
“But aren’t you exhausted?”
