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“I just can’t get that crossover right. Let’s practice it one more time. Then I’ll go.”
“No.”
It’s interesting how my need to please her and my need to take care of her collide over this issue. My desire to care for and protect her wins, hands down.
“Just once more?” She wanted us to get to know each other better. I doubt she wanted me to see this, though. When she doesn’t get her way, she whines. I won’t hold it against her, though. It’s three in the morning and she’s sleep deprived.
“I’ll get it right this time.”
If she’d but glance in the mirror, she would see she’s so tired her eyelids are drooping and her posture is sagging.
“Just one more run-through?”
I firmly place a clawed finger against her lips, I consider silencing her with a kiss. Since Jenna and Noble’s display earlier, it seems the rules may have changed. Though with Slater’s critical eye already on us, I don’t want to push his threadbare patience. Lifting her in my arms, I nonverbally challenge any of the three soldiers chaperoning us to say one word.
Though they all rise, at the ready to intervene if I cross a boundary, they don’t approach.
“Miss Reece needs to rest. I’m taking her to her dormitory.” I don’t finish the sentence, but my tone is clear: If you get in my way, I will use all the tools at my disposal to get the woman in my arms to her appointed destination.
I revel in the feeling of carrying her, her scant weight pressed to my chest. Nothing in my life has ever felt as right as this.
We’re attracted, we’ve admitted as much. And in the process of this waiting game Olivia created to help us tolerate the last few weeks, we’ve grown from physical attraction to genuine affection. But it’s this moment, right now, that tells me my feelings are deeper than that.
This female ismine. If I could, I’d never let her out of my arms, though I imagine we’d both need a shower from time to time.
My hearty chuckle wakes her. She looks around, disoriented. By her sour smell, she’s also afraid.
“See how tired you were, Olivia? You didn’t even know I’d picked you up and I’m carrying you to your bed. You’re going to wake up refreshed and our final rehearsal will be much more productive.”
She gazes up at me, her brown eyes luminous in the silvery moonlight. She cups my cheek, unselfconscious that there are three soldiers watching us, all less than ten feet away.
“You’re a wonderful male, Ty. I could get used to being in your arms.”
Falling in love with Olivia has been easy. In my quiet moments, I decided that’s why smarter people than me came up with that expression. Falling requires no effort and has been painless.
Painless until now, that is. Right now, I feel as if I’ve been shot through the chest by a feeling so powerful it takes all my self-control not to remove one hand from Olivia’s curvy body and touch my chest to see if I’m bleeding.
Olivia just said she liked being in my arms. Now I truly know what those songs were talking about with lyrics like walking on sunshine and being lighter than air.
“I love you, Olivia,” I blurt. It wasn’t a whisper, either. I know this because three brush-cut heads snap toward me, and six eyes widen as they analyze if I really said that.
“That’s funny,” she says sleepily as she lays her head softly against my pec, “because I’m falling in love with you, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Olivia
The six solid hours of deep sleep I got last night are a dim memory. As we practice, it seems as though the seven of us just keep getting worse instead of better.
“You’re going to drink this smoothie Jenna made you.” Ty tries to tempt me with a pink concoction, the straw elbowed toward my mouth. “Then we’re going to pull on the amazing costumes avery talenteddesigner made for us. The moment the sun drops behind the horizon, it’s time for us to shine.”
“Shine?” I groan. “I’m going to make everyone look bad.”
Jenna, who’s been watching my little meltdown, lifts a platter she brought with her, and says, “I made energy bars. Both sweet and savory.”
I grumble and return to my whiny conversation with Ty. “Why don’t I just stay here, hide in the corner, and let you guys dance without me.”
When Ty tries to wheedle me into a better mood, Jenna interrupts, says, “Nobody puts Baby in the corner,” and marches toward me, a homemade energy bar in hand.
