18. In Front Of His Face
18
IN FRONT OF HIS FACE
T he next morning, Coy woke up before Angel.
He was trying to process the night and was struggling to get there.
How could he have been so blind to what was going on around him for years?
Then he reminded himself, he only saw Angel once or twice a year for six years during college when he was living with Spencer. Then Spencer moved to New York and he continued on with his last two years.
Yes, he spoke with Angel several times while she was in college, but he thought he was just guiding and helping her.
Guess it was more than he thought.
His hand reached out and moved a lock of her light brown hair from her forehead. She didn’t stir.
He’d been shocked to hear she was a virgin, then honored at the same time. Humbled, he’d told her.
Wasn’t he always teased by his brothers that he was old fashioned and romantic? That he wanted a family right away where his brothers didn’t?
He didn’t get it though. It’s not as if he was going to just get married and start popping out kids for the sake of it because he wanted it.
But he’d been looking for the right person and just didn’t find it.
Maybe it was in front of his face the whole time.
Nope. Angel wasn’t even around him. No way he would have done a long-distance relationship and he wasn’t going to beat himself up over not knowing prior.
He believed in the fate on this island and fate was that it would happen when it did.
Angel blinked her eyes open and focused on him. “Morning,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
She stretched. “Good. Not sore at all.”
“You would have been if we’d done it a second time like you wanted.”
“The bath helped,” she said.
He’d picked her up and brought her to the bathroom, ran the tub, and filled it with bath salts that some woman had left here before. He tried not to think of those things and she hadn’t asked.
“I’m glad,” he said.
“I wish you would have joined me in it though,” she said. “But I did appreciate dinner being ready for me when I got out.”
He laughed, then leaned down to kiss her on the lips. Just a soft one. Gentle.
“Maybe next time,” he said.
She stretched one more time. “I’d like that. What are your plans today? Did you want me to leave? I got thinking that anyone driving by might have seen my car here last night and we said we were keeping this a secret.”
“When I got your bag out of it, I pulled it into the garage,” he said.
He’d been thinking of that too.
If it didn’t sit well with him to continue to keep it a secret, he told himself it was the right thing to do for now. He was honoring her decision more than anything.
Though he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep it quiet.
His family weren’t idiots, but thankfully he lived out of the path of anyone driving by and his parents had been in Boston for the past two weeks on business.
“Thanks for that,” she said. “You never know if any of those women that flirt with you in the office might stalk you.”
He threw the covers back. “I’m not sure many know where I live and my house is a bit off the road anyway.”
His driveway was long and curved so that when a car was in front of the driveway, it was shielded by trees. He liked the privacy but always had his vehicle in the garage so that people couldn’t figure out where he lived unless they knew him personally.
“Are you going to get up now?” she asked. “Or just going to the bathroom and coming back to bed?”
“I’m getting up,” he said. “Once I’m up I have a hard time going back to sleep.”
“We could do something else,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Yeah,” he said. “We can go work out like I do in the mornings.”
She frowned and put an adorable pout on her face. He’d love nothing more than to dive back into bed and sink into her, but he really did fear she’d be sore and didn’t want that.
“Sure,” she said. “It’s not the exercise I had in mind. I hope you’re not one of those guys that only wants it once a week.”
“Now you’re taunting me,” he said. “I’m not falling for it. I just don’t want you to be sore. Next weekend will be different.”
“I have to wait all week?” she asked and threw her hands up in the air. “Geez, Coy. As if I haven’t waited years.”
He burst out laughing. “Fine, a few days. We’ll work it out.”
“That’s better. And until then I’m going to take a shower with you. Lots of firsts. Or don’t you have the willpower to have me naked in there with you?”
It was going to test him, but he’d be able to do it.
“I’ll be fine. Will you?”
“Nope,” she said. “Will you fight me off if I want to touch and feel you? I didn’t get to do it last night.”
She’d said it softly and looked unsure of herself. He didn’t want to tell her not to even if he knew it’d test his limits.
“No,” he said. “Come on.”
“I wish we could have stayed in the shower longer,” she said fifteen minutes later. They were eating breakfast. He’d made scrambled eggs and toast. Fast and easy before they worked out.
Angel had touched, petted, and tasted most of his body from the waist up. He was damn close to coming and didn’t want to. She’d laughed at him as if she knew what she was doing.
She’d pointed out that just because she was a virgin didn’t mean she hadn’t done other things.
“After our workout, we can if you want.”
“Sweet,” she said. “No pushing my hands away. You know, I might have less experience than you, but we can each get off other ways that won’t make me sore.”
“I’m aware of that,” he said.
She moved over and got in front of him and then in his face with a massive grin, “Then don’t slap my hands away again.”
“You’ve got egg on your tooth.”
She ran her tongue around her mouth. “No, I don’t,” she said. “You’re trying to distract me. Why?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “This is just different.”
“No,” she said. “It’s not. I’ve waited a long time for this. Did you stop to think maybe you’re going to make me feel self-conscious if you keep telling me no?”
“I don’t want that to happen,” he said. It was the last thing he’d thought she’d say.
“Then stop telling me no and start compromising or giving other options. Just like I did.”
He must be more messed up in the head if he was trying to find reasons not to have sex with a woman.
“I can do that,” he said.
They cleaned up breakfast together, then went downstairs. He got on his rowing machine and her the treadmill. She didn’t have workout clothes with her, so she’d put a pair of his compression shorts on and rolled them up, then tied a tiny knot in them and put one of his T-shirts on that hung down and covered her hips anyway.
It was a funny sight but one that gave him a protective feeling that she was wearing his stuff. In his home.
He was her first. He wasn’t sure why his mind was going to the fact that he wanted to be her last.
They had a long road to get there.
She’d had years to figure this out in her head. He’d had a few weeks.
An hour later, he was sweating more than normal. Maybe he pushed himself harder while he ran things through his mind.
“I feel as if you are working something out that you don’t want me to know,” she said. “Are you regretting what we did?”
“No,” he said. “Absolutely not. We’ve been dating for a month. I knew we’d end up in bed when you were ready.”
“You just didn’t know I was a virgin. I get it.”
“Can I ask why?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her say she was saving herself for him. That might be too much on his shoulders at this point.
“I’ve dated,” she said. “You know that. It’s what I said. It hadn’t felt right with other people. I think when I first started college and was dating, I’d told myself I wanted to wait until marriage.”
“Not everyone thinks that way anymore. I’m going to assume you changed your mind?” he asked. Otherwise this made no sense to him.
“I did. Years ago. But then I was dating someone and whenever we’d get close to it, I’d get cold feet. It didn’t feel right and I just wanted that first time to be special. Sometimes the person I was dating didn’t like that I was pushing them off. Then the older I got, some guys were uncomfortable with me being a virgin and that I had all these expectations of marriage when they wanted to have fun. I didn’t have expectations of marriage to have sex anymore, but in their mind they thought I did because I hadn’t had it yet.”
“So it started one way and then turned into being a virgin not really by choice?”
“I guess that is a good way to say it,” she said. “Though I could have gotten rid of it, I’m sure.”
He wasn’t sure he liked the way she’d said that. “I’m glad you didn’t.”
“Me too,” she said. “But now it feels like you’re carrying some burden and I don’t want that. It’s just a piece of skin.”
It was the way she’d said it that had him laughing.
But in his mind, it was more than that.
“You might be right,” he said. “But it’s a piece you held onto for a reason.”
“And that reason passed. I’m happy. I really am. I would have jumped you weeks ago, but the reason I waited had more to do with how you might feel about it. I didn’t want you to feel like other men I’ve dated.”
“I’m not like other men you’ve dated,” he said firmly.
“You’re not,” she said. “You’re exactly as I thought you’d be.”
Coy didn’t want to be put up on some pedestal that he wouldn’t be able to balance on.
“How about we don’t think about those dreams that you had for years that I knew nothing about and just focus on the present?”
“I can do that,” she said, kissing him. “And presently you need another shower. You’re covered in sweat. Not a very attractive look.”
“Maybe you should look in the mirror when we get to my room,” he said, laughing.
Her hair was falling out of her ponytail, his shirt was sizes too big, had sweat spots on it, the socks on her feet were his and too big, so they were pulled up so that the heels were showing out of the back.
She was a hot mess and yet so beautiful at the same time.
“Guess no one else would want us right now then,” she said. “Though that is wrong because everyone wants you.”
“And you got me,” he said softly.
She turned to look up at him. “I did.”