Chapter 24 - Hayden
HAYDEN
I tiptoed down the hallway, which was silly, considering my choice of footwear. I was in my fuzziest pair of socks. They didn’t make so much as a swish on the smooth hardwood floor, and the slight creak of my weight wasn’t something I could control anyway.
Even so, it was well past midnight and I couldn’t sleep. I’d spent the last couple of restless hours staring up at a strange new ceiling, in a strange new bed, that wasn’t my own.
That wasn’t why I couldn’t sleep, though.
Mostly it was guilt. Guilt at having taken the spontaneous thrill of an amazing weekend, which I’d now turned into a major imposition.
Yes, I knew the guys didn’t exactly see it that way.
But I did. I knew what Cole had already done, and not just to Carter’s truck.
Even worse, I alone knew what he was capable of in the future.
It was Carter’s bedroom door that was my destination now, and I reached it without incident. The knob turned. The door was unlocked. It swung open on silent, well-oiled hinges, into what I expected to be a moonlit room of blue darkness. Only there was no moonlight. There wasn’t even darkness.
Carter was up, and not just up, but in the corner of the room. He was on his back, shirt off, doing crunches. And not just crunches, but crunches with leg extensions.
And holy shit, he looked hot.
I don’t know if it was the perfectly sculpted look of those ridged, washboard abs, or the thin sheen of sweat that covered his entire body. Either way, my eyes caused my legs to stop moving as they drank their fill.
Damn.
Back and forth he went, touching each knee to his alternate elbow. His legs pumped steadily in and out. They barely wavered at all, as he extended them straight, hovering above the floor.
“You wanna join in, or you wanna just watch?”
He asked the question without even looking my way. All I could do was laugh sheepishly, and close the door behind me.
“Sorry, got distracted.”
“Uh huh,” he breathed.
“Please. Finish.”
Without hesitating or breaking his motion, Carter laughed. “Does it look like I’m stopping?”
My eyes traveled down his shoulders and over his biceps, lingering on those impressively wide forearms that were still in motion. Eventually he finished his crunches, sighed, and collapsed back to the floor.
“So what’s up Angel?” he turned to look at me.
“Nothing much,” I admitted. “I— I guess I couldn’t sleep.”
“I can’t sleep either,” Carter replied. “And when I can’t sleep, I work out.”
He brought his knees to his chest, then crossed those delicious forearms over them. Maybe his eyes were on mine, but I couldn’t stop looking.
“Is it your truck?” I asked. “Is that why you can’t—”
“Hayden, fuck that truck,” Carter made a face. “I never liked that thing anyway. It broke down all the time.”
He patted the floor beside him. I made my way over and sat down.
“It’s because of you that I can’t sleep.”
My stomach lurched. I was suddenly hyper aware that our legs were touching.
“I—I’m sorry.”
“Hey, no…” he murmured, reaching out with one finger to lift my chin. “It’s not like that. You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”
“Of course I do.”
“No,” he emphasized again. This time however, he added a gentle smile. “Do you have any idea how happy we are that you’re here?”
“No,” my smile mirrored his. “But I’m listening.”
“Sawyer was thrilled to see you when he came to pick us up. And when we told him you were coming home with us? I’ve never seen him so excited. Bodie too.”
I couldn’t argue. Sawyer had given me the biggest, most heartfelt hug.
“And what about you?”
“Me?” he asked, touching his sweaty chest. “Angel, you couldn’t even imagine how badly I wanted to see you again.”
I paused, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “But?”
“But nothing,” he shrugged. “We’re going to get everything straightened out for you. In the meantime, you’re here. We’re sure as hell going to enjoy having you around.”
He interlaced his fingers and extended his arms, stretching the muscles of his back to the absolute limits.
“So… wanna tell me why you can’t sleep?”
His question made me hesitate for a moment. It was a moment too long.
“Strange new place, strange new bed,” I shrugged.
“Liar.”
Those chocolate eyes drilled through me like a laser through butter. There was no sense in lying.
“Fine,” I sighed at last. “I was wondering if I’d overstayed my welcome. If maybe you guys were getting bored with me.”
“Bored with you?” He looked outright offended. “What in the world made you think that?”
“Well, first I thought you were mad about me not mentioning Cole in Maine.”
His expression softened. “We weren’t mad. Just… I don’t know, confused.”
“Then we all turned in early tonight,” I shrugged. “And I have to admit, after the wildness of this past weekend? I was a little surprised when you boys put me to bed without so much as a goodnight kiss.”
There, I’d said it. I’d told him what I was actually feeling, rather than make up some inaccurate platitude. Carter’s gaze dropped a little. Like he couldn’t look at me directly anymore.
“Yeah, well, there’s a reason for that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we talked it over, before we got you settled in,” he said. “The three of us decided we didn’t want to overwhelm you.”
“Overwhelm me?” I smirked. “Doesn’t seem like this was a problem in Maine.”
“In Maine we did what we did because we all wanted to,” Carter replied. “But here, you’re a guest because you have nowhere else to go. We wanted you to feel at home with us. We didn’t want you to think that just because you were staying here, that you needed to… well…”
“Holy shit, is that it?” I gasped. “You’re leaving me alone out of respect?”
“Well, yeah.”
I felt wholly and immeasurably better. And here I thought they’d left me alone because they’d already gotten what they wanted.
“And what if I didn’t want to be left alone?” I mused.
Carter shrugged and smiled deviously. “Well in that case… I’m pretty sure you’d get accommodated.”
He was still hot, still sweaty. Still scrumptiously, amazingly shirtless. It was a simple thing to crawl forward, plant myself in his lap, and slide my arms over those big, boulder-like shoulders. I felt his whole body go rigid as my lips brushed his ear.
“Then maybe you should accommodate me,” I whispered huskily, before rising up and striding from the room.