Chapter 47
Forty-Seven
CLARA
T he room was yellow with early morning sunshine. Neither of us remembered to close the curtains before we slipped into sleep. I rolled over in bed to find Jesse lying on the other side, on his back.
“Why are you so far away?” Jesse’s sleep-rough voice asked, one eye cracked open.
“I’m just on my side of the bed,” I replied softly.
His arm reached out in my general direction, and his fingertips brushed the fabric of the T-shirt I slipped on before falling asleep.
“When did you put clothes on?” His voice sounded as pouty as he looked.
“I grabbed one of your T-shirts when I came back from peeing. You were already half asleep.”
“That’s that mystery explained, but I still don’t know why you’re so far away.”
I shuffled a little closer to him, still not touching him.
“Better?”
The smaller gap between us meant he could reach me properly, and before I was aware of what was happening, his arm scooped underneath me, and he pulled me into him. My arm draped over his chest, and my leg made its way across his waist.
“I forgot you were naked.”
The half-hard cock being pressed down by my thigh was a great way to remind me.
“Oh, I know. It woke up a bit when I realised you were in my T-shirt.” His hand slipped under the hem and rested on top of my thigh
“Sure, it was the T-shirt.” I wiggled my thigh against him, and his grip on me tightened.
“So, Becky is married now.”
Jesse seemed desperate to change the subject, so I let him.
“Yeah, and she had the nerve to call him her best friend,” I joked.
“I guess you wouldn’t say the same if you were at the altar then?”
I lifted my head to look at him. “This isn’t you proposing, is it?”
“No. Would you even want me to?”
I hummed. “This is a big conversation to have at this time of the morning.”
“Even weirder when you think about the fact that I don’t think we ever formally established whether we’re in a relationship.”
“You’re joking, right? You called me your girlfriend yesterday. You said I got special shirtless privileges.”
Hearing him say it for the first time had made butterflies take off.
Jesse chuckled. “Oh. Yeah. I did. You are my girlfriend.”
“Yeah, numpty. And you’re my boyfriend. To answer your question, I don’t know if I want to get married. And yes, I am very aware that I have had a failed proposal this year, but my motivation for that one was not good. Honestly, the thought of standing in front of everyone I know and love while I wax lyrical about loving you makes me want to crawl under a rock.”
“I’d move to the rock with you,” he said immediately.
I lifted myself up and swung over Jesse’s thighs, straddling him. His hands swept up my legs before going under the hem of his T-shirt and settling on my hips, his thumbs digging into the groove.
As I looked down at him, his hair a mess against the pillow, the sunlight making his eyes shine, and the beginnings of a love bite forming on his collarbone, I knew one thing with a certainty I hadn’t felt before.
“You don’t have to move to a rock. And I’ve changed my mind. I would marry you one day…but if we could skip the vows part and just go straight to the party, that would be great.”
I leaned forward to kiss him as his face lit up, but there was a knock on the door.
“Yeah?” I called. I knew when I heard the door open that it would be Rachel who walked in.
“What, you think this is a good time to suggest someone can enter a room?” Rachel asked as she looked at where I was still straddling Jesse.
“One, I technically didn’t say ‘come in’, so that’s on you. Two, I would have stayed silent if there was a dick in me.”
“I don’t know what you’re into.” She shrugged.
I looked down at Jesse, and he shook his head a little, but his thumb moved from my thigh crease to between my legs.
“Not that. Now, what do you want?”
“Breakfast for the happy couple before they ride off into the sunset.”
I grabbed hold of Jesse’s wrist and removed his hand from where it was teasing me.
“Be there in five,” I said to Rachel.
I heard the door close and swung my legs off Jesse, moving to pick up a pair of shorts from my pile of clothes.
“Hurry up and get dressed.”
“You are not leaving the room wearing that,” he said, sounding deadly serious.
“Why the fuck not?” I snapped as I settled the shorts on my waist.
“Wait, no. Not like that. I just meant that you cannot go downstairs wearing my T-shirt.”
I softened and climbed back on top of him, he felt thicker underneath me.
“You worried you can’t keep yourself in check?” I teased.
“I’ve had a lot of dreams about fucking you in my clothes and I’ve only made them come true once. So yes, I’m worried.” His voice was little more than a rumble. I pressed a quick kiss to his jaw before getting off him again.
“If you’re a good boy, I’ll make those dreams come true again. Now get out of bed.”
I turned to leave the room and heard a loud groan behind me.
“We’re gonna have one hell of a party one day,” he called out.
That we were.