Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
MATTEO
“My life before Clara felt so insignificant now. The present moment with her was all I ever wanted.” - Julian Hart, Painted Inferno
Soft light spills into the room from the morning sun. I slowly lift my eyelids, lying still as I breathe deep, filling my lungs with oxygen and the scent of her. It’s quiet and calm and I feel the warmth of her against my right side.
My left-hand throbs as my body begins to wake up and I raise my arm, inspecting the splint wrapped around my hand and half of my forearm. Instinctively, I flex my fingers and a sharp, hot pain shoots up my arm.
“Shit,” I mutter under my breath, wincing from the sensation. The splint is bulky and awkward, weighing my arm down. I broke my wrist when I was a kid, but it’s been years since I’ve had anything like this happen.
Thankfully the X-rays showed it was a clean break. They splinted it in the emergency room and scheduled an appointment for me to see ortho next week. They wouldn't cast it because of the swelling, so hopefully ortho will be able to cast it next week.
I don’t know how long I’ll be out with a broken hand, although if the internet proves to be right, I’m looking at a minimum of six weeks for healing.
Coach is going to kill me. I’m lucky we still won the game even after the shit I pulled.
The warmth beside me shifts and she exhales, groaning softly. I pull my gaze away from the window on the left side of my room to look at Jade nestled against my side. The blankets are pulled up to her chin, just the way she likes it.
Her arm tightens a bit around my ribs, her fingers curling against my skin. She lets out another deep breath, stirring in her sleep. Her hair is strewn across the pillowcase and I take a mental picture of her like this.
I’ve seen her in my bed plenty of times now, but never like this. Never waking up next to me as my girlfriend.
Holy shit.
She looks peaceful, like this is exactly where she belongs… because it is.
In a way, it almost feels surreal how the last twenty-four hours went down. The quiet settles around us and I listen to the sound of her breathing while she’s still asleep, letting my mind run through last night.
When Gabe pulled up in front of the hospital, I was already out the door before he put it in park. It’s a wonder I didn’t fall face first onto the blacktop and end up breaking another bone.
They were already expecting me and had a bay waiting, but I only had one thing on my mind. Jade. I needed to see her. I needed to make sure she was okay—and thank God she was.
I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t been.
I refused to leave her room until she was discharged, and even after that, I insisted she come and wait with me until I was able to leave. She didn’t argue. She explained POTS and what it means moving forward while we waited for the X-ray results.
Jade stirs again, pulling me from the remnants of last night. Her eyelashes flutter and she lifts a lid, cracking it open as she squints at me.
“Are you watching me sleep?”
A smile cracks across my lips. “What if I am?”
She smiles back, her arm tightening around me as she lets her eyelids fall shut again. “I can’t stop you.”
“I’ll stop if you don’t like it.”
She shakes her head, burying her face against my chest. “No, I do.”
“I was afraid I’d wake up this morning and last night would have been all a dream,” I say after a moment, my chest constricting. “You’re still mine, right, Sunny?”
She lifts her head, her hand drifting over my bare chest as she plants it over my heart. “I am.” She turns and plants her chin against me. “I think I have been for a while.”
“So, last night wasn’t a dream?” I ask, even though my throbbing hand confirms it was in fact very real.
“No.” Her expression is soft and warm, the love spilling from her eyes. “It wasn’t a dream.”
“Good,” I breathe a sigh of relief as I tuck her hair behind her ear and run my hand down the length of her soft locks. “I love you, Sunny.”
“I love you too, Playboy.”
I tilt my head to the side, my stomach knotting. I know it’s a playful name, but the meaning of it doesn’t feel the same now. “Can we find something else for you to call me other than ‘Playboy’?”
Her eyebrows cinch closer together. “Why? I didn’t know you didn’t like it.”
“It’s not that I don’t like it… I just don’t like what it stands for.”
A tender smile lifts her lips. “It doesn’t stand for how you’re taking it.” She traces invisible patterns on my chest with her fingertips. “You’re flirty and fun. Mischievous and playful. It’s a good thing, not a bad one.”
Her words sink into my mind, chasing away the image I had tied to the term of endearment. “Well, in that case, I think I like it when you call me it.”
“I’ll call you whatever you want, baby.”
I press my lips into a flat line. “Not that one.”
“Babe?”
“Too generic.”
She laughs. “What about… my love? Or darling”
“Hm. Not as bad, although it feels like something my grandma would say.”
She lifts her head, slowly shaking it at me. She stops, her eyebrows lifting and her face lighting up. “Oh, what about ‘Lover boy’?”
“You know what, Sunny?”
She tilts her head to the side. “What?”
“I don’t care what you call me, as long as you call me yours.”
The shades of blue shimmer in her eyes. “You’re mine,” she says with such simplicity, as if it’s how it’s always been.
And I can’t help but wonder if it is. Since the day I saw her at the coffee shop and ended up with her bitter drink and her with mine. Since that day, she has crawled under her skin and caught my attention.
Since that day, I haven’t been able to look away.
“You’re mine, Sunny,” I murmur, leaning forward to press my lips against her forehead.
A soft sigh escapes her and I pull her against me, her body flush with mine as I hold her with my good arm. She nestles back against me and I turn my head to bury my face in her hair.
This is exactly where I want her. Today, tomorrow, and I wouldn’t be against every day after.
“What do you want for breakfast?”
She smiles against my chest, her hand trailing down the length of my torso. “Hm…I have a few things in mind.”
My cock is immediately hard as she toys with the waistband of my boxer briefs. Last night, I didn’t want anything sexual. I wanted her to know this is real. What we have goes beyond the line of just being physical.
I want every part of her—body, mind, and soul.
“Let me feed you first, Sunny,” I murmur into her hair, my hand sliding down to the bottom hem of my T-shirt she’s wearing that’s riding up her side. “We need to make sure you stay hydrated and fed and that you’re getting enough salt and electrolytes, all that jazz.”
She turns her head to look at me, arching a brow. “Are you a doctor now, Matteo?”
“We could play doctor,” I smirk.
“That’s what I’m trying to get at, you idiot.” She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “Wait, your hand.” She purses her lips, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about it and I don’t want to—”
“Sunny.” I cut her off, pulling her onto my body with my good arm. I hold my left off to the side as her legs part and she straddles me.
Her hair falls forward, framing her face. “Yeah?” she rasps as she settles on my lap.
“Stop worrying about me,” I smile, lifting my good hand to the side of her face. “I’m good. Better now,” I chuckle, lifting my hips to grind my cock against her.
She chuckles. “You’re crazy.”
“I already told you,” I say, dragging her face down to mine. “Only ever about you.”
“I could get used to that,” she smiles, the light from the climbing sun out the window catching on her blue eyes. I trace the constellations of freckles across her nose before losing myself in her gaze.
“Good, because that’s never changing,” I promise, my voice thick with emotion as my lips find her, just like they always do.
For the first time in a long time, the future doesn’t feel uncertain.
It feels as though it’s already started, and it’s started with her.