34. No Other Princess #2
Her damp hair was sprawled out over my arm, her head nestled into my chest and her thigh thrown over one of mine. The comforter laid midway down my torso, her fingers above it drawing small shapes and words along my skin.
It was the most comfortable and relaxed I’d felt in possibly my entire life.
This was where we’d been for hours now. Drawn-out moments filled with kisses and filthy words.
Watching her come undone over and over again.
The sun had long since parted below the horizon.
Hudson was still with Mom, pretending he didn’t have chores here at home on summer break before I left, but I was allowing it to soak this in a little longer.
Before we were under the same roof as all of my siblings and their partners.
Before we left this bubble and everything it held for us.
“Do you ever miss being in the army?” Her soft voice broke the silence, and I let out a contemplative sigh as I thought over the question. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. It was just a random question I had.”
I reached a hand around her neck and tilted her chin up towards me, our eyes meeting once more—a move I used to avoid but now sought out like oxygen.
“You can ask me any question that comes to your mind, always, baby doll. I’ve never had a way with words, but I’ll always try when it comes to you.
” I cleared my throat, letting her chin go but leaving my hand to rest on the side of her throat.
Her heartbeat brought me a comfort I hadn’t felt prior.
“I miss the travel and the purpose it gave me. I miss being surrounded by likeminded people with a common goal. But at the end of the day, I got time with Hudson and Emily out of leaving it behind.”
I leaned down, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I found you.”
Her cheeks turned the light shade of pink I loved so much.
“For a man not good with words, you sure know the right words to say.”
Chuckling, I watched her hand draw a small sun around my left pec.
“What about you, Ivy? What do you want to do? Biggest dreams and loftiest goals.”
She was quiet for a moment, and I almost took a page from her book, apologizing for the invasive question, but her eyes turned back up towards me.
“Promise not to laugh at me.”
“As if I would dream of it.”
“I want to be a writer.”
Nodding, I waited for her to continue, but nothing more came. “Okay. So do it.”
“That’s it?” She arched a brow and pushed herself up on her elbow to stare down at me, her hand resting over my heart.
“Yes, baby doll. That’s it. You want to be a writer? Write. I’ll buy you a notebook and pens right now, if that’s what you need.”
Her lips parted, only to close again, and part once more. It was clear thoughts were racing through her mind the more time that passed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked before she could continue to spiral.
“You have nothing to say? No, well that’s a hard thing to do, or are you even good at that? Or, nothing?”
My brows shot up the more I listened to her go on. “Ivy, you can do anything and everything you put your mind to. So I suggest if you want to write, write. I can’t wait to read it. Whatever it may be.”
The tinge of pink I loved so much crept back into her cheeks. At the rate we were going, it may never leave. The thought pleased me. “What if I start writing wild and crazy romance?”
I smirked, pulling her closer for another slow kiss. Her lips tasted of her mango ChapStick she’d put on after our shower together, and I wanted to bask in her forever.
“I can’t wait to help influence any cowboys you may dive into.”
She let out a delicate laugh as I kissed her once more, my arms wrapping around her. “Inspiring the next rugged, broody, knight in shining armor I may write?”
“Is that how you see me?” I asked softly.
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, her expression growing more serious as she nodded. “Yeah, it is, Oliver. My knight in the darkness who didn’t mind letting me slay my own dragons. It was very Shrek of you, to be honest.”
“Shrek?”
“You know, the ogre?” I shook my head, eager to hear how I reminded her of an ogre of all things.
“He wants his swamp back after the king dumps the fairytale creatures there. So the king hires him to go rescue a princess and bring her back as an exchange kind of thing. So Shrek does. He goes and rescues the princess, but on their way back they fall in love.”
“A princess falls in love with an ogre?”
She smiled. “Well, it turned out the princess was cursed. At sunset, she turned into an ogre. At the end of every day, the beautiful princess matched the broody grumpy ogre. But he didn’t know that. He fell in love with her just as she was—human and not at all his normal type.”
“So would that make you the princess in this story?” I asked, trying to keep the small hint of hope clear from my voice.
“Well, I don’t think I turn into an ogre at night, but I do think you bring out a side of me that I haven’t experienced anywhere else. So…” She drew out the word before smiling. “I guess if you want me to be your princess, I wouldn’t be opposed.”
Kissing her again, a task I couldn’t seem to get enough of, I groaned in acceptance.
“No other princess would be good enough when side by side with you, Ivy.”
That stunning pink graced her cheeks once more as she laid her head back down on my chest, curling against my body.
“Is it bad that I don’t want to leave?” Her whispered words flowed over my skin, her fingers once more drawing small shapes through my chest hair.
“No, not bad at all. I feel the same way.”
“Can I say something and not fight about it? I don’t want to fight, but I also need to say this. It’s important, and I don’t want?—”
“Ivy,” I interrupted. “Look at me.”
I could hear her swallow as her head turned up towards me.
“What’s on your mind?”
“I don’t want to tell anyone about us…not yet, at least.”
Two thoughts at once warred within my mind. Half of me wanted to tell her she’d lost her mind. She was mine. She had been for months now; she was only just now realizing it. But the other half of me knew after the bullshit she came from, I needed to hear her.
“Can I ask why?”
“I’m worried about what’ll happen if this doesn’t work out, Oliver. Not that I don’t want it to, I do. I just…our lives are tied together. Within each other. What happens when…if things don’t work out?”
I pulled her in close, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll follow your lead, baby doll. Always.”