14. Kieran
FOURTEEN
KIERAN
The first thing I became aware of was warmth.
The second was that the warmth wasn't coming from a blanket.
For a moment, I remained exactly where I was, suspended somewhere between sleep and wakefulness while my brain struggled to catch up with reality. Then memory arrived all at once.
The Christmas lights.
The baking disaster.
The cookies that should never be shown to professional bakers.
Thane. A smile tugged at my mouth.
I was lying on my side with Thane's arm draped across my waist. At some point during the night, I'd apparently decided personal space was optional because I was practically curled against him. The strange part was that instead of feeling embarrassed, I felt comfortable.
Safe.
Comfort wasn't something I'd spent much of my life associating with other people. Comfortable couches, maybe. Comfortable sweatshirts. Comfortable routines. People were different.
People usually leave. I pushed the thought away before it could settle. This wasn't the time for old ghosts.
Morning light filtered through the gaps in the curtains, painting pale gold stripes across the room. Beyond the windows, Seattle was beginning to wake up, but inside the condo, everything remained quiet. Peaceful.
For once, I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere.
I tilted my head slightly and looked at the man sleeping beside me.
Even asleep, Thane looked unfairly attractive.
His hair was a little messy. One side of his face was pressed into the pillow.
The sharp edges that usually appeared whenever cameras or reporters were involved had disappeared completely.
This version of him belonged to nobody except himself.
And for reasons I was still trying to understand, that felt like a gift.
As though sensing my attention, his eyes opened. For a second, he looked disoriented. Then his gaze found mine. A smile spread slowly across his face. "Mornin’."
His voice sounded rough with sleep. The sound did ridiculous things to my pulse.
"Mornin’."
The smile remained.
"So you're just going to stare at me?"
"I was conducting important research again."
He twisted slightly and glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. "At seven in the morning?"
"I needed to make sure you were real."
A laugh rumbled from his chest. The vibration traveled through both of us. "That's your scientific method?"
"Worked, didn't it?"
He rolled toward me and slipped an arm around my waist. A second later, I was tucked against his chest as though he had only moved away long enough to confirm the time.
"Much better," he murmured.
I smiled against his skin. "What is?"
"This."
The easy teasing settled over us as naturally as breathing. It should have felt awkward waking up in somebody else's bed after only knowing them for a few days. Instead, it felt strangely familiar, as though we'd skipped past several steps without either of us noticing.
"I like waking up with you."
The honesty of the statement stole my next breath.
Before I could think of a response, his mouth found mine.
At some point, I ended up sprawled across Thane's chest, one of his arms wrapped securely around my waist while the other traced slow, absentminded paths along my back.
The steady rhythm of his heartbeat pulsed beneath my cheek.
The room remained quiet except for the occasional hum of traffic somewhere beyond the windows.
A buzzing sound drifted faintly through the condo. Neither of us moved.
Another buzz followed a few seconds later. Still, nobody moved.
Thane's thumb continued its lazy path across my back. I kissed him again.
The buzzing stopped.
Problem solved.
A few moments later, another vibration echoed faintly from somewhere beyond the bedroom. Then another. And another.
I pulled back just enough to grin. "Someone’s famous?"
Thane groaned. The sound vibrated through his chest beneath me. "Unfortunately."
The phone stopped. Silence settled over the room again. Then it started all over.
Buzz.
Buzz.
Buzz.
Buzz.
Buzz.
By the fifth notification, I was laughing hard enough that I nearly slipped off him.
"This is ridiculous."
"You're enjoying this far too much."
"Maybe a little."
His hand tightened briefly at my waist. "Traitor."
The phones were still somewhere out in the kitchen where we'd abandoned them the night before. Neither of us had planned on waking up together.
The buzzing continued.
Eventually, Thane let out a long sigh. "I should probably see what fresh disaster is waiting for me."
"Probably."
Neither of us made any effort to move. Another buzz sounded. Then a ringtone.
Then another.
Thane closed his eyes. "I definitely should."
"Definitely."
Thane pressed a quick kiss to my forehead and carefully shifted out from beneath me. The sudden absence of his warmth was immediate. Unfairly immediate.
He grabbed a pair of sweatpants from his drawer and pulled them on before heading toward the bedroom door. I watched his sexy ass disappear into the hallway.
Then everything went quiet. The silence stretched long enough to make me sit up.
Then Thane's voice drifted back toward me. "Oh."
The single word sounded stunned. I pushed myself off the bed and followed him into the kitchen.
Thane was standing near the counter with his phone in one hand and the other braced against the edge of the island. The expression on his face immediately made my stomach tighten.
"What happened?" I asked.
His gaze lifted to mine. For a second, he seemed to be deciding how to answer. Then he turned the phone around and held it out. I frowned and took it from him.
At first, I didn't understand.
Thane was a professional athlete. People took photos of him everywhere he went. I'd spent enough time online over the last few days to know that. So why was he showing me this one?
Then I looked closer. My stomach dropped because it wasn't just Thane. I was also in it.
The first photo showed me climbing into his SUV outside my apartment building. The second captured us entering his condo building together. The angle was grainy and obviously taken from a distance, but there was no mistaking either of us.
The third image sat above an article headline that looked as though it had been written by somebody paid according to the number of exclamation marks they could fit into a sentence.
WHO IS THANE HALE'S MYSTERY MAN?!?!
Beneath it sat another headline.
NEWLY OUT NHL STAR SPOTTED WITH MYSTERY COMPANION.
I stared at the screen for several seconds before looking back up. "Mystery companion?"
A corner of Thane's mouth twitched. "I never claimed they were good at their jobs."
That almost made me laugh. Almost. Then my phone started vibrating. The sound seemed unnaturally loud in the otherwise quiet kitchen.
By the time I reached it, notifications were arriving so quickly they seemed to be stacking on top of one another.
Thirty-four unread messages. Six missed calls. More social media notifications than I'd received in the previous six months combined. My pulse kicked up.
Slowly, I opened the first text.
Darius: Dude. Please tell me that's actually you.
Then I opened a couple of others.
Unknown: Wait. Do you know Thane Hale?
Unknown: ARE YOU DATING THANE HALE???
The messages just kept coming from people I didn’t know to a classmate I'd spoken to maybe three times all semester.
The strange thing was that none of them were cruel. Nobody was threatening me. Nobody was attacking me. Most of them seemed excited, curious, or simply shocked. That didn't make it feel any less invasive.
Less than forty-eight hours ago, nobody outside a handful of professors, classmates, and former foster parents knew anything about my life. Now people were sending screenshots. Sharing links. Speculating.
Somebody had apparently already figured out my name. Somebody else had connected me to the university. It wasn't difficult. Everything lived online these days. A few photographs and a little determination were usually enough.
A knot formed in my stomach as the reality of it settled over me.
The photos weren't what bothered me most.
It was the feeling that strangers were suddenly standing in places they didn't belong.
They were peering through windows that had always been closed.
They were taking pieces of my life and turning them into a conversation.
And judging by the nonstop vibration of my phone, that conversation was only getting started.
When I finally looked up, Thane was watching me carefully. There was no defensiveness in his expression. No attempt to minimize what was happening. Only understanding.
This wasn't new for him. He knew exactly what I was feeling because he'd been living with versions of it for years.