Chapter Eleven
Eleven
Warm.
Audrey was so warm, and so comfortable.
The source of the heat shifted around her, and that movement was enough to help her swim out of her heavy early morning drowsiness. She opened her eyes to a strange room, and then she remembered:
This was Theo’s room.
She’d stayed over last night.
It wasn’t a dream.
In the gray light streaming through the gap he’d left in his blackout shades, she glanced over her shoulder and found him still asleep.
His face was slack, his mouth slightly open while he breathed softly, his hair perfectly tousled around his head like a halo of shadow.
A single stray strand fell across his forehead, a streak of darkness cutting across speckled moonlit snow, and she marveled again at how much of his face she could see now.
At how much of himself he’d bared to her.
Audrey wriggled closer to his warmth, and when her head shifted on the pillow they’d somehow ended up sharing, Theo responded in his sleep by tightening his arms and automatically pulling her against his chest.
And that’s when she noticed it.
Not only was his arm actually beneath her shirt, and had been, his hand easily sliding from her ribs to cover one of her breasts entirely with one wide palm, but—
He was also hard.
When he’d pulled her closer, she got an exceedingly stiff idea of what exactly his briefs were barely concealing.
She gasped in surprise, and Theo startled at her sharp inhale, slowly blinking awake, his face twitching as his pupils adjusted to the light streaming through the windows. But as soon as he seemed to realize she was still there, his mouth cracked into a lopsided grin.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” He smiled so wide, both dimples revealed themselves carved deep into his cheeks. His scar tape shifted on his face to make way for them, and he leaned over her shoulder and pressed his lips softly to hers. “I thought I dreamed you stayed.”
“Nope. I’m still here.”
He hummed. “Good.”
His eyelids drooped again. He was still half asleep and hadn’t seemed to notice where his hand was.
Instead, he swept it gently over the curves of her breast, trailing his fingertips along her skin.
His other hand was busy burying itself in her hair, absently combing through her tangled locks still silky-soft from his fancy shampoo.
Half asleep, but wholly preoccupied.
Audrey waited, half turned in his arms as she studied his face, wondering when he’d realize what he was doing and where exactly he was touching her. She bit her lip at the thought of the inevitable, impending meltdown and simply chose to snuggle closer anyway.
He’d figure it out any minute.
“How long can you stay?” he slurred, his eyes still shut. But he pressed another kiss to her head, soft and gentle and sweet.
Well. This was unexpected.
Sleepy Theo was adorable.
Was he not actually a morning person? He was always at the coffee shop so early. Much earlier than he strictly needed to be, since he didn’t work an office job on someone else’s timetable.
Either way, she could get used to this.
“I have some homework and reading I need to do, but it shouldn’t take me too long. I could stay until this afternoon if you want me to.”
“Don’t ever want you to leave,” he mumbled through a yawn as his hand kept up its caress. “Give you a key if you want one.”
“You would?”
“Give you anything you want.”
She suppressed a snort. “That’s a dangerous promise. What if I asked you for a pony?”
“M’kay.” Theo nuzzled into her neck and inhaled deeply.
“Just ‘m’kay’?” She was tempted to turn over if only so she could run a hand through his hair. God, she’d never get over how good it was. But she was too busy enjoying this unguarded moment. “Where would I keep it?”
“Stables.” His mouth fell open and his breathing slowed again. Seemed he was struggling to fully wake up. “Can rent a stall. And tack.”
“That’s some rich people shit if I ever heard it. You sound like you’ve done horseback riding before.”
“Mm-hmm. Polo.” He nodded. “Don’t tell anyone. Might ruin my artist street cred.”
“I Googled you. Thoroughly. You don’t have artist street cred.”
One eye struggled to open but failed. “I kinda do, actually.”
“What, like Lightm4st3r or something?” Audrey snorted. “Surely not.”
Theo’s eyes flew open at the name.
“L-Lightm4st3r?! What about Li—”
He froze.
His fingers had stilled right as his thumb grazed across her nipple, which rapidly pebbled beneath his touch.
He’d finally realized where his hand was.
Theo gasped and yanked it out from beneath her shirt as if her skin had burned him.
And then his eyes went wide when he felt what was pressing into her back.
“OH MY GOD I’M SO SORRY!” he cried, throwing himself away from her and scrambling backward. His hand slipped off the edge of the bed and he lost his balance, legs flailing and tangling in the sheets, and he fell to the floor with a dense thump.
The bed shook with the weight of his fall.
“Theo!” Audrey cried, scrambling across the mattress after him. She dropped off the side of the bed and crouched, trying to find where his face might have been, but he’d already cocooned into the sheet. “Theo, are you all right?”
When he groaned, “How long was I fondling you?!” in response, she was able to locate his head. She tried to rip the sheet away, but he tugged it back over his face. All she could see was one tip of a flaming-red ear.
“You were fine, I didn’t mind!” she shouted, tugging again at the sheet.
“I’ve ruined everything!”
He gripped it even tighter, his chest fluttering rapidly beneath it as he panicked. So she did the only thing she could think of.
She flung her leg over his waist and straddled him before laying down on top of him, resting her whole weight on his chest.
Theo drew in a deep shuddering gasp and stilled.
Audrey waited, burrowing her face into the curve of his neck and running a hand along the left side of his ribs and chest where she knew he had fewer scars.
“Calm down,” she whispered. He still didn’t move, and she was able to slip a hand around the sheet to lay it against his ear. His skin was burning.
“Audrey,” he croaked, his voice strained. “I’m sorry. After what you told me last night, I wasn’t trying to make this sexual, I swear. I was trying to be good. I didn’t ask if I could do that, and I’m so sorry, I—”
“It’s fine.” She nuzzled harder into his neck. “I liked it. My boyfriend gave me a sleepy little breast exam and I wasn’t going to stop him. Consider this me giving you my express consent going forward.”
“Oh.” Theo finally lowered the sheet from his face. It was beet red and thoroughly abashed. “Well, uh, I didn’t want to make any assumptions, and—”
Audrey leaned forward and kissed him slowly and deeply, drawing his bottom lip between her teeth.
She couldn’t help herself.
Too cute.
He was too cute.
Theo moaned, the noise he made rumbling deep in the back of his throat and sending molten heat straight to her core before he made a slightly strangled sound. “That’s not—you’re not helping things,” he gasped when she pulled away for air. He screwed his eyes shut and motioned toward his hips.
“Oh. Sorry.” It was her turn to blush. “Are you uncomfortable?” He nodded shortly, and she rolled off to the side, lamenting the loss of the warmth beneath her. The heated floor wasn’t freezing by any means, but it wasn’t Theo, either.
He turned and looked at her, his eyes wide.
Even the right one seemed like it was open more than it usually was, though it was his pupils that were blown abnormally large.
The swirling whiskey and amber-green tones in his irises were oddly thin, as if he were trying to drink in every little bit of her light through his gaze.
“I’m trying really hard not to do everything I’ve ever imagined wanting to do to you right now,” he murmured, his voice lower than usual.
“And you’re making it extremely difficult for me, looking like that.
Laying on me like that. Kissing me like that.
” He shook his head before snaking an arm under her neck and drawing her close, planting a kiss on her temple.
“Here I was, fantasizing and plotting grand things inside my head for your first time someday—if you want it to be with me—and now I’m ready to toss everything straight out the window and take you on the floor right here and right now. Please don’t let me.”
She huffed a laugh before resting a hand on his cheek. “I do want it to be you, Theo,” Audrey whispered, leaning in close. “And you won’t have to wait long, either. I promise.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“You’re going to be the death of me, Miss Adams,” he muttered before burying his face against her skin.
“But first, do you want me to make breakfast?” He’d said it in the spot where her shoulder met her neck, his plush lips brushing gently against her throat, and when his wandering fingers grazed across a sensitive spot on her thigh, Audrey yelped a laugh and tried to squirm away.
“No! Not there!” she squeaked.
But Theo realized what he’d found, and his attention snapped directly to it. He grabbed her and held her closer, tickling her harder while she laughed and thrashed, his expression lighting up with delight at having discovered yet another one of her secrets.
They took turns freshening up in the bathroom, and when Theo emerged again, back in his long-sleeved black shirt and gray college sweatpants from last night, it was to find Audrey looking at all the things on his shelves in his living room.
He had quite a collection of media, but one thing bothered her.
“Where’s all your art?” She turned and watched him in the kitchen while he gathered ingredients. Pancakes, eggs, and bacon were on the menu, all of which he’d refused her help with, and he straightened and gave her an odd look as he placed a flat top griddle across his expansive set of gas burners.