Chapter 30
Cecily
My bladder wakes me first, but I refuse to open my eyes. I'm too cozy.
Fancy hotel pillows really are better. Especially this pillow. It smells incredible. And it's like one of those bears you put a heart inside before stitching it up, except this one has a little battery-powered motor inside it giving it a realistic-sounding heartbeat.
I burrow my head, and the hard plane of the pillow registers in my sleepy brain. Pillows cannot be hard and soft at the same time.
The real world crashes in on me at the same shocking moment. I smell Dom. I feel Dom. Oh my goodness, I am on Dom.
My eyes adjust to the darkness in the room, the muted light from the ajar bathroom door giving me just enough to see Dom sleeping soundly beside me. A sigh of relief slips between my lips.
The last thing I need is that man knowing I made myself into a blanket and draped across him.
My bladder pokes at me more urgently. I carefully roll away from Dom and rise from bed, peeking at my phone. Two in the morning.
Again, I glance down at the man I've been spending all my time with lately. He's pretty cute when he's sleeping, arm stretched across the bed like that. No wonder I snuggled into him. I can't believe it's only been a few hours since he instructed me not to attack his mouth when he kisses me.
So arrogant.
As quietly as possible, I close the bathroom door. Taking great care to move like a ninja around the small room, I lift the toilet seat lid inch by inch and make no noise when sitting down.
Chaste kisses. His words, and—something touches my ass.
"Ahhhhhh!" It's a scream and a cry and a choked sob in one petrified sound. I'm up from the toilet, tripping forward, catching myself on the wall.
The door flies open, hinges protesting. Dom, hair flat on one side of his head, fixes me with wild eyes. "What is it?"
His gaze rakes over me, searching for an obvious problem. His T-shirt hits me at mid-thigh, but does he remember I'm not wearing underwear? I feel more exposed now, being upright and without the protection of bed covers.
"Eyes up here," I hiss. "There's something in the toilet. It"—my eyes squeeze closed before popping open again—"touched my butt when I sat down to pee."
Like a deflated balloon, the fight leaves his body. His relief is obvious, and then something else makes its way into his expression. Amusement.
"Just go." I point at the bed beyond the bathroom door he barreled through.
"Nope." He takes a step closer. "Let's see what we're dealing with."
"I can look," I argue.
He raises his eyebrows. "Sure about that? You're plastered to the wall."
I look down at my body, the way I'm pressed against the wall like I could become a part of it. "Fine."
Dom peers over, straightening up after only a second. "It's a cricket."
I shudder. They're harmless, but the way they jump unnerves me.
Dom unrolls a handful of toilet paper, using it to urge the insect down further in the bowl, and once it's in the water, Dom flushes. "Safe to use," he says, gesturing at the toilet before stepping from the bathroom and closing the door behind him. As if it never happened.
My bladder yells at me, and I lock the door since Dom is awake out there.
I double-check the toilet, just in case the cricket had a buddy.
It's clear, and when I finish up and wash my hands, I slink out of the bathroom hoping Dom is one of those people who fall back to sleep the second their head hits the pillow.
No such luck.
"Don't say a word," I mutter. I'm so embarrassed. I want to crawl into the nearest abandoned copper mine and die there.
"Wasn't planning to," Dom answers. His voice sounds rich, and I know it's because he's holding back laughter.
After a few minutes, I say, "Thank you."
"For what?" Dom asks.
In the darkness, a smile spreads across my face.