Chapter 30
‘I told you I was good.’
Devan walked into the bedroom with a breakfast tray, still wearing nothing but a bath towel wrapped around his lower half.
Alyssa sat up in bed, her own towel still loosely around her, her eyebrows raised in question.
His cheeky tone and accompanying wink suggested he meant good in the bedroom.
Though they’d done nothing more than luxuriate in slow, deep kisses and slip into an exhausted sleep in each other’s arms. That much had been heaven enough.
‘Good at … making breakfast?’ she asked, eyeing the tray of pastries, fruit, toast, various jars, and huge tubs of peanut butter and chocolate spread. And she’d be giving him extra marks for the cafetiere and range of mini coffee syrups.
‘Good at not being bad.’ He put his tray on the bed and climbed on.
‘I just slept next to the hottest woman ever, who I have uncontrollable feelings for.’ He rubbed his bare chest to signify feelings above the waist, though Alyssa hoped he had a heady mix of both.
‘And your towel and modesty are still intact.’
She smiled as he kissed her on the nose, leaving a buttery smudge that told her he wasn’t so good at resisting toast.
‘You do know that was the best night of my life?’ she heard her mouth saying, before she had chance to stop it. She grabbed a pain au chocolat and bit down, before anything else tumbled out.
‘Being knee-deep in a litter of squealing piglets, then falling asleep next to a man in a wet towel? You must have had some dull nights before you came back to Hartglove.’
She gave him a jokey nudge.
‘You know what I mean. Just … being with you, I guess.’ She busied herself with pouring coffee, not used to allowing herself to have much in the way of feelings, let alone talk about them.
‘I felt it too,’ he said softly, layering peanut butter and jam onto a croissant. She knew she had good reason to like him.
‘And you do know that once breakfast is done, I’m going to invite you to stop being Good Old Devan?’
He started coughing on his mouthful, and she thrust him some water. When he looked at her, his eyes were a mix of lustful imaginings and wateriness from nearly choking.
‘Like, unleashing my inner bad boy?’
He was wearing his geek-chic glasses, which were doing everything for her inner bad girl.
‘Yes please,’ she replied simply, as though ordering a slice of toast.
He made to take his glasses off.
‘Nuh-uh. I’m going to need you to keep those on.’
He nodded slowly. ‘And the towel?’
‘Oh, I’m going to enjoy taking that off you myself.’
And suddenly the tray was on the floor, and they were kneeling to face each other on the bed, towels still tantalisingly wrapped. Devan’s hands reached out to cup her face and she shuffled into him, their lips pulling together in another deep kiss. All parts of her were flaming to life.
His hands moved to her hair, grasping as though desperate for her, wanting to get closer. All at once she felt adored, desired, lusted after – and she loved the sensation. She groaned, to let him know how much.
Her hands ached to tear his towel off right then.
To get her eyes on all of him. To touch him, to feel him inside her, to move with him, over and over …
And yet, the slowness of last night’s kissing and waiting and wanting had been divine.
She longed to savour this. She’d wanted him for so long – she’d literally dreamed about it for years.
Yes, she wanted him to be unrelentingly bad with her, that morning.
But she wanted to bask in every ruthless moment.
‘I’m waiting for your guidance,’ he groaned into her mouth.
She let her fingers trail down his chest, stopping just below his belly button, before pulling away with a tease.
‘Mr Shaw, you’re being far too polite,’ she breathed, moving one of his hands to the top of her towel and encouraging him to undo it.
‘But seeing as you ask, I want you to devour me. Slowly. So I can enjoy every glorious moment.’
Alyssa wasn’t quite sure where the words were coming from.
She didn’t usually indulge in kinky bedroom chat nor demand bad things.
But there was something in the way they already knew each other, and how he made her feel accepted just like she was, that carried her tongue to unexpected places.
She was curious to find out where else it might travel.
‘Let me savour this first too.’ His eyes widened as he ran his hands gently over her towel, as though imagining her for one last time before she was his to unwrap.
She felt her breasts throb as his palms rested there, before his hands ran down her front, stopping to clench her waist and then slipping to her bum, to rock her gently into him.
She looked down, both seeing and feeling his desire, pulsing beneath his towel. The bulge she’d ogled yesterday was growing.
‘Oh God, Alyssa. You do not know how many times I’ve dreamed about this. And so much more. Am I even awake?’ He shook his head. ‘I keep having this really hot dream, when we’re right back in my teenage bedroom. Only in my version, I am not being as good as I was that night.’
She laughed softly. ‘Can I tell you a secret?’ she whispered into his neck, her mouth moving towards his ear. ‘I’ve been having that dream for a long time. And I’m ready for the real one. Do you want to show me how your version goes?’
His hands moved back to the top of her towel, and at last he untucked it, letting it fall to the bed.
She heard his sharp intake of breath, saw his eyes widen again as he took her in.
She’d been his fantasy, as much as he’d been hers.
But now, it felt like so much more. They could close their eyes and live out their fantasies with anyone.
But she only wanted him. Smelling of fresh towels and buttery croissants, hair mussy, glasses on, off or quite honestly anywhere.
So she reached her hand to the top of his towel and finally undid that too.