“Scared of scaring you away,” he placed a gentle kiss on my lips, seeking them again, but it soon grew deeper, we were both pulling closer to one another.
How was this happening?
When we parted again, he rested his forehead against mine.
“You couldn’t scare me away,” I said softly, holding his gaze. “I’m kind of hooked on you.”
“Hooked? Thank god for that. I think I was completely hooked when I saw you come back from that run in that Lycra outfit of yours,” he smiled, gesturing down with his eyes.
“My horrible running kit?” I giggled.
“Horrible? You need a better mirror.” He shook his head like I’d lost my marbles. “God you don’t want to know what I was imagining that day.” He laughed and looked up, using the opportunity to plant a kiss on my forehead.
“Oh on the contrary, I think it might be quite fun to know.”
“Well, I was very tempted to make a move that evening at yours.” He returned his eyes to mine. “Then I walked in carrying a temper, snapped at you and you looked so deflated. You also didn’t exactly appear jealous at the mention of Ellie. I thought you just wanted to be friends.”
“Not jealous?” I shook my head. “Blind boy. Do you have any idea what jealousy looks like?”
“Green-eyed monster I always heard.” He laughed.
“Ellie’s gorgeous. When she went after you, it just seemed so…” I struggled for words, not knowing what to say. It didn’t matter, Tye stopped the need of them for a minute with another kiss. This time I trailed my hand up into his hair, finally getting to fulfil a fantasy. Yes it was just as soft as I had imagined. When we pulled back, one of his hands was down on my hip, holding me against him.
“As I said, she’s not my type.”
“I did want to see if you could resist her though,” I said with a cheeky smile.
“Wait a minute,” his eyebrows shot up. “You were testing me?”
“No! Ellie went after you herself, I just wanted to see if you would fall for her charms or not.”
“Very much not my type,” he still laughed with fake evil eyes that softened very quickly. “My type seems to be standing in my arms, so let’s stop talking about Ellie.”
He kissed me again, before I had really registered what was happening, I was pushed up against his bedroom wall and the kiss had deepened further, hands wandering. When he lifted his head, I felt certain the smile would never drop from my cheeks again.
“We should probably get some sleep or I’m not likely to stop,” he shook his head, tearing his eyes away from me. I kind of liked the idea of seeing what would happen if I didn’t stop him, but it was late. I peered over his shoulder at the clock.
“It is two o’clock.”
“Damn it.” He shook his head. “Couldn’t we have figured this all out at a different time?”
“What, like really early on a Saturday morning?” I offered.
“That would have been good. Would have given me all weekend then.”
“Do I dare ask for what?”
“You really shouldn’t,” his voice dipped low as he gave me yet another kiss. This time I was the one to pull away.
“I look forward to finding out,” I kissed him softly on his cheek. “Yet I do have a nine am lecture.”
“Annoyingly, so do I.” He dragged me away from the wall. “We should get some sleep.”
After ignoring the cocoa, brushing our teeth and Tye drawing me to the bed with a promise to be good, it wasn’t exactly completely chaste.
“Tonight should be a lot easier than the last time you were here,” he sighed in relief as he settled into the pillow.
“How come?” I climbed into the bed next to him.
“Seriously, Ivy? You were drunk, sleeping in my bed, wearing your underwear and one of my t-shirts. Knowing I couldn’t touch made for a very hard sleep.”
“Pun intended,” I giggled as I laid on my side facing him.
“Oh yes.”
Despite our efforts to be good, we did not go straight to sleep. There were a few more wandering hands and kisses in the dark before we finally did drift off.
Chapter 12
When I woke, Tye was already up and getting changed, giving me the briefest glimpse of tattoos across his shoulder blades before the long-sleeved grey t-shirt came down to cover them up. I must have groaned out loud as Tye’s head snapped round to look at me.
“Morning,” he was wearing a ridiculously wide smile.
“Morning,” I stretched in the bed, still disbelieving I was there at all and hopelessly wishing I had got a better look at the tattoos.
“Time to get up if you want to make your lecture,” he offered his hand and pulled me sharply up from the mattress.
“Staying here sounds like much more fun than a lecture,” I complained as my feet touched the ground.
“Don’t tempt me, princess,” Tye threw back his head and closed his cocoa eyes. “I can think of many a thing to do with you here rather than go to a lecture, but I can’t keep missing stuff.”
“Then you better stop imagining it or we’ll never get out of here.”
He laughed and took my hand, leading me out of the bedroom and down the corridor for breakfast. As we reached the living room, he stopped walking and placed a finger to his lips to be quiet.
Savannah and Sam were by the door and hadn’t noticed our arrival.
“I am telling you. Those were the boots she was wearing last night,” Savannah said firmly, pointing down at my high heels discarded by the doormat. “It’s time to pay up loser.”
“Not yet. They could be anyone’s shoes. Tye
