He smirked and tipped the last of his beer down his throat.
Addie was my last hope. “What did I miss?”
He shrugged. “Mummo thinks you should sleepover with Uncle Rama and I do too. You laugh more when you’re together.”
A truck of emotions hit my chest, all of them good. A smile split my face in half, perhaps validating Addie’s words, and I didn’t care. Being with Rami—and Charlie—did make me smile, and I was glad that they knew it. They loved him, and…
So did I.
I wasn’t about to invite myself to sleep in his bed, mind. “While I’d love a slumber party with Uncle Rama, I’ve got a haulage run tomorrow. I doubt he wants me waking him up at four in the morning when I have to leave.”
“I don’t mind.” Rami spoke for what felt like the first time in hours. He trailed a finger up the neck of his empty beer bottle. “Can’t deny I’m a grumpy bastard in the mornings, but I’m still getting used to Charlie being a mountain sloth, so I’ll likely be awake anyway.”
Safia kissed her teeth. “That’s the only reason you can think of to have a lumberjack in your bed?”
“Shh.” Rami waved her off. “Don’t pull atthatthread, sister. You don’t know me like that.”
She didn’t know me like that either. No one did.
But I wanted Rami to.
The conversation moved on without me answering the question any more than I had the open invitation to Christmas dinner. But this was different. It was unspoken, but everyone knew I was staying, even me.
Rami and I washed up in companionable silence, side by side at the sink, his hip digging into mine as he dried dishes with an absent smirk.
I wondered what he was thinking, but was swiftly distracted by my own wandering thoughts. He’d slept in my bed already, but something—everything—about this felt like unchartered territory. Even my tingling skin from his close proximity had amped up a notch. Was I ready for whatever tonight would bring?
Was he?
Because I got the impression Rami thought I was a little innocent.
Bless him.
“Get out of your head.”
I emptied the sink and wiped my hands on a tea towel. “Why?”
“Because I want you right here.”
I turned to him, leaning against the sink. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t elaborate. Just sauntered off to stack Safia’s baking trays on the high wooden shelves made from sliced up railway sleepers.
I was caught in the sway of his hips and the elegant arch in his lean body as he stretched to put the trays away. So often, I found myself drowning in his dark gaze that I forgot how good he looked from behind. His neck, his shoulders, his back. I wanted to touch every part of him. Taste him.
Fuck him.
Startled, I shivered, desire coursing through me with a healthy dose of…something else. Fear?No. Not anymore. I wanted Rami and I wasn’t scared of what that meant. Sure, there was still a possibility he’d pack Charlie up and go home, but that no longer felt like the end of the world.
He won’t hurt me.
And I’d never hurt him.
I couldn’t.
Rami came back to me. He barged into my personal space and took my mouth, apparently not caring that his entire family was in the next room. “Charlie’s asleep,” he whispered when he was done kissing me senseless. “And I want to go to bed too. Come with me?”
I had no verbal answer. Just a nod and an outstretched hand.