“Me.”
“It doesn’t count if you’re the only one saying it,” I grinned back at him and rolled my eyes at his ridiculousness. “And I was so tired I could’ve slept through an earthquake.”
“Is that you admitting I wore you out last night?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“Cocky.”
“Confident,” he countered, dropping a light kiss on the end of my nose. I wrinkled it at him in response, watching as he made his way back to the ladderin the corner of my bedroom. “So, do you like it?” he asked, voice deceptively casual as he gestured up at the stars on my deep blue ceiling. Despite his blasé tone, I thought I detected a nervous undercurrent in his question, as if he were genuinely worried about my reaction.
“I love it,” I whispered honestly, looking anywhere but at him.It was enough that he could hear the emotion making my voice crack roughly; I didn’t need him to see the moisture clouding over my eyes as well. This gesture was more than anyone had done for me in all the years since my mom died, and I was utterly overwhelmed by it.
It wasas if he’d somehow dipped into my memories and known exactly how my childhood walls had been painted; like he’d sensed that this would be the perfect addition to my new bedroom. It was uncanny how well he seemed to know my tastes, to recognize and anticipate my likes and dislikes – almost as if he were innately attuned to my every thought and feeling.
When I was confident that my tears were under control, I turned back to look at him. He was standing at the base of the ladder, staring straight at me. I knew he could read my face like an open book,watching as I struggled to weather the storm of emotions brewing within me. Thankfully, he didn’t push me to talk about it.
“I’m gladyou like it, princess,” he replied, a small smile twisting up one side of his mouth.
“Princess?”I asked. The only time I’d ever heard the nickname ‘princess’ used, it was said sarcastically or condescendingly. Finn said it affectionately, though – a sincere, reverent endearment I wasn’t sure how to process. He grinned at me, failing to elaborate any further. Apparently, I was going to have to drag it out of him.
“Whyprincess?” I didn’t think he was making fun of me, but considering how off base some of my assumptions about Finn had been in the past, I decided it was safest to simply ask him.
“You look so small in that big white bed of yours, swallowed up in all those pillows and fluffy blankets. And when you were sleeping, with all that dark hair spilling across your pillow, and your face so peaceful…You were beautiful. Youarebeautiful.” He swallowed roughly, eyes intense as he stared at my face like he was committing every feature to memory. “Angelic. Like some unattainable fucking fantasy I dreamed up.”
He left the ladder and approached the bed, leaning down so his mouth brushed the shell of my ear. I shivered, and felt his lips curve into a knowing smile as they brushed against the lobe. “You are, without question, the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, Bee,” he whispered. “Sometimes, I look at you and wonder if you’re even real. Girls like you aren’t supposed to exist in real life – you’re the stuff of legends and bedtime stories. So, no, I don’t give a shit if you think it’s lame as hell – you’remyprincess.”
Okay. He could call me princess. He could call me whatever he wanted if he kept talking to me like that.
I didn’t say anything. Instead, I threw back the covers, hurdled out of bed, and slammed my frame against his. When my bare legs wrapped around his waist, my mouth found his and my hands slipped into his hair as I let my body do the talking.
Much later, we emerged from the shower and Finn took his time drying me off, using a towel togently wipe every droplet of water from my body. We’d once again had to scrub ourselves clean of blue paint, as our earlier activities on my bedroom floor had gotten unintentionally creative and we’d ended up looking like aspiring Blue Man Group members. Again.
Finn finally allowed me to leave my bedroom and I greedily consumed half a pot of coffee as soon as I entered the kitchen.He laughed at me, taking only a single cup for himself and downing it black.
Yuck. What was coffee without cream and sugar!?
Lexi was still at Tyler’s apartment, so it was just Finn and I. I shouldn’t have been surprised that there was no morning-after awkwardness, but I was. I guess, despite everything Finn had said and done in the past twenty-four hours, I was still insecure aboutwhere this whole thing was heading. I could finally admit to myself that yes, I had definite feelings for him. And yes, the sex had been off-the-charts amazing – better than I’d ever imagined sex could be. But I still was nowhere near ready or eager for a relationship. The idea of Brooklyn Turner, irrefutable ‘Ice Bitch,’ as someone’s girlfriend was laughable. The idea of being the girlfriend of someone like Finn Chambers, however, was downright scary.
“Stop,” Finn ordered, shaking me out of my reverie.
“Stop what?” I looked at him, confused.
“Overthinking us.”
Us?
He set down his empty cup on the kitchen island and made his way around to the stool I was perched on. Bringing one hand up, he lightly smudged a finger across the tension lines that were pulling my eyebrows together.
“Princess, can I ask you something?”
I nodded reluctantly, automatically anticipating the worst.
“Did you have fun with me last night? This morning?”
I nodded again, waiting to see where he was going with this.
“Well so did I. In fact, I had more damn fun last night than I’ve had in a long, long time. So please don’t get allwiggy and female on me. Don’t twist this around into something bad, because what we’ve had these past few days is beautiful. You know that deep down, princess. And if I know you the way I think I do, then I bet it scares the ever-living hell out of you.”
I took a deep breath, met his eyes, and nodded again. His crinkled up in amusement.