I jerk the pillow out from behind his head.
“Ouch—shit—” He catches himself before he falls back and hits the headboard.
“Sweet puppy, you listen to me now,” I tease. “If you think you have what it takes to ride this rollercoaster, you are sorely mistaken. In your current state, you wouldn’t make it up the first hill. There will be no having my way with you tonight. There will only be sleep.”
Now he’s smiling. “Not tonight…but tomorrow is another day. And I’m game if you are.”
“You have to live to see tomorrow,” I counter. “And at this rate, you’re about to fall dead from exhaustion. Now shimmy down a bit and lie down.” I help him situate, fixing the pillow under his knee as we get him into a much more relaxed incline. “How do you sleep on all those planes?” I ask, unfolding the throw blanket and laying it over him.
“I curl up on my side,” he replies, his biceps flexing as he pokes and prods the pillow into shape under his head. “I sleep best on my stomach, though. So usually, I just don’t sleep. I play video games and listen to audiobooks and stuff.”
Stepping over to the corner, I click off the lamp. “Better?” I say into the dark.
He’s quiet for a minute. “Yeah,” comes his soft voice.
“Think you can sleep now?”
“I—yeah,” he says quickly.
“What?”
“It’s nothing. It’s dumb. I’ll try to sleep.”
“Come on, Ryan,” I tease. “You’ve seen me naked twice now. I have no secrets from you. Don’t keep secrets from me.”
He shifts on the bed. “I, uhh…your voice is soothing,” he admits. “Could you maybe stay a bit longer and…maybe talk to me a little?”
I can’t help but smile. He’s just so damn sweet. “There’s no chair in here,” I reply. “And Tess Owens doesn’t sit on hardwood floors. Let me go get a chair from the kitchen—”
“That’s dumb. Just sit on the bed,” he replies, pushing up on his elbows to try and look at me through the dark.
“You’re on the bed.”
“It’s a queen-sized bed, Tess. There’s room for both of us. What if I promise to keep my hands to myself?”
“Do I have to promise the same?”
I don’t even know what made me say it. The banter just pops out around him. The same thing happened at the wedding. It’s like each time we meet, he gets more comfortable in his own skin, more comfortable with me too. The fumbling boy I met on the beach is gone, and in his place is this flirty man who asks for what he wants. I like it. I like the idea that he’s different once you get to know him.
He lets out a strangled sound from the bed, flopping back onto the pillow. “No,” comes his soft reply.
Poor hockey boy is in agony, wanting something he can’t have.
And that something is me.
Stupid butterflies flutter in my chest. I stomp those bitches down hard and fast. “Okay, Ryan. Here’s the deal. I will sit on this bed with you for exactly fifteen minutes, and I will talk at you, and you will not respond. You are to be trying to fall asleep, understood?”
“Yeah, that’s totally cool,” he says, unable to hide the eagerness from his tone.
“Don’t get too excited. I’m gonna walk you through my hair routine in excruciating detail. We’re talking hair masks, keratin sprays, detanglers, leave-in curl products. And I will not touch your dick or any part of you remotely close to your dick,” I add, my tone firm. “So let go of that fantasy right now.”
“Got it. Yeah, I won’t say a thing. And no dick touching.”
I step around the other side of the bed and crawl onto it, careful not to jostle him too much as I lie down. I curl on my side facing towards him and he turns his head too, looking at me.
“Let’s start with my weekly routines,” I say, keeping my voice soft. “So, once a week, I deep condition my curls with a moisturizing hair mask. And I treat my scalp to a coconut oil massage, which helps promote good blood flow and strong hair follicles.”
“Hmm,” he says, his head turning away as he closes his eyes. “That’s it.”
“That’s what?”
“The scent that’s been haunting me since beach day,” he replies, his words slurred by fatigue. “In my mind I was calling it pi?a colada. It’s coconut. My coconutty dream girl.”
My heart stops, and the butterflies all take a knee. Dream girl? I wait for him to say more, but he doesn’t. He just breathes in and out, his body relaxing into the bed.