Just Pucking Money [COMPLETED]

Chapter 45 - Playing house

Lily

He's still holding me when I wake up. After sleeping in the car, Ethan's bed is heaven. And his presence is soothing away all my worries. Almost as if nothing can go wrong when he's holding me.

I check the time before I carefully untangle myself from his arms and use the bathroom.

I take my time washing my face and relishing in the running hot water. I don't have a lot of stuff, and the things I do have, I try to keep contained so he won't feel like I'm taking over.

It's wonderful not to have to use a public bathroom. Not to have to worry about mysterious stains or people waling in on me.

It still hasn't hit me that I won't have to go back to the parking lot and spend more nights in my car. Ethan finding out about it was horrible. I hate that he knows how bad things had gotten. But he didn't react like I thought he would.

I was expecting pity or scorn. Not anger. And he was so angry. And maybe hurt that I didn't tell him. It makes no sense. We're only casual. But he got this protective aura that made him even hotter.

I end my daydreams before I start ascribing feelings to him that he doesn't have and return to the bedroom.

"Good morning." Ethan is sitting on the bed, his hair tousled and his eyes sleepy. "Did you sleep well?" He yawns and gets up.

"Perfectly." I smile up at him as he pulls me close.

"Good." He kisses my hair. "Let me brush my teeth and I'll make you coffee."

"Ok."

While he disappears into the bathroom, I get dressed. I put some of my clothes away last night, and there's an odd sense of belonging as I see his shirts hanging next to mine. I shake off the thought.

He's still in pajama bottoms when he grabs my hand and leads me to the kitchen.

"Sit here." He indicates a stool by the island and I obey.

I watch him, half naked, make coffee and bring out the cereal. His muscles are begging for me to run my hands over them, and I keep getting images of myself grabbing his hair and leaning his head back so I can kiss him while riding him.

"When do you get access to your new room?"

I blink away my fantasy. "Sunday morning." I grab some cereal and pour it for myself.

"You'll be sharing an apartment again? With students?"

I shake my head. "No, I couldn't find any students still looking for roommates. And it's a house. The landlady is Ginny, Genevieve Hartman. I met her and she seems nice. She runs a small beauty salon from home, but that has a separate entrance. She has a son, Tony. I think he's eleven. And two dogs. Opal is a bloodhound and Idun is a Maltese."

Ethan nods and looks like he's taking all this information in.

"Is it far away?"

"Not too far, maybe a ten-minute drive. And there's a bus line that goes from near her house to campus. It looked like a really nice neighborhood."

He gets up and fills two mugs with coffee, placing one in front of me.

"I'll help you move Sunday morning."

"I don't have that much stuff. I'll be fine."

"I'm helping. I need to see the place and make sure it's good enough for you."

Tilting my head, I study him. "And if it's not?"

He shrugs. "Then you'll come back here until we find a place that is."