Thicker than Blood - Book One (Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter Six

When I woke up I felt like I was floating, I was warm and incredibly comfortable. I felt more refreshed then I had in a very long time. I felt whole and new.

As I opened my eyes I realized I was lying on top of someone, more specifically: Nathaniel. I was immediately blushing and wanted to get up before he woke or before Missy found out. I didn't want her to think I'd just gone and slept with her brother, although technically I had.

I was lying flush, right on top of him, both his arms wrapped around my waist. My face in the crook of his neck and our legs entangled.

I felt a little fuzzy on the whole falling asleep thing. I knew I'd had a nightmare, although I couldn't remember what it was about. The panic it had caused me gave me the shivers even now though.

Okay how to get him to let go?

I carefully touched his arm to see if I could push it off me. It was hard not to sigh in wonder at the hard muscle and his bare chest. His grip didn't seem that tight so I started pushing softly, shivering at the loss of warmth when his arm fell to the side.

I was so comfortable I would have much rather stayed put, but he was my teacher and the older brother of my friends. It was wrong.

I had managed to free myself from his arm and was focusing on freeing my leg now. That was a little more tricky because I couldn't just push him away and I couldn't put too much weight on his chest, that would surely wake him.

'What are you doing?' his husky voice made me freeze in my movements. So much for not waking him up.

Blushing crimson I darted my eyes towards his face. He looked like a god with his hands folded beneath his head, his dark hair all messy from sleeping. His eyes hooded as he smirked at me, revealing a set of straight white teeth.

'Eh... Getting up?' I said softly, my voice sounded normal for once.

'Why?' he said, a frown creasing his forehead shortly, he moved his arms again. Wrapping them around my waist as if to physically keep me from getting up.

I shook my head, trying to break eye contact but his stormy eyes seemed to draw me in. Up close I could see the darker flecks like gold floating in them, mixed in with lighter shades of gray and soft streaks of violet.

'Because it's time to get up...' I muttered.

'It's seven AM on a Saturday a ghrá mo chroí,' he said, raising one eyebrow questioningly. His accent was thickly Irish now, almost as if he wasn't bothering to talk properly. The accent was so thick that I couldn't even make out the last words, although that almost sounded more like a foreign language.

I quickly looked to the beside table were an old fashioned analogue alarm stood. Shit he wasn't kidding, it really was seven AM! 'Oh I thought it was later.' Surely Missy wouldn't be up until at least ten... I could stay a little longer.

'Good,' Nathaniel said, as if I'd spoken the last words out loud. He was tightening his arms around me, his head dipping forward into my hair where he breathed in deeply. Then he relaxed backwards into the pillows again.