Connections | ✔️

Fourteen

Valerie P.O.V.

I woke up to the sweet scent of musk, mixed with an earthy sandalwood. My bed was extra warm and toasty today I noticed, as I snuggled further into it.

Wait.

Why is it moving?

A muscled arm pulled me in tighter around the waist, as I felt the deep rhythmic breathing of a body behind me. Oh my god.

Carter!

I squirmed a little in his hold, awakening him from his slumber. "Morning beautiful," he murmured sleepily into the crook of my neck.

"Morning..." I turned around to see his gorgeous rugged face, my hands itching to move some of the hair falling down in his eyes.

"I fell asleep last night, sorry," he looked at me apologetically. Gosh, his morning voice had me weak.

I sat up to look down at my current attire. Bikini and Carter's T-shirt. So... it wasn't some magical hallucination last night. I wandered my eyes around the room I was currently in. It was spacious, modern and quite clean, there wasn't much décor really. A TV mounted the wall opposite the bed, and a small desk and computer was tucked in the corner with bits of camera equipment and a couple of books strewn across it. The only indication that I knew this was Carter's room, was the fact that he had a piece of fan art with his name hung up above the computer desk.

"No, it's okay, I just forgot where I was," I laughed nervously, running my hands through my long, messy hair.

"Mhmm, you were kinda drunk," he teased, as he stretched his arms and leaned up onto the large bed frame.

"I'm mortified." I winced, slapping my hands onto my face to hide and shrank back further into the bed, as if it would do me a favour and swallow me whole.

"You're full of surprises," he chuckled before getting off the bed and grabbed my hands to drag me out as well. "Come on, a shower will make you feel better. I'll get you a towel and there should be a spare toothbrush in the top drawer."

After about 20 minutes of drowning my sorrows in the soothing hot water, I felt clean and refreshed, I even smelt a little like Carter. Bonus. I had no choice but to wear my shorts and bikini again, alongside another one of Carter's T-shirts that I tried to roll up and tie in a knot for a better fit. The smell of pancakes wafted throughout the apartment, luring me to its source. There stood a freshly showered Carter, flipping delicious fluffy goodness at the stove. Wow.

"Hungry?" he grinned at my mouth-watering expression. I might as well have the heart-eye emoji plastered permanently all over my face.

"Yes! it smells so good," I basically drooled as I sat down on a stool by the kitchen bench.

He served up two stacks of pancakes before whipping out some butter, maple syrup and some berries, handing me a knife and fork along with it. Biting into my first piece, I let out a moan of appreciation.

"These taste amazing!" I said in a muffled voiced due to the large mouthful of pancakes I had shoved in there.

"Thankyou," he beamed before wiping the corner of my mouth of some syrup. We smiled at each other for a second before I looked down and blushed.

He can't be real.

After finishing up breakfast in each other's company, I helped Carter clean up the area before stacking the dishes in the washer. This felt nice. So comfortable. So domestic. So routinely intimate... and it hit me. We were growing close, and fast. I had barely enough time to register and sort through the feelings I felt towards him. Were we friends, friends with benefits, in a relationship? All I knew, was that maybe I should give us some distance.