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Twenty Three

I woke up with a start as if I had been dreaming, but I wasn't dreaming. I could feel an arm wrapped around my body in a secured hold as if afraid I would escape. I felt Rogue's breath hitting my neck and his heat that warmed me all over my body. The knowledge that I had sex with Rogue, mind-blowing sex traveled through my head. I had given myself up to him, and he had taken me like he had always wanted.

So, why was he still here?

Why was he still on my bed? Holding me? Cuddling with me? Why did I wake up and find him sleeping beside me? I had anticipated waking up and seeing him gone, but he was still here, reminding me of what we had done. I had sex with him, and I had no clue what to do next.

It was my decision, though. I let him carved more of his inside me, and it felt much worse than I thought it would. I guess I thought I could wake up and brush it aside, pretend that nothing between us had happened, that he was just like a one night stand, but waking up to him changed everything, and the hollowness was both higher and lower than my stomach, and I was even in more trouble now.

I rubbed my eyes and blinked. My curtains were closed, but it was morning. I could see the sunlight peeking from underneath the door, and I could hear the cars in the streets. I tried to slip out of his arms and hide in the bathroom until he was gone, but almost as if he could read my mind, he squeezed my hip, alerting me that he was awake.

"Stop overthinking things."

And he knew exactly what was going on in my head.

I allowed myself to roll over and faced him, though it was better to face him now than to hide from someone who would always catch me.  "You're still here." My voice was quiet and steady.

Rogue searched my eyes. "You were hoping to wake up and find me gone." He rolled his eyes. "You don't know me. If you did, you would know I couldn't let you wake up in bed alone." He leaned in and wrapped his arms around me tightly, inhaling in my neck.

"Why?"

"Why? Because I'm not an asshole, Beth. Whether you believe it or not," Rogue replied, his voice raspy from sleep. His lips curved. "And this isn't a one-time thing."

"It's not?" His words echoed in my head. I guess it wasn't what I had expected him to say, nor did I want to continue thinking about it.

"If it were," he started sharply. "I would have gone the second I slipped out of you."

I gripped his forearms with my hands, trying to loosen his grip on me. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, I will take you out to lunch and dinner, invite you to my house or invite myself to yours," he stated it as a fact, nudging my hand away with a flick of his forearm while maintaining his hold on me. "I will fuck you hard, all night long, and wake up in bed with you the next morning. Then we will have a repeat. I will text you and see how you are doing, buy you flowers and take you out shopping. You will come with me to my events, and I will introduce you to my friends." His lips turned into my cheek, kissing it sweetly.

There were a thousand responses that came to mind, too many to sort through at the moment. There was nothing I could do except to lay there, dumbfounded, shocked out of my mind.

"That sounds like people who are dating, but we're not," I reminded him. "In case you have forgotten, I'm with someone already."

"West," Rogue said his name with an absence of malice. "Don't worry, I will take care of him." He looked down at me, his eyes bright as he looked deeply satisfied with himself and hot with his disheveled hair.

"Take care of him?"

"I will tell him you've found someone else and to leave you alone for me to take care of."