Every Rose has it's Thorn.

Chapter 25 - Everything is Good.

Jeremy Irvine...

Sunlight pierces through my slumber and begins to drag me back towards consciousness. I feel the need to stretch but I quickly remember that Shay is lying in my arms, her back resting against my chest, my legs curled against the back of hers, my arm wrapped possessively over her tiny waist. I know that I have a raging hard-on, which is how I always wake up and I fear that stretching would only freak her out, so instead I remain as stock still as I possibly can.

Pieces of last night begin to break through the haze of waking up. We kissed. Hell, we kissed a lot. Would she regret it this morning? A part of me hopes to Hell that she doesn't, but she had been so upset, so desperate in her need of comfort - I couldn't have denied her, had I even wanted to.

To hear her admit that she thought about me - and how she feared she would never know what it felt like to be with me, well that stirred up an overwhelming sense of acceptance that I hadn't expected to feel if I am being honest. To know that she thought those things about me, well it made me excited to explore what could be between us. However, I had heard her loud and clear - this had to go slow. I could handle that. As I said to her last night, I have hands and an overabundance of cold showers at my disposal. When she was ready to take things further - she would let me know.

Would she still want that in the cold light of day though?

I mean, I had seen the fear in her eyes last night, the longing to feel normal again. To not feel like her life was out of her control. To not have this feeling of her body betraying her anymore. Above all of that, she wanted to feel safe and protected and so help me God, I would do that without even thinking about it because she was the most important woman in my life. I know that I am in love with her, I don't know where her head is at in regard to me and love, but I now know that she is at least attracted to me and willing to try and see where things could go between us. That is if she is still feeling it this morning.

A small moan escaped her mouth as she wiggled around in my hold, and fuck me, if her ass brushed against my cock anymore; I feared I would explode from the delicious feeling of friction she was creating. Plus, it was her - the way I reacted to her was not something that I had ever truly had experienced with anyone before. "Remy?" Her voice tore through my erotic thoughts.

"Yeah, sweetheart?"

"Nothing. Just saying your name," she smiled against the arm that I had placed under her neck, my forearm bent upwards to rest on the pillow because had it gone in the natural position, I would have been holding on to her breast and I knew that she simply wasn't ready for that, "isn't this arm dead?"

"Nope," I chuckled softly as I placed my lips to her exposed shoulder blade, "I'm actually quite comfortable," a small shiver snaked through her body at the contact of my lips on her flesh.

"Funnily enough, me too!" She placed a light kiss to the inside of my bicep, her breathing slightly faster than a few moments ago.

"No regrets from last night?"

"Not one single regret!" She responded, not turning to look at me, and I feared she thought maybe I would have regrets, or had maybe changed my mind, "you?" And there it was - the uncertainty she felt in what she had asked of me, the trepidation that somehow, I would have decided I couldn't do as I promised. I could understand that. How could I not? She has been through a Hellish ordeal, and it still isn't over yet.

"Not-a-one!" Gently pulling myself back a little to make room for her, I slowly tugged her hip so that she was lying on her back, "there will never be a moment when I regret anything that happens from this point forward, sweetheart. And I guess, I have to double-check that you still want this?"