The strong aroma of coffee stirred me, awakening each of my senses one-by-one, until I opened my eyes to see Teddy sitting at my dressing table, fully clothed.
"You went to get coffee?" I sat up, scraping my bedraggled hair out of my face.
Spinning around in the chair, Teddy flashed me a smile. "You were out cold. Tried waking you but you didn't stir."
He reached to pass me a polystyrene cup, the bitter scent of the roasted beans already bringing life to my tired muscles. As I stretched to take it from him, the duvet slipped down to my waist, and, in turn, Teddy's eyes slipped down to my chest.
"Oh, fuck." I snatched the cup from him with one hand, jerking up the duvet with the other. "Forgot I took my clothes off."
Chuckling, Teddy lifted his coffee to his lips to blow on it. "I give you the best orgasm of your life and you forget about it?"
"Did I say that?"
"You didn't need to."
Having placed the cup safely on the bedside table, I fumbled with my top, yanking it over my head. Last night's events were hazy, the memories of intense pleasure masking any words I might have said.
I reached for the coffee again. It was still too hot to drink, but holding it gave me something to do other than respond to Teddy's comment. Had I now crossed the line? We hadn't had sex, but that almost seemed like a technicality considering what we had done. At what stage had this stopped being about Becca and started being about me?
"Can I ask you a question?"
I shifted my gaze back to Teddy and nodded for him to go ahead.
"Why didn't you want to kiss me last night? And I ask that out of genuine curiosity, not offence."
I should have known he'd want to at least talk about it the next morning. Even if he'd said no consequences, I couldn't be a dick about it. I could be honest, though.
"Kissing can be intimate," I said. "Emotionally intimate. I didn't want it to change anything between us."
Pressing his lips together, Teddy heaved out a sigh and looked across to the window. If the lack of kissing didn't offend him, my rationale for it did.
"Sorry if I led you on."
As the apology left my lips, Becca sprang into my mind again. Did Teddy now feel the way she'd felt when he'd said he wanted nothing more from her than sex? I pushed myself to see it as a good thing if so. Two birds with one stone and all that...
"You didn't lead me on, Soph. It's cool. We were just two people acting on an urge. That's it."
I raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised at his casual attitude when he'd been trying for so many weeks to win me over. Perhaps he thought he'd succeeded. No kissing and no sex, but he'd taken something from me at least, sowing more seeds of temptation in my mind.
"You sure?" I asked anyway.
"It's no secret I want more from this friendship, but I'm not going to push you into something you don't want. I'm not that kind of guy. Were you really so turned on last night that you didn't hear me say nothing has to change?"
"No, I heard you. I just thought it was... I don't know... You were caught up in the moment, perhaps just said it to...."
He arched a brow, jaw clenching. "Please don't say what I think you're going to say."
I shrugged. "I gave you mixed signals."
Relaxing, Teddy took a sip of coffee. "Sorry to break it to you, Soph, but your signals haven't been all that mixed. Maybe you thought you were showing a complete lack of interest in anything happening between us, but your body has been saying otherwise these past few weeks."
My guilt eased at that—not just because he seemed fine with me brushing him off, but because I hadn't accidentally inflicted whiplash on him with my changing attitude.
"I am curious about something, though," he said.
"Go on..." I shifted on the mattress, apprehensive.
"The tattoo on your ribcage. What is it?"
Either he had excellent night vision, or he'd caught a glimpse of the ink during my duvet mishap.
"Pura Vida."
"Spanish? Something to do with Costa Rica?"
I failed to suppress my smile. Despite my purpose for getting close to Teddy Stone, he really did listen to me when I told him about my life, and that scored him brownie points.
"Yep. Very few people have seen that tattoo."
"Nine? Ten including me?"
Rolling my eyes, I sipped my coffee. It burned my throat as I swallowed, but the caffeine kick overpowered the pain.
"I'm not sure whether to be flattered or crept out that you remember every little detail I tell you."
"Flattered. Definitely."
"Right. Well, it's more than ten. Obviously Gabby and Becca know about it. And my sister does. Against my better judgement."
"Why against your better judgement?" he asked.
"Because my mum hates tattoos. Like, literally despises them."
"Did your sister tell her or something?"
I sighed. "Long story. But no, she didn't."
Teddy checked his watch, then took a gulp of his coffee. "Tell me on the flight. I'll leave you to get dressed in peace since you no longer want my attention on your body."
Before I'd had chance to dignify that with a response, he let himself out of my room, the heavy door banging shut and amplifying the strange sensation of loneliness brought on by his departure.
It was a relief that Teddy could joke about last night without making things weird. Something had changed, though, no matter how much I insisted it had been a one-off moment of weakness. I'd caved to my attraction, and now he knew it existed.
*
"Faye has never really liked me."
We'd settled into our usual spots on the plane, and after take-off he'd revisited our earlier conversation, prompting me to recount the time I'd taken Faye to hospital and unsuccessfully tried to appease her by revealing my tattoo.
"I think she sees me as an intruder in their family. It's her family. Her mum. Her dad. She reminds me constantly that we're only half-related."
"You get on well with her dad?"
"Yeah, he's great."
"You think she's jealous?"
I shrugged, running my fingers absentmindedly over the textured fabric of the seatbelt. Even though we shared only one parent, I'd always thought we looked remarkably alike: we'd both inherited Mum's dark hair and olive complexion. Appearance aside, Faye didn't know enough about my life to harbour any envy over it.
"Unlikely. I've always hoped she'd grow out of it. That it was immaturity at first, then teenage moodiness... But she's nearly eighteen now and still hates my guts."
"Maybe she's grown into it rather than out of it. All she's ever known is hating you."
Sighing, I cast my eyes out of the window. "That's why I got the tattoo. I wanted something that connected me to a place I'd once belonged. And I studied Spanish modules alongside my degree. I'm far from fluent, but it makes me feel like I'm part of something."
Silence fell between us as we each succumbed to our own thoughts. No longer tied to a full-time job, now would be the perfect time to book a few weeks or months in Costa Rica. The blog content I could create would justify the longer trip, but I couldn't justify the cost, nor the inevitable anxiety that would arise from seeing the money leave my account with no income to offset it.
When Mark brought over glasses of water, it stirred the air, and Teddy's eyes settled on me again.
"I know a place in Amsterdam," he said. "Off the beaten track. Private. You'll get the odd person there who'll ask for a selfie but nowhere near the kind of attention that the more touristy spots attract. Will you come with me tomorrow?"
"For my blog?"
He raised one shoulder in a shrug. "Doesn't have to be. I just want to pretend to be a normal person for an hour. Last night... I didn't feel like Teddy Stone, a famous singer. I felt like Ed, a regular guy with a girl who wanted me to please her body rather than please her ego."
"I'm glad you weren't offended by my selfishness."
"Nah. Women constantly obsess over my body. It's nice to be on the other side of that."
"Yeah, sounds like a real hardship, having women obsess over your body."
He grinned, those dimples drawing my eyes down to his plump, soft lips that had felt sinfully good against my skin...
"You know what I mean," he said. "It was a different dynamic with you. More natural."
"Well, just so you're aware, I'm not always that selfish."
"Be selfish all you like. Your body could keep me occupied for hours."
Without even realising, we'd slipped back into the flirty banter, so soon after I'd told him I didn't want anything more. But now I'd had a taster of his skill in the bedroom, he was even harder to resist, and the air between us hummed with stifling tension.
As he raked a hand through his hair, his dark eyes trailed a scorching path down the length of my body. I tried to steady my sprinting pulse under his intense scrutiny, crossing my legs to stifle the building heat, yet on the brink of shivering when his gaze followed their movement to settle between my thighs.
Slow seconds passed, the atmosphere between us charged with electricity, powered by memories. My stomach tightened and hairs at the back of my neck prickled. I swallowed down a dry lump in my throat, unable to look away from his mouth when he rubbed a thoughtful thumb across his lower lip, unable to think about anything but where that thumb had been last night.
Then, my attraction towards him overpowering my better judgement, I lowered my voice and said, "You haven't seen what I could do to your body."
A throat cleared behind me. "Anything more to drink?"
Mark may as well have thrown the jug of water over me. His interruption extinguished my arousal, leaving only my face warm.
"Great timing," Teddy said, with his signature lack of tact that only embarrassed me further.
"It's important to stay hydrated when airborne." Mark didn't even flinch, and I wondered if he got some sadistic pleasure out of making me squirm, given that we didn't always see eye to eye.
"Since you're here," I said, pushing my glass towards him. "Wouldn't want your interruption to be for nothing."
After he topped up our drinks without comment, Mark strolled back down the aisle and reclaimed his spot at the front of the cabin. I took a sip of water to quench my dry mouth.
"So..." Teddy leaned forward in his seat, elbows resting on his knees. A darkness shrouded the usual playful sparkle in his eyes. "You were saying about my body...?"
***
Thank you for reading :) xx
***
Any guesses as to what might happen when Teddy and Soph get to Amsterdam?