This time when I woke up in Maddox's arms, I nuzzled into his chest instead of pushing him out of the bed. He let out a sleepy grunt that warmed my heart and made me chuckle, his arms tightening around me.
"Morning," I said in a sing-song voice, leaning my chin on his chest and looking up at his sleepy face. His eyes were barely open, a lazy smile popping up on his face when they settled on me.
"Mornin', baby," he murmured, and my heart skipped a few beats at the casual nickname. He stretched his arms and instantly hit the wall my bed was adjacent to. Cursing under his breath at the contact, his eyes flew completely open, "Ugh, maybe we should sleep in my room from now on."
The remark was so casual, I pressed my lips together to keep a huge grin from consuming my face. We'd been talking in my room and at some point passed out, but his comment insinuated he expected this to be an every-night kind of arrangement. I still thought it felt weird to share a bed with someone, but it was also warm, and safe, and I had the best view a girl could hope for.
"I don't know. I really love my bed," I said, trying to seem like I was seriously thinking things over. Lifting myself, one palm pressed on each side of him, I stared down at his face. He pursed his lips, the corners slightly raised, and nodded his head, brows slightly furrowed.
"Hmm, is that so. I guess I'll just have to persuade you in that case...." He trailed on, raising one hand to brush my hair behind my ear.
I quirked one eyebrow, feeling the onset of a challenge — and I'd never been one to back down from a challenge. "Oh? And how do you plan on doing tha—aaaaaahahaha," The attack started before I even had a chance to finish my sentence. He grabbed my waist, and started tickling me, his fingers expertly making me double over in laughter. Taking the opportunity, he pushed me down on the bed, and towered over me, his fingers still attacking my sides while his lips started trailing kisses along my neck.
My senses went into overload, both joy and desire coursing through my body. I'd attempted to retaliate but to no avail. He took a break from kissing my neck to whisper into my ear, "I'm not ticklish." Oh, I was doomed.
After another two minutes of twisting around my bed like one of those inflatable air dancers, I pushed at his chest and admitted defeat while gasping for breath, "Okay, okay, stoooop, you win! We sleep in your bed!"
He lifted himself above me and wiggled his eyebrows victoriously before leaning back down to press a kiss to my forehead. Slowly, and gently, without putting any of his weight on me, he leaned on his forearms and buried his head into my neck.
"I'm so happy," he said, his voice raw with emotion, and I knew he wasn't talking about winning the challenge.
I grinned, feeling joyful tears form in my eyes, as I gently bumped my head against his, "Me too."
********
After we managed to crawl out of bed, I made breakfast with Maddox continually teasing me about my pancake debacle. In response, I reminded him of his frozen pizza that almost burnt the apartment down. At that point, we were at an impasse.
In the afternoon, he exercised, only this time I stood in the kitchen, sipping my coffee and staring at him with zero amounts of shame. He'd offered to put on a shirt, his tone mocking, but I wordlessly took the paper with the rules and ripped it up. His laughter sounded so sweet to my ears I was getting a sugar rush. Or, well, something was definitely happening to my body.
My mouth gaped open as I watched his muscles strain and sweat form across his body. Before, I tried to stay busy, avoid looking in his direction or hiding out in my room. But that was the old me. Single me. Pretending-I-don't-like-this-man me. The new me was going to need about ten glasses of water because she was getting thirsty.
"I'm gonna shower, you need the bathroom?" he announced, shaking me out of my day dreaming. I just bit down on my lip and shook my head, causing him to smirk as he walked away.
A few moments later, the shower turned on and I breathed out a sigh of relief. Something was very wrong with me.
Or very right with you!
Shaking my head, I made my way to the living room when I heard a loud grunt followed by cursing come from the bathroom.
I ran to the bathroom, calling out to him, "Is everything okay? What happened?"
A moment later the water turned off and Maddox opened the door, a deep frown on his face, "There's no hot water. It just came as a surprise—"
Words kept coming out of his mouth but I didn't hear any of them. My gaze fell from his face to his toned body, dripping with water, down to the towel wrapped around his waist. The memory of the last time I saw him in this edition floated to mind. Back then, I was curious what would happen if that towel was removed but my rational mind refused to acknowledge it as more than just hormones and attraction. Now? I was itching to be the one to remove it, as soon as possible.
"I'm gonna go get dressed." I heard the last part of his little speech as he moved past me and walked to his bedroom.
As if hypnotized I followed him to his room, watching the way droplets of water fell from his hair when he shook his head. Kind of like a dog. I internally chuckled at the thought, but it quickly faded out of my brain, as well as absolutely everything else that had previously been inside it.
He had dropped his towel, and my God, I did not know I was an ass kind of girl, but I also never knew someone's butt could be so well shaped.
I literally stopped breathing for a few moments, my eyes glued to that delicious behind, and I involuntarily let out a grunt of disapproval when he pulled on his underwear.
He jumped, turning around and looking at me in surprise, "Uh, hi?" Then he raised his hand to his lips, and started shaking, clearly trying to contain an insane fit of laughter.
It was then that I realized what I had actually done. Not to mention that my expression was probably anything but innocent. I quickly spun around, as if it wasn't already too late to give him the kind of decency he deserved considering he'd afforded me that.
"Oh, my God, I'm so, so, so, so sorry Maddox! I'm awful, I don't know what came over me, it's like I was possessed." Or in heat. Maybe I was the dog in this scenario.
I heard the footsteps of him approaching closer to me and I bit down on my lip expecting he would chew me out for not giving him his privacy. Which he would be right to do. I was so disappointed in myself; I wouldn't be surprised if he—
"I was just surprised. You're not usually so bold. I don't mind you looking, it's all yours to look at, after all." He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my neck, sending shivers throughout my whole body. "But, I hope you'll return the favor?" His voice was husky as he wrapped his arms around me, pulling my back against his still very naked chest, his muscles pressing into my skin; muscles and other stuff.
If this was a cartoon, now would be the moment when smoke would fly out of my ears and I'd get a nosebleed.
RIP, my logic and sanity.
Hello, brave new world of unabashedly wanting to bite that butt.
Hi lovelies! ❤️
So sorry for no update, my internet was down, and since I write on Google Drive it died when I was like 1/3 of the chapter done.... *CRIES*
It was really fun to write this though, Aimee is hilarious. How did you like this chapter?
Anyway, since I like to make up for stuff I decided to split Day 19 into two chapters, and I'll post the second one tonight as well. ❤️
ALSO!!!! ... there will be a sex scene in the next chapter. 🤭🤭🤭
It won't be explicit, of course, because that really doesn't fit into this book's style, so ya know, no mentions of buds or shafts or nubs or members or whatever else. It will just be a regular non-explicit in descriptions sex scene. Before the scene, I will put up a warning in the form of a banner that will say 'mature scene ahead'. Why? Because I know not everyone is comfortable with sex, even if it's mild and non-explicit, and I want to respect that. And because I know I have some younger readers, so....
I hope you guys are okay with that? 😕
Please tell me if you're very strongly against this scene and I'll consider not writing it at all and just fading to black. I mean, I only want to write it because I know that when I'm invested in a book I kind of like reading that kind of intimacy at the end of it -- it's just my preference. But I also want to respect all of my readers who have stuck by me for so long and supported me so really, I'll leave it up to you guys. If the majority of you don't want it, let me know as a comment to this and I'll leave it out. ❤️
Now, off I go to reply to comments I missed the last 2 days, and then I'm going back to writing the next chapter.
I love you all, stay safe and stay strong!