“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I tell him as I pepper kisses over his jawline. The moment is broken up when his stomach growls so loudly it can’t be ignored.
“Why don’t you look around and I’ll go start a load of laundry and get us some snacks,” he suggests and I can feel the heart eyes I’m staring at him with.
“Are you sure? I don’t mind coming with you and starting the laundry.”
“I’m sure that I want you to sit in here and finish the book you were reading on the plane. Or arrange your shelves. Really anything besides laundry. Does popcorn sound good to you?”
“Yes, extra salt please.”
“Duh, is there any other way to eat it?” Carson gives me another peck before he leaves the room.
I don’t care if it’s cliché, but I do the fairytale spin in the middle of my new library, feeling like a damn queen in her castle.
Carson sets down the bowl of popcorn on the new coffee table in the library.
“Do you want to read some more?” he asks, and when I look up I realize he’s now shirtless, leaving him in only a pair of low-slung gray sweats that match the ones I’ve got on.
Smirking down at me, he catches me ogling him.
“Let me just finish this chapter,” I answer as he sits on the ground beside my chair. Finding myself feeling needier than usual, I slide off the chair and place my head in his lap. Carson tosses popcorn into his mouth, feeding me kernels while I continue reading.
A soft moan escapes my lips when he threads his fingers through my hair and begins massaging my scalp.
“What are you reading?” he asks.
Using my thumb as a bookmark, I close the book to show him the cover. “Do you remember me telling you about my indie author friend I met through Instagram?”
He nods before I continue, “Well, this is her debut and I’m completely obsessed. The MMC has been in love with the FMC for eleven years. Can you imagine waiting to be with the love of your life for eleven years? That man has perfected the art of patience.”
“He sounds like a saint. I could hardly keep it together for a year,” Carse says, making me laugh because his feelings for me became glaringly obvious right around the bachelorette weekend.
“Alright, I’m done with this chapter,” I tell him.
“Do you want to watch a movie?” he asks, fingers still combing through my hair.
“Could we play a game instead? Maybe Scrabble or chess? Seems like a waste to have such a beautiful chess board and let it sit there as an unused decor piece,” I suggest, placing my book down next to me.
“I didn’t realize you were in the mood to lose. I’m low-key a chess master. Not on an official level, but I don’t lose.”
“Oh, Mr. Bigshot. Put your money where your mouth is. I think you may have met your match,” I tell him as I sit up and take a seat on one of the floor cushions.
“Shall we make things interesting?” Carson asks with a quirked brow when he joins me on the cushion opposite of me.
“What do you have in mind?” I query.
“Strip chess.”
“Strip chess?” I repeat.
“Yeah. One item of clothing for every piece taken. The more valuable the piece, the more significant the item of clothing. Checkmate would obviously be strip naked.”
“Obviously,” I deadpan. “You can’t be serious. You’re hardly wearing any clothing as is,” I suggest waving my arm at his naked chest.
“We’ll both go get more clothes on to make it fair. How about ten items each?” he asks.
“You’re going down, Golden Boy.”
Racing down the hall to my closet, I put on more items of clothing, along with some fuzzy socks and slippers. When I get back to the library, Carson is waiting for me, tossing popcorn in the air and catching it. Why is something so simple so much sexier when he’s doing it? And why for the love of god does he catch me staring every time? He winks at me as I make my way over to the chess board. My panties are going to be a tortured mess once this game is over with.
