I watched the sky change from pale gray to a crystal blue through the small opening in the drapes. I’d been up for close to an hour now, but that was nothing new. Since leaving home at eighteen, I’d been forced to be an early riser, and I’d never let the habit go. I liked to run in the mornings and get some exercise, but this morning that was proving to be impossible.
But I could hardly complain.
I glanced down again at Ara and the way she’d wrapped herself around me like… well, like Sofia had described. She was like a baby racoon clinging to its mother.
A grin pulled at my lips as I studied her face pressed to the middle of my bare torso, her right arm wrapped tightly around me, her right leg thrown over mine and locked tight. How did her muscles not hurt in the morning after remaining so tightly wound for so long?
I woke up around one in the morning to feel her rolling into me, and less than ten minutes later, she’d latched on. At first, I’d tried to do as she asked and attempted to roll her over, but the harder I tried, the tighter she held on. I’d had to smother my laugh when her face creased in displeasure and she made several unhappy sounds in her sleep, like she was arguing with me about being moved. Eventually, I gave up and hugged her to me.
And I fell asleep almost instantly.
Now I was just enjoying the feeling of her in my arms, the warmth and softness of her body pressed against mine. The longlength of her legs was bare, her shorts having ridden upjustenough that the bottom of her ass cheek was visible. It was an effort unlike anything else not to reach down and palm it. I gave up trying not to let my body react to the feel of her, the scent of her conditioner teasing my senses further. The evidence of what she did to me was firmly trapped beneath the waistband of my boxers and the heat of her inner thigh. It was torture not to grind my hips against it and find some relief.
I turned my gaze back to her face, softened in sleep, and let my eyes trace her delicate features. She really was beautiful, but not in a way society generally associated with the word. She had an interesting face, features that kept the eyes intrigued. Honestly, she was artwork, and I wanted to stare at her for hours.
Her long dark hair had been braided loosely but now came loose in strands around her face and neck. Her cheeks were rosy with sleep, her lips parted slightly, and the thick lashes of her eyes were fanned out, creating dark crescents on pale skin.
She shifted slightly in her sleep, rolling her hips against me, thigh tightening, and I bit back a groan.
My cock throbbed between us, desperate for release. I pulled in a deep breath, trying to put the feel of her from my mind. I needed a distraction.
Smiling when I caught sight of my phone, I carefully reached for it and flipped open the camera app. These would work great for selling our relationship a little more too.
I raised my arm as high as it would go and lined the phone up so that it caught the way she sprawled over me and snapped a photo. I took one closer of the two of us, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and closing my eyes.
Opening my gallery, I put a softer filter over the close-up photo of the two of us and uploaded it to social media with a caption.“Heaven is waking up to my Angel in my arms.”
As I was putting my phone back on the bedside table, Ara shiftedand I felt it the moment she woke up. Her entire body stiffened, and her breath caught.
“Morning, Angel.”
Her head snapped up, gaze finding mine, and I grinned at her, loving the way sleep still clung to her.
“Flynn… it wasn’t a dream,” she whispered as if to herself.
“If you want to call waking up in my arms a dream, then who am I to stop you?” I said with a cocky wink.
Her face warmed at my words, but her lips pressed together firmly as she tried not to grin. “You have averyhealthy ego, Flynn.”
“What I have is an incredibly beautiful woman in my arms, so I have nothing to complain about.”
Except maybe the throbbing hard-on that threatened to break free of my boxers.
“I tried to tell you I’m a snuggle person. You should have rolled me away,” she said, scrubbing a hand over her face as she started to roll away.
The thought of letting her go right now forced my hand, and I found myself wrapping my arms tighter around her and rolling with her.
“Flynn!”
“I’m just showing you what it was like trying to pry your sleeping form from me last night,” I joked.
She laughed and tried to push me away, but I cuddled in deeper, relishing in the feel of her soft body pinned beneath me.
“I wasn’tthatbad,” she protested, trying to free her arms.
“Oh, you sowere,” I argued. “I would have needed a bottle of baby oil and a stick to pry you off me. Any time I tried to roll you over, you held on tighter and made angry noises at me.”
She laughed. “Angry noises?”
