The couch has a chaise lounge on either end, and I decide the most appropriate thing to do is place her on one and me on the other. I could just leave her here and sleep in my bed. That would likely be the normal thing to do, but the way I feel about her is notnormaland I don’t want to be that far from her while she’s sleeping under my roof for the first time. If I can’t have her in my bed, this will have to do.
I toss the blanket aside and scoop her up, shifting her to the spot I’ve assigned her in my mind.
What I don’t expect to happen is for her to latch onto my arm and pull me down next to her. “Snuggle,” she murmurs.
I am a lost cause, and I can’t even blame the alcohol.
I am keenly aware that if she were not a little drunk, she would most definitely not be asking me to snuggle up with her to sleep.
Regardless of how much I would love to do just that, it’s wrong for a multitude of reasons.
The number one reason being that I am not sure I can handle so much skin to skin contact without losing my fucking mind. The desire to mark her as mine is almost unbearable even when we aren’t touching. I don’t even want to think about how she might react to the thoughts I have about her.Yeah, I want you; and oh hey, by the way can I just like… stab you a little bit? With maybe a small knife? Nothing serious.
The desire I have to break skin is not something I share with many people, and for the most part I am able to keep it at bay. But every inch of her unmarked body screams at me incessantly andoh my god I have got to stop thinking about this right now or I’m going to do something I really fucking regret.
I uncurl her hand from my bicep. “I’ll be right here.” I pat the section of the couch adjacent to where she is lying and cover her with the blanket.
She murmurs something incoherently and twists her body away from me, burrowing deeper into the cushions. I can’t resist brushing her hair from her face, but that has to be the most intimate contact I allow myself with her tonight.
I settle in and stare at the ceiling for longer than I care to admit. I am thoroughly distracted by every breath she takes mere feet away from me, and when I finally doze off I expectto be awoken by any number of things except for what it is that wakes me.
16
THAT’S RIGHT, GIVE IN TO THIS
JACK
I usually sleep soundly,thanks to Sienna's ability to sleep through the night herself. However, tonight I am jolted awake by a noise sometime after two in the morning.
It sounds like whimpering.
My first instinct is to check the baby monitor, but it isn’t coming from there. It’s coming from the other side of the couch.
Slowly, I fight to shake off the drowsiness and sit upright. My eyes gradually adjust in the darkness. And that's when I see Quinn, her small frame trembling.
She tosses and turns and a knot forms in my stomach. Her breath is ragged and so unlike her usual calm and measured demeanor. I know it’s just a nightmare, but seeing her like this still is unsettling and the need I have to fix it is strong.
I stand from the couch and approach her sleeping form, trying my best not to scare her. But as soon as I place a hand on her shoulder, she startles awake with a violent lurch.
“Hey, it’s just me.” My voice is still hoarse with sleep, and I say the words barely above a whisper as I brush her hair back from her damp forehead.
All the tension drains out of her body, and I can’t stop myself from sitting down next to her and wrapping an arm around her.
She stills for a fraction of a second, then completely melts into me.That’s right, give in to this.
“Good girl. You’re okay.” I readjust my body to settle us both more comfortably. “That must have been a hell of a nightmare. You scared me to death.”
She rests her head on my shoulder innocently and sighs. “Scared you? I’m never going back to sleep now. I don’t even remember falling asleep to begin with.”
“You asked me to snuggle.”
She jerks away from me and looks up at me with her mouth half open, and it’s fucking adorable. “I did not.”
“You definitely did.”
“Please kill me.”
“No.” I tug her body back into mine and she seems too exhausted to resist. “Look at us, we’re snuggling now. You got what you wanted after all.”
