Okay, what?
Wake up! My sleepy, sore eyes travelled up that chest to the face and reality slowly, but surely, sunk in. Braden was in my bed.
Again.
It took me a moment—remembering coming home last night and finding him asleep on the couch. I’d talked to Ellie, cleaned up in the bathroom and then hit the hay.
Clearly, sometime during the night, Braden had crawled into bed with me.
That was so not the deal.
With a huff of annoyance I pushed against his chest with all my might. And by all my might, I mean I rolled him right off the bed.
His large body hit the floor with a painful-sounding dull thud, and I leaned over to see his eyes fly open, bleary and confused as to why he was looking up at me from his sprawled position on the floor. Did I mention he was completely naked? “Jesus Christ, Jocelyn,” he complained, his voice hoarse from sleep. “What the hell was that?”
I smirked down at him. “That was me reminding you that this is just sex.”
He pushed up onto his elbows looking sexy as hell with his mussed hair and belligerent expression. “So you thought you’d deposit me from your bed?”
“With style.” I nodded, smiling sweetly.
Braden nodded slowly as if accepting I was in the right. “Okay…” he sighed…
… and then I strangled a squeal of fright as he lunged upwards, his strong hands gripping my upper arms as he dragged me down onto the floor with him. “Braden!” I yelled, as he rolled me onto my back. And then he did his worst.
He started to tickle me.
I squealed like a girl, wriggling and laughing as I tried to evade his attack. “Stop it!”
His grin was wicked and determined, and he was fast and strong, dodging my kicking legs and still managing to pin me to the floor and tickle me. “Braden, stop!” I could barely breathe from laughing so hard and from exerting so much energy to get away from him.
“Can I trust that I can lie next to you in the future without fearing stealth attacks while I’m sleeping?” he asked loudly over the noise my breathless half-choking, half-giggling self was making.
“Yes!” I promised, my ribs starting to hurt now.
He stopped and I took a deep breath, relaxing into the floor beneath him. I winced. “This floor is hard.”
His eyes narrowed. “Yeah, tell that to my arse.”
I bit my lip so I wouldn’t laugh. I failed. “Sorry.”
“Oh you look sorry.” His mouth quirked up at the corner as he placed his hands on either side of my head and braced himself above me, nudging his knee between my legs. “I think maybe I should punish you anyway.”
My body responded immediately to the look in his eyes, the tone of his voice. My nipples pebbled, and as I bent my legs, spreading them open for him, I felt the pulse of my sex telling me I was ready for him. I ran my fingers over his six-pack before sliding my hands around to clutch his lower back. “You want me to kiss your tushy all better?”
Braden had just been about to kiss me but he pulled back. “That’s such a weird word.”
“So is ‘knickers’. What the hell are knickers?” I pushed away a memory of a similar conversation with my mom—many similar conversations in fact where I’d tease her about some of the weird words she used. I focused on Braden’s eyes to push her out.
He grinned down at me. “Okay, admittedly ‘panties’ is a sexier word than knickers. But you’ve got to admit ‘pants’ is a terrible word for trousers.”
I scrunched my nose up. “’Trousers’ is such a fussy word. Like ‘whilst’. You all say whilst a lot.”