Chapter 4
She jumped out of bed and moved next to him on the floor. If he was any louder, he might wake her parents. Not to mention he looked utterly terrified.
“Paden, wake up.” She touched his shoulder gently. “Wake up, it’s just a dream.”
His eyes snapped open and his breathing slowed. He stared at her for a moment, confused.
“You were having a bad dream,” Ree said. “Are you okay?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.” He leaned up on one of his elbows and ran his other hand through his hair. “Was I really loud?”
“Nah, I woke you up before it got too bad.” She shrugged and looked down at her legs. That was when she realized she wasn’t wearing any pants and blushed. She looked at Paden and realized his eyes were traveling over her hungrily.
“Here,” he said, handing her his quilt. “I must have scared you.”
“Was it the same dream?” She wrapped part of the blanket around her and pushed the other half toward him.
“Yeah.” He looked down at the floor. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“I understand,” she said. When he looked up at her she was reminded of the green eyes in her dream and almost laughed. Of course she would dream about kissing a green-eyed hottie after earlier that night. Deciding that it was silly for him to sleep on the floor when he was so obviously miserable, she took his hand and stood up, pulling the quilt with her.
“What are you doing?” He stood and looked at her in question.
“I have a full-size bed. There’s no reason you should sleep on the floor.” She tugged him behind her as she walked to the bed.
“I can think of a few reasons.” His voice was rough with something that made Ree hot all over. “That’s the problem.”
“We’ll be good, but we both need a good night’s rest.” She dropped the quilt and climbed under the bedspread before scooting over so he would have room. “Besides, it’s no big deal. We’ve spent the night at each other’s houses before.” The bed dipped as he climbed in beside her.
“We were a lot younger then, Ree.”
“So?” She snuggled up next to him so that she was tucked against his side. He hesitated a moment before pulling her a little closer.
“Back then I didn’t think about the types of things I want to do to you now.” His voice was teasing, his breath warm on her face.
“Types of things? Like what?” She turned her head up toward his, her voice uneven with curiosity.
“Things we aren’t going to talk about right now.” He chuckled at her when she made a sound of disappointment. “Or neither of us will get any sleep.” His mouth ran over hers gently before he pulled away and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Good night, Ree.”
It took her a few minutes to fall back asleep, aware of the fact that Paden was lying in her bed. Apparently, he was having a difficult time, too. Feeling the warmth of him pressed against her was more than distracting. It took a while before his breathing started to slow, his hand fidgeting against her shoulder.
A few hours later, when the alarm clock flashed in the dark of her room, the annoying buzz made Ree grimace as she reached over to hit the snooze button. She almost squeaked when she realized she had rolled on top of someone on her way to the clock. Large hands grabbed her shoulders to steady her as she reached for the clock blindly and hit the off switch.
“Now this is an interesting way to wake up in the morning,” Paden whispered into her hair. Blood rushed to her cheeks, and she could feel her face heating up. As she wiggled to roll off of him, she realized he really had enjoyed the morning wake up call.
“Sorry,” she said.
“Don’t be.” His deep chuckle did nothing to relieve the heat coursing through her body. He rolled over so he was facing her. “I’m the one invading your bed.”
“Well, I did invite you. You’d think I wouldn’t forget there was someone in it with me.” She pulled at a string on her bedspread, too embarrassed to look at him.
“Hm. Maybe I should give you a reason to remember that I’m here.” She looked up at him just in time to see his face lean down to hers. She squeaked and covered her mouth.
“Morning breath,” she said from behind her fingers.
“Oh, well. There are other ways to make you remember.”
Her breath caught in her throat as he leaned down. She almost choked when he reached for the blanket, pulling it down from her shoulders to expose her T-shirt-clad torso. He ran his hands down her arms before pulling them up above her head. She couldn’t breathe when he pinned her wrists and gave her a mischievous smile. He moved toward her again, but before she could remind him about needing to brush her teeth, he did something she hadn’t expected.
His hands left her wrists and ran down her sides, and she sucked in a lungful of air as his fingers dug into her ribs, tickling her. She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud, pleading in whispers for him to stop. She twisted and turned to escape until she realized she had other weapons at her disposal. Between pants, she grabbed the power and wrapped herself in a shield.
“No fair.” He laughed and fell back on the bed next to her.
She let go of the shield and turned to poke him in the chest. “Not fair? Not fair? You held me down and tickled me!”
“Yes. Yes, I did.” He chuckled again as he rolled over and faced her, propping his head on his hand. “But I bet you won’t forget the next time I’m in bed with you.”
“Will there be a next time?” She turned to face him, mirroring his position. He reached out a finger and traced a line down her cheek.
“I hope so.” Warm eyes held hers until she looked down.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but what caused the change of heart? You seemed dead set against having anything to do with me.” She bit her lip and hoped she wasn’t pushing him away with her questions, but she had never invited a boy into her bed before, and she needed to know it hadn’t been a random thing.
He was quiet for a few minutes, just tracing the planes of her face as if he was trying to memorize them. She didn’t interrupt him, letting him take his time.
“When I saw you covered in blood, I realized I could have lost the chance to have any time with you.” His voice was rough with emotion and she scooted closer to him, letting him tuck her against his chest. “At Claire’s funeral, I felt so guilty.”
“Paden, you couldn’t have done anything different.”
“There must’ve been something I could have done, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. I felt guilty because I was glad it wasn’t you.” His eyes glowed with emerald fire as he turned his head down to look at her.
Not sure how to respond, she placed a chaste kiss on his lips. What could she say to something like that? He nuzzled her hair, and they lay there for a few more minutes before he turned to look at the clock and sighed.
“I need to get going. I don’t want your parents to find me here, and I don’t want to worry mine.” He sat up slowly, letting her adjust the blanket to keep her modesty. He went to her window and picked up his clothes from the floor.
“Mind if I wear these home? Mine are still wet.” He gestured at the sweatpants and T-shirt.
“Yeah, no problem.” She shrugged, figuring her father wouldn’t notice they were gone.
He moved back to where she sat on the bed and leaned down, kissing her forehead. She couldn’t help the smile that curved the corners of her mouth as she looked up at him. “I’ll see you at school.”
That last sentence made her smile wilt a little. She was not looking forward to going back to school.