A grin splits across my face. “As long as I don’t stamp my foot, right?” I giggle softly. “How about just some good, old-fashioned cuddling?”
He nods and allows me to take his hand and lead him through the French doors to my bedroom. I quickly pull the cups of my bra back up over my breasts, feeling a bit shy now that things have tamed down. Tamed down is good. I’m not ready to jump into the deep end with Hayden. Not yet. He’s shared a lot with me, but there’s still so much more I want to know about him.
Blue moonlight swirls with glowing orange city lights as they pour into my room through the floor-to-ceiling windows. That’s one benefit of being on the eleventh floor. Curtains aren’t necessary when you’re in the tallest building for miles. Bruce’s paws clack on the slate floor behind us as he trots over to his bed in the corner of my room. He’s such a good dog, even if he is a slobbery beast. I make a mental note to give him extra cuddles in the morning since I haven’t paid him much attention tonight.
Hayden lets out a huff of a laugh as he looks down at my bed.
“What?” I ask, smiling at him while rifling through my dresser for a nightshirt.
He shakes his head and rubs circles around his wrist. “The second I saw your room for the first time the other day, all I could think about was you spread out and completely naked on this magnificent bed.”
My jaw drops with both shock and excitement. “I love my bed,” I croak, dropping the shirt on the duvet and looking nervously into his eyes. The butterflies in my belly can stop anytime now.
He swallows hard and glances down to my red bra-covered chest and then to my skirt. “Are you sure you want this, Vi?” he asks, his grey eyes turning from sexual to serious in the blink of an eye.
I notice he says “this” instead of “me.” I don’t quite know what this even is to know how to respond. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that a very tiny, inconsequential part of me wants to run for the hills. Hayden’s given me a laundry list of reasons he’s not ready for a relationship, yet here we are, in my bedroom, and now all I can think about are his arms wrapped around me all night.
“I want what you’re willing to give me,” I reply, leaning in and placing a gentle kiss on each side of his neck. “As long as that’s just cuddling for tonight, of course.”
He groans as I pull back. “Then you better toss this on, Bunny.” He chucks my T-shirt at me and I let out a hearty laugh as I catch it.
“Bunny?” I ask mockingly. “So if I’m a bunny, what does that make you?” I reach forward and begin slowly popping the buttons of his shirt, feeling dizzyingly excited to see what’s underneath.
He grins playfully, “A very rude rabbit.”
Completely unable to keep up the sexy facade, I burst out into giggles while removing his shirt from his arms and feasting my eyes on the lean planes of his chest. He grins cockily at me, clearly proud of his little joke.
“Give it here,” he groans and yanks the T-shirt down over my head, smoothing back my blonde strands that come loose with it. He brushes his finger along the top of my nose with a warm affection to his eyes. “Off to bed with you.”
I giggle and shimmy out of my red skirt, leaving my red thong and bra on. It at least makes me feel sexy underneath this very unsexy nightshirt. I crawl beneath my crushed velvet duvet, and my eyes snap up when I hear the buckle of Hayden’s belt. I follow the action and stare for a moment at his thick brown leather cuffs. Coupled with his watch and muscled forearms, the look is masculine and attractive in a style I’ve never seen on a bloke. But I know he doesn’t wear them as a simple fashion choice, so I can’t help but wonder if I’ll ever see beneath them.
My thoughts are quickly distracted by the sight of Hayden standing before me now in just a pair of pure white boxer briefs. The material hugs his muscular thighs and my eyes greedily rake up his body, taking in every trim line of his abs. He’s not overly muscled…but he’s lean and toned in all the right places.
“Not an innocent bunny at all,” he purrs, crawling into the bed beside me. “Your bedroom eyes are making it really fucking hard to be good right now.”
I smile in contentment as he tucks his arm beneath me. Snuggling in, I lay my head on that perfect place on a man’s chest. The place that dips in just above their peck and below their neck, which allows you to hear their heart thundering beneath the surface.
“What’s this?” I ask, touching the black ink on the side of his ribcage that I hadn’t noticed before. It’s a small tattoo with the digital time display of 11:11 in thick gothic font numbers. It’s resting on top of a flat line that shoots up in several peaks that look like waveforms on a monitor…like a heartbeat.
He stiffens slightly. “Just something I got after rehab.”
“What does it mean?”