Thomas & January (Sleepless 2)

“Jesus, January, I can’t have you in here looking like that.” I tossed the door open and made way for her anyway because I wasn’t an idiot. It was January MacLochlainn. In a t-shirt. And nothing else. I deserved at least a gander.

“I can’t sleep.”

“You definitely can’t sleep in here.” I gulped. “Not looking like that, you can’t.”

“Why not?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Worrying your lip like that. Just, stop.”

“Okay,” she said a bit hurt.

I growled. Yes, growled as my eyes traveled her length. “Yup, just as I imagined.”

“I am?”

“Yes, and you damn well know it. Come on, I’m taking you to your room.”

“Fine.” She acquiesced easier than I thought she would but that was good news for me as I didn’t think I could have survived another minute.

When we reached her door, I waited.

She patted her t-shirt clad body. “Oops.”

I smiled and shook my head. “You did that on purpose, you clever minx.”

She opened her mouth as if appalled then lost the expression and shrugged.

“I suppose I should go downstairs and get you another key?”

“No need. I can sleep in your bed...with you.”

I ran my fingers harshly through my hair and blew a breath out quickly through my nose. “You are going to flipping kill me, January.”

“It’d be a pretty sweet way to go, don’t you think?”

“Don’t say things like that,” I told her, distancing myself a bit and shaking my head back and forth. “Now, what was I doing?”

“We were going to your room to lay down.”

“Yes, that’s what-No! No, I was going to get you a key. Yes, a key.”

“Tom,” she whispered, inching closer to me. She angled her face up at mine, our lips inches apart. “Let me sleep with you.”

I blinked slowly, trying to gain composure. My heart beat rapidly and my chest pumped air desperately. “Let’s-I don’t think I can handle myself around you.”

“Yes, you can,” she teased, pressing a light, barely there kiss to my lips. A hand involuntarily palmed her ass as I pressed her into me and kissed her deeply.

“No, I can’t,” I said, pulling away quickly. “Did all the air just...leave?” I asked the stifling hall around me.

“Come on. Come with me,” she tempted.

I followed her like a lost puppy back into my room. “It’s your funeral, kid.”

She shut the door behind us and pressed me against its back. “Does this feel familiar?”