Looking up from the g
round outside Kingston’s room, I make eye contact with the bluest eyes this side of the state. He extends his arm and summons me to him with the twitch of his finger; no words are shared between us, just a comfortable silence.
Padding across the hall, I push off the balls of my feet and jump in his arms. Nestling my face into his neck, I inhale his scent and take a moment to appreciate this silent and much needed exchange between us. The past couple of days have been amazing and flown by faster than I can blink. I seriously feel like we’ve been an us for as long as I can remember, but since we made it official, time seems to be flying by.
Before I step into his room, I stop, remembering Lana. I need to call her; better yet I need to go see her.
“L?” I remind him, moving toward the door.
“No, she fell asleep. I talked her off the ledge enough to get her to pass out. We can go first thing in the morning.” I contemplate going over and waking Lana, just so I can see for myself that she’s okay. I’m in the middle of a tug-of-war, between my best friend and my brother, and I feel like I constantly need to play the nurturing mother to both—constantly riding the fence. I just want everyone to get along.
“Yeah, I just hate leaving her alone if she needs me,” I admit, hanging my head. Lifting my face to him, with his hand under my chin, he smiles.
“You are such a good person, Shayla Donovan, and I admire that trait. I promise she fell asleep and if I were worried she’d wake up, I would tell you. You need rest too babe, it’s been a big fucking day. Let’s go to bed. We have an even busier week before Park City, and we’re gonna need our beauty sleep.”
I chuckle at his comment, distracted by his humor. I trust him when he says he would let me go to her if he had any doubts she wasn’t gonna be okay tonight. “You, the Trey Adams, need beauty sleep? How manly of you to admit.” I laugh in his strong arms, his embrace is all encasing, wrapping me in him.
“I need my mud facial, babe. Do you have some on you?” I throw my head back in laughter; beyond happy that he can make me laugh when we are in the middle of all this crap with our friends.
“You are something else, honey.”
Stepping into his room, I look around the space, noticing the basic bed with a mahogany headboard and footboard and the chair next to the bathroom door with his guitar stand. I’ve been in here before but the small things seem more meaningful now. I reveled in the mundane things with Trey that I witnessed before we started dating—from watching him get ready for work to his first sip of his morning coffee. I guess that’s why seeing his room tonight feels so surreal. It’s amazing how you can view things differently when you’re just there, existing as a friend, than when you’re involved intimately.
Trey’s room is clean, but still manly with the scent of cologne and him. The pieces of instruments throughout telling his love for music, his passion. Feeling his approach from behind me, he slips his hands up the hem of my shirt. Grazing my sensitive skin that’s acutely aware of his presence. He arouses a strong need in me. Lifting my cotton shirt from my hips and up my sides, I moan when his hands touch the sides of my breast before my shirt is removed swiftly.
“You’re my world, you know that?” Letting my shirt fall to the floor, I turn, facing him.
“Yeah, I do,” I state simply. “Do you?” I retort the question, craving the need to remind him that he’s everything to me just as much as I am to him.
“Yes, baby, I think I do. So that’s a good thing, because I don’t ever want anything to stop us, or keep us from falling in love and growing together. Not ever.”
Still seeing a hint of insecurity in his eyes, showing just enough of his past creeping into the back of his mind, like it always does, I place my hands on his stubbled jaw. “Trey, I know that I mean a lot to you, and believe me, you mean the world and more to me. Remember, I was fighting for us to get here one day, too.” I watch his inner battle with himself unfold in front of me, as he tries to hush the demons. The demons that keep him from receiving the love he so badly desires. Hopefully, the things I say are enough to help him fill in the cracks his heart holds from the pain his mother put him through.
“You are way too good for me, and I would be a fool to think otherwise, baby. Shower with me?”
He doesn’t need to ask me twice. Trey, plus me, plus a shower, is an equation I want to be in. We watch each other strip down, and I pay extra attention to his muscular butt as he turns the water on and climbs in.
“How was she when we left?” I ask, pouring some shampoo in my hands to wash his hair.
“Lana’s about as big of a mess as Kingston is. Those two are the most complicated people we know.” He offers me his head, tilting it down so I can wash it for him. This is my favorite thing so far, sharing a shower with Trey. I used to be told about the intimacy that taking a shower with someone could bring. Being bare to all your flaws and washing away your baggage and sins down the drain together. It’s almost like we’re curing each other of any insecurities or doubts that are lingering between us.
“They are, aren’t they? But you’re lucky, because they’re just your friends. That big caveman in there is my brother.” I point toward the direction of Kingston’s bedroom, not missing the smirk on Trey’s face and the water dripping from his strong jaw.
“Yeah, you’re screwed, babe, sorry. Now turn around, it’s my turn to wash your body.”
I turn willingly and instantly feel a sharp sting on my butt. Did he just slap my butt? “Ouch, you have big hands. That hurt,” I bark at him, soothing the sting with my palm.
“Well, I have to have big hands to hold my big—”
“You’re cut off! Geez, you are so cocky.” He laughs and that sound makes my insides melt like heated chocolate.
“I am, literally, cocky.” Rolling my eyes, I smile, unable to ignore his playful jokes.
“I saw that.” He slaps my butt again, but this time on the opposite cheek.
“Ow! You saw what?” I shout, turning and slapping him on his chest.
“You rolled your eyes, sassy.” His abs contract as he laughs, one hand on the tile wall, and the other splayed open on his lower abdomen, right by his sexy V.