Page 66 of For Emery

I checked myself in the mirror one more time, noting my pink cheeks thanks to the hot water and “the Jordan effect,” then pulled opened the door.

Jordan had pulled down the comforter and sheets and sat on the edge of the bed in nothing but his boxers, waiting for me. “I wasn’t sure what side you wanted.”

I smiled. “What’s with the gentleman act?”

“You wouldn’t think I was a gentleman if you could hear what I’m thinking right now seeing you in that towel,” he said, a devious glint in his eyes.

I chuckled as I lifted my chin toward the bed. “You get in first. I’ll take this side.”

He climbed under the sheets and turned on his side, resting his head in his palm as he watched me climb in.

I turned on my side away from him. If I was going to get any sleep, I needed to not be looking at him.

His arms slipped around my waist and he pulled me against his bare chest. I closed my eyes and relished in the nostalgia washing over me. It had been four years since he held me that way. I’d missed being in his arms, missed it so damn much. His heartbeat reverberated off my back, practically in sync with mine. We lay like that for a long time, both of us undoubtedly having the same thoughts.

He buried his nose in my hair. “Feels like home.”

My belly rippled something fierce. “Because it is.”

And as much as I wanted to stay awake and lose myself in the feel of being in Jordan’s arms again, the security he provided allowed sleep to pull me under and fill my mind with beautiful dreams.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Grady

I awoke to a dark room, the bedside clock reading six a.m. Emery lay in my arms in the same position we’d fallen asleep. It was as if I’d been transported to my childhood bedroom. Only now, she was naked under her towel. I pressed my lips to her bare shoulder, wishing our circumstances were different. We hadn’t discussed the fact that she’d be staying in Arizona, but I knew her. She wouldn’t leave her mom again.

So, where’d that leave us?

Bringing it up seemed like a terrible idea. It would only ruin what had happened between us, and there was no way in hell I was gonna be the one to do that.

I thought about her towel and couldn’t resist. I leaned down and peppered her bare shoulders with soft kisses, her skin satin to my chapped lips.

“Mmmmm,” she murmured as I created a path to the nape of her neck, tracing my tongue up and down the dip beneath her hairline.

“Ahhhh,” she breathed.

I teased her a little more before abandoning that spot and tracing a path of open-mouthed kisses across her back.

Without warning, she twisted in my arms. “You need to stop.”

“Why?”

Her sleepy smile was a welcome vision. “Because it feels so good.”

I chuckled before dropping kisses all over her face. “If you thought that felt good, wait until we get back to school where I’ll have you all to myself.”

“If I go back to school.”

“When you go back to school,” I repeated.

Time seemed to stall as I could tell she was thinking some serious thoughts. “Promise?”

“Promise,” I assured her.

She buried her head against my chest and sighed.

Never in a million years, when that tiny eight-year-old showed up at my window, had I thought this was how we’d end up. But now that we had, I didn’t want to do a damn thing to ruin it.

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