Page 13 of Then You Came Along

“I think you’ve ruined me,” he whispers against my lips, and I can’t hold back the smile that spreads across my face.

Reluctantly, Ethan pulls out of me and I immediately feel the loss. He heads into the bathroom, disposing of the condom. While he’s gone, I pull the covers down and crawl under them.I have to take a few deep breaths to help calm my nerves stemming from the anticipation of sleeping next to a man again.

Ethan returns from the bathroom and slides into bed next to me, moving toward the center, and pulls me until I’m against his side. I rest my head on his shoulder as he wraps his arm around my back, his hand on my hip.

We fall into a comfortable silence for a few moments before he speaks up. “Are you okay?” he quietly asks, running his fingers up my side until he reaches my hair, playing with the tousled locks.

I shift so that I can look up at him and see the look of concern on his face. “I’m perfect,” I tell him honestly. “You made me feel again, and for that, I’ll always be grateful. I thought letting another man in would be a lot harder than it was. But it just felt right. You do that to me, and I don’t know why I feel so free and comfortable with you, but I do. It feels as if I’ve known you forever, yet all I want to do is talk to you to find out everything I don’t know yet.”

“You’ll tell me if something doesn’t feel right between us, right? I don’t know what it is about you, either, but this is something I want to explore. I don’t want to walk out your door tomorrow morning to never see you again.”

I smile at his words. “Why, Ethan, did you just ask me to be your girlfriend?” I tease him.

“Yeah, I think I kind of did,” he says, and pulls me to him, kissing me senseless.

We eventually fall asleep, still wrapped in each other’s arms.

I wakethe next morning with Ethan curled up against my back, with his arm securely wrapped around me, and his hand cupping my breast.

I squirm to loosen his grip on me enough to slip out of bed and head for the bathroom. After relieving myself and brushingmy teeth quickly, I head out to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee and to see what I have that I can throw together for breakfast. I haven’t done my big grocery trip yet, so my fridge and cupboards are still a little bare. I only picked up the essentials to get me through the past few days. I really need to get that done today, especially since I’ll be out at Holly and Carson’s house all day tomorrow, and possibly staying the night. I’ll have to text Holly to see if Ethan can come along with me, if he isn’t working all day.

The only things I have left to eat are some bagels, so I decide, maybe once Ethan is up, we can just head out to breakfast somewhere together. I fill two coffee cups, grab the creamer, and head back to my room. I set the coffee and creamer on the nightstand and crawl back into bed, snuggling against Ethan.

I press my lips to his chest and feel him start to stir.

“Good morning,” I quietly tell him.

“Good morning, beautiful,” his sleep-filled voice rasps out, sending tingles down my body.

“I brought you some coffee.”

“Bless you, woman.” He squeezes me once, then sits up and looks at the coffee cups.

“The milky-looking one is mine. I wasn’t sure how you liked yours, so I brought the creamer, as well.”

Ethan hands me mine and then reaches for his cup, adding just a splash of the creamer before taking a large drink.

I take a sip, watching him over the rim of my cup. “What time do you work today, and do you work tomorrow?” I finally ask him.

“I have clients starting at two today, until around seven, and this is my off weekend. We all rotate who’s off at the shop. I only end up working my off weekend if I have clients who have large or multi-day tattoos that were having trouble scheduling in on other days. What are your plans for this weekend?”

“Holly invited me over tomorrow. They’re having a get-together and she wanted me to come. Said Carson will be grilling for lunch and probably dinner. Told me to bring an overnight bag, so that I can have fun and enjoy myself, and not have to worry about driving home if I’ve had too much to drink. I was going to text her to see if they’d have a problem with you coming with me, if you want.”

“No need to text her, babe.” Ethan leans over and plants a kiss on my lips. “Carson already texted me the other day, and I was already going. Now, I’ll just have someone to drive out to their place with,” he says, winking at me.

“So, while making the coffee, all I could scrounge up to eat were some bagels. I was thinking, maybe we could go out to breakfast. I need to go grocery shopping today to stock my kitchen, but that can wait until you’re at work.”

“Breakfast sounds perfect. Do you mind if I grab a quick shower before we go?”

“As long as I can join you.”

“Sweetheart, you don’t ever have to ask if you can join me in the shower. I’ll gladly help you wash up; I just can’t guarantee it will be a fast shower, if you’re in it with me,” he teases.

We finish our coffee and make our way into the shower. After a very detailed cleansing of each other’s bodies, we finally make it out, throw some clothes on, and head out the door. Ethan doesn’t live very far from me, so we stop at his apartment, so he can change into clean clothes before we head to a diner he insists has the best breakfast in the area.

After breakfast,Ethan and I hung out at his place until it was time for him to head into work. He wasn’t lying when he said the diner had fantastic food. I foresee that place becoming a favorite.

I finally made it to the store, stocking my kitchen for the upcoming week. Once I’ve put everything away, I putz aroundmy apartment, waiting and willing the hours to pass until Ethan gets off work. He’s still taking me out tonight; said I deserve a proper date. Between clients today, he’s sent me cute little text messages, which have made me swoon all that much more over him.

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