Page 104 of Not in My Book

“You were and it’s fine.” He smiled. “I don’t mind.”

I scowled. “You don’t know everything. I was going to feel the wood.”

He nodded and said, “Sure.”

I sipped my water greedily before setting it on the nightstand.

At the beginning of the semester I never would’ve believed I’d end up in Aiden’s bed—or that I’d even want to. But he clearly wanted me the way I wanted him, which meant his hands were probably just as clammy as mine and his heart was probably racing as much as mine. There was so much I wanted to ask him and get to know about him. But all that came out of my mouth was:

“So, you kinda have a dirty mouth in bed, huh?”

Aiden choked on his own water, coughing. “Jesus Christ, Rosie.”

“I was surprised!” I said defensively. “I mean you know I was thinking of you when we wrote that scene, but I thought you were just playing it up for the book. I didn’t think you’dactuallysay stuff like that out loud.”

Aiden looked toward the ceiling. “God, I’m going to die.”

“I liked it!” I reassured. “Trust me, any romance reader eats that shit up, but I just didn’t expect it from you.”

“Can we talk about anything else?”

“Aww,” I cooed. “Is someone shy?”

“No.” He leveled me with a look. “I’d rather not have this conversation when I can see your nipples through my shirt, slowly getting me hard. If we’re going to have this conversation, I’d rather have it when I can fuck you.”

My cheeks turned crimson, but I grinned. “See? Dirty talker.”

He rolled his eyes and handed me his glass. “Put this on the nightstand for me?”

Even in the silence, everything felt right. I had dreaded the times when Simon and I would wake up on mornings like this, curious as towhat we would even say. What casually cruel thing Simon would say that I’d done wrong in bed or wasn’t doing enough of for him.

“I don’t want to get up,” I confessed. “Your bed is so comfortable.”

“We don’t have to,” Aiden said carefully. He looked down at his hands, his fingers playing with each other. “Look, Rosie, if last night was just a heat of the moment thing—”

“It wasn’t,” I said immediately. I pushed the comforter away so I could sit closer to him. I held his hands in mine. He intertwined our fingers, pulling me down to lay on his chest.

His eyes found mine, intensely focused on me. His voice was low, tentative as he said, “I’m in this, Rosie. I have trouble opening up because I’ve found that when I did, it scared people off. Somewhere along the way I decided it was better to keep to myself. And then when my mom died I was just somadat the world, and I pushed so many people away. I let that defensive side of myself get the better of me sometimes, but I don’t want to do that with you. I’minthis,” he said earnestly.

I peered up at him placing my chin on his chest. I reached up to push his hair back from his eyes, softly. “I am too, Aiden. I know you think I have all these grand expectations for romance, but I really don’t.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said honestly. “My mom really believed in Happily Ever Afters, even after everything with my dad. She got burned time and time again. I figured if someone as good as her didn’t get to have one, then it just wasn’t real. I don’t want to burn you.”

“I don’t want to burnyou,” I whispered. “Maybe we haven’t had our hearts broken in the same way, but you still have. I want to take care of you, too.”

He cupped my cheek, kissing me softly. I pulled back and smiled, so happy that I was here with him. That my New Year hadn’t started with a hangover and a headache, but with Aiden in a comfy bed.

We decided (more like I insisted) that theonlyway to spend the day was in bed. Aiden had said that was ridiculous, so I amended it to bed and couch. He ordered us some bagels for breakfast and when he went downstairs to get them, I quickly texted Jess:

Rosie:at aiden’s place!! howd it go with tyler??

Jess:… at tyler’s place

Rosie:NO WAY

Jess:literally in a daydream, debrief this weekend???

Rosie:absolutely

---