Page 14 of The Holiday Disaster

Neither of us spoke for a second as we looked at each other. His lack of words had my skin crawling with nerves, but I figured maybe it was my turn to make the first move.

Taking a huge breath, I opened my mouth to speak…but Kingsley got to it before I could.

“I’m gonna shower. You should head to bed first,” he said, and with a pat on my shoulder, he walked past me. He grabbed his clothes and entered the bathroom without a backward glance.

I stood frozen in place, my mouth hung open in shock. Had I read everything incorrectly? He acted like normal, like nothing had transpired between us not once, buttwicetonight.

My shoulders slumped as I deflated. All the confidence I’d built up in the bathroom had retreated, and in its place was anger and confusion.

Maybe it was all in my head. My mind conjured up this delusion of a holiday romance when in reality, he was just being kind after the traumatic almost plane accident we’d experienced today.

I was too tired to think about something as exhausting as guessing a complex human’s actions. Screw it. I was going to do as Kingsley suggested and head to bed.

Turning off the lights, I burrowed under the covers, threw all the extra pillows on my side off of the bed, and squeezed my eyes shut. The exhaustion from the day came back in full force as my thoughts drifted in that haze between wake and sleep. I needed to sleep and not think about Kingsley and his sexy ass anymore.

That thought only served to remind me that said ass would be sleeping in the same bed as me. Right next to me.

My eyes popped open again, and the sleepiness was gone. Agonizing over this wasn’t going to do me any good, so I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to force myself to sleep. After tossing and turning for a couple minutes, I knew any efforts to sleep would be in vain.

Sitting up, I glanced around the room, and my eyes landed on the decorative sofa. I could ask the front desk for extra blankets and crash there. On second thought, sleeping on the floor might be more comfortable thanthattiny piece of furniture.

My eyes landed on the numerous pillows scattered on the floor and the ones neatly placed on the tiny sofa, and an idea popped in my head. I got up, grabbed all the pillows, and arranged them in a straight line down the middle of the bed.

Once satisfied, I got back under the covers and admired my handiwork. The bed was now divided, and we’d each have our own side. This way, there would be no reason for him to come over to my side. It was basically like we each had our own twin sized bed.

I lay back down full of smiles at my brilliant plan and closed my eyes in an effort to fall into sleep’s embrace. It still eluded me, even after the shower shut off and the bathroom door creaked open.

I stayed still, pretending to be asleep with my back facing away from the bathroom and Kingsley’s side of the bed. The room was silent for a few seconds before the bed dipped.

There was some shuffling and the sound of his low chuckle. He must have seen the barrier of pillows I’d set up and found it humorous. I gritted my teeth and pushed down the childish urge to tell him it wasn’t funny but, in fact, entirely necessary.

I didn’t break my act and continued pretending to be asleep. In reality, my mind was still racing. I knew Kingsley was nothing but a gentleman, but fantasies of him making a move surfaced to the forefront of my brain. Perhaps he’d wake me up with a gentle butterfly kiss, then tell me his earlier indifference was all a misunderstanding. He just wanted to clean up before doing anything.

The only thing that greeted my wild expectations was the sound of Kingsley’s soft snores minutes later. I turned to face him and got on my elbows to see over the pillows. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and the faint Christmas lights shone through the opened curtains gave me enough light to see the contours of his face.

His long lashes casted shadows on his high cheekbones that only made me want to stroke them. And those were not thoughts I was supposed to have. I quickly flopped on my back again and stared up at the ceiling.

Either I continued to hide the longing that I’d carried for him since we were preteens or I sucked it up and made a move. The scared me that had been hiding this secret for years wanted nothing more than to shove the emotions back into the depths to never be opened again, but the new and improved college freshman Ethan was ready for something to change.

I knew if there was any time to make that happen, it was now while stuck together in a middle of nowhere town and sharing one bed. We’d have a short fling that we could blame on the suspension bridge effect. Our brains were under pressure from the fright of the plane, and we had misattributed the fear as attraction. Things would go back to normal when we returned home and back to the real world.

I could imagine it now. Me and Kingsley getting hot and heavy to warm ourselves against this winter cold and morning cuddles that were only broken up by the grumbling of our stomachs.

It was a beautiful image that continued into my dreams as I drifted off to sleep with a huge smile on my face.

ELEVEN

KINGSLEY

There was something warm wiggling into my side that had me slowly peeling my eyes open. I was laying on my back with my arm spread out wide beside me. I’d somehow ended up in the middle of the bed during the night. The cute little pillow barrier Ethan had set up while I was in the bathroom had been tossed off of the bed, gone from view. And so was Ethan.

The movement continued as a warm hand and leg swept across me. I lifted the covers to reveal Ethan who was basically on top of me with half his body wrapped around mine, and his ear pressed against my heart.

What a sight to wake up to. It was one I didn’t mind at all.

The dim lights streaming in through the windows told me it was still early morning, and I planned on taking complete advantage of having him in my arms. I covered us again, this time bringing the cover under Ethan’s chin so he didn’t suffocate under the blanket.

I lay my head back on my pillow and closed my eyes as I wrapped my arms around his waist and enjoyed the feeling of him. His slender body was a perfect fit against my bulkier one.

---