Page 79 of Beautiful Harmony

“Oh shit!”Lucas sat straight up in Emma’s bed, fumbling for his phone and staring at the screen. “Fuck.”

Emma rolled over to blink sleepily at him. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s after eight,” he said. “I set my alarm for five, but I think I shut it off and fell asleep. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said.

He glanced at the closed blinds. “Maybe I could sneak out the back door and army crawl to my car.”

She laughed. “I think it’s too late, but I appreciate the gesture.”

He rubbed her arm. “I didn’t do this on purpose, I swear.”

She squinted at him. “What? I know that, Lucas. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“What if your neighbours gossip?”

“People know we’re friends. If anyone says something, I’ll say you had too much to drink and slept in my guest room.”

“You’re being weirdly chill about this,” he said.

He told himself to shut up already. Not being forced to leave Emma’s warm bed at an ungodly hour in the morning was a damn gift. One he shouldn’t be questioning.

She yawned and burrowed deeper into the covers. “I realized people wouldn’t believe you’d sleep with me, anyway.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“It means you might think I’m beautiful, but no one else in this town does.”

“Emma -”

“Can we not talk about this right now?” she asked. “I’m not a morning person, and you kept me awake most of the night with your sex demands.”

He spooned her, cupping her breast and kissing the back of her shoulder. “Me? I woke up at midnight because someone was rubbing their ass against my dick.”

She made a decidedly un-Emma-like giggle that he immediately adored. “I wanted to see what would happen. You got hard before you even woke up.”

“Little Lucas has a mind of his own sometimes,” Lucas said.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” He nuzzled her hair. “Your hair is so soft.”

“Thank you. When we had sex for the first time - well, the second time - why did it get so weird when I suggested we not use condoms?”

“I’d never had sex without a condom before that night,” Lucas said.

She stared at him over her shoulder. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” She fell silent for a few seconds. “I shouldn’t have pressured you to go without one. I’m sorry.”

“There was no pressure,” he said, lightly squeezing her breast.

“I can buy some condoms if -”

“No,” he said. “I don’t want to use condoms unless you’d prefer it.”

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