Page 96 of Choosing You

I prop up on my elbows. “I’m wearing underwear. I’m not going to wear my jeans to bed. What’s your problem? You can’t sleep next to me like this?”

“Uh, no. Definitely not.”

I tilt my head and smile. “And why is that? We’re just sleeping, right? Nothing else? You won’t even notice what I’m wearing because you’ll be asleep.”

“Trust me. I won’t be sleeping if that’s all you’re wearing. I’ll go get you something from your room.”

“You’re being crazy. Just go to sleep.” I lie back down with my back to him and close my eyes. I hear him sigh as he changes into his pajamas.

The mattress sinks in as he gets in behind me. The bed is so small our bodies can’t help but touch and I can tell my lack of clothing is affecting him. He keeps trying to move away from my lower half, but can’t because he’ll fall off the bed. I love torturing him like this. I try not to laugh when he attempts to move again.

“What is going on back there?” I ask, feigning annoyance. “I’m trying to sleep.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t do this. You need to put something on.” He gets up, goes to his drawer, and comes back with a pair of fleece athletic shorts.

I can’t hold in my laughter anymore. “Are you saying you can’t resist me?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” He throws the covers off and drags my legs to the side of the bed, pausing a moment to look. “Damn. And then you have to wear sexy underwear? Did you do this on purpose?”

“Nope. This is my normal underwear.” I pull my shirt up more to show off my silky black bikinis.

He slips my legs into the shorts. “You werenotwearing underwear like that when you were running last night.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. For someone who isn’t dating me you’ve sure seen me naked a lot.”

He pulls the shorts up to the top of my legs. I stand up and yank them the rest of the way on.

“There. That’s better,” he says, looking at the oversized shorts that go past my knees.

We get back in bed, the orange lights glowing above us. He’s lying on his back and I sneak under his arm, making myself comfortable. “You know, I wouldn’t care if you tried some stuff.”

He kisses my forehead. “I know. But that will lead to other stuff. And I want us to start dating first, like a real couple.”

“Then let’s go out on this date you keep talking about.”

“Okay, next Saturday night we’ll go on real date. As in go out, not sit in my room.”

“Saturday? But that’s so far away.” I don’t mean to sound desperate but it almost comes out that way.

“Are you in a hurry or something?”

“Um, no. I guess not.” I actuallyamin a hurry. I’m finding him hard to resist and now he’s holding out on me. I don’t know why he’s so insistent on having this official date. It seems like we’ve been dating this whole time.

“So I think it’s time to make another tradition.”

I lift my head up to look at him. “Like what?”

“I think we should have one of these sleepovers every Saturday night.”

“Hmm.” I lower my head back down on his shoulder, hiding my smile. “But we already have a tradition for Sunday morning.”

“Yeah? So?”

“I’m just saying if we did this, we’d have two traditions in a row, really close together.”

“We could add another one during the week if you feel the need to even things out a little.”

“Yeah, I guess we could do that.” My smile keeps growing. He wants more traditions with me? So he thinks we can really be a couple? Even with his rules and his family? I’m not going to question it. At least not tonight.

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