Page 54 of Teach Me to Laugh

“Beckett,” I groaned. “I’ll get through one night then I’ll ask Maddy or Raina to bring me something else tomorrow.”

Then I blushed, because after my stunt of packing only lingerie for Raina’s camping trip with Kaiden, I knew her retribution would be aptly horrific.

“You wanna borrow a t-shirt?”

“From you?”

“Yeah,” he sat up, smirking. “Who else?”

“Um . . .” I wanted to borrow a t-shirt. I wanted to borrow a t-shirt so, so badly.

He raised a brow, prompting. “Not gonna jump you if you’re wearing something other than fleece.”

I scowled. “I didn’t say you would.”

Promptly two seconds after I’d settled into my familiar scowling expression, Beckett reached back to pull the material of his t-shirt over his head. The scowling turned to what I suspected was the face of pure mortification.

He was giving me the shirt off his back. Holy crap.

“Here,” he handed the shirt to me and I ignored the fist-gripping sensation that overtook my lower belly as my fingers closed around the material. It was still warm from his body, and that was a turn on like I never would have expected.

“Thanks.”

“You want me to turn around?” he winked, “promise I won’t peak.”

Rolling my eyes, I slid out from beneath the covers, calling over my shoulder as I clutched his t-shirt to my chest. “I’ll change in the bathroom, thanks.”

His laughter followed me into the room and I sighed at the feel of the warm tile under my feet as I quickly slid from my fleece jammies and into Beckett’s t-shirt. The smell of him was entirely man, and I noted that too was a turn on.

Padding barefoot toward the large mirror, I stared at myself in Beckett’s t-shirt. It was big and navy blue. The hem tickled my thighs; covering my booty shorts, thank heaven. It wasn’t the most flattering thing I’d ever worn, but for some reason I couldn’t quite explain, I felt sexy and sensual. I felt like a woman.

Iwasa woman.

I was a woman in a man’s shirt, sharing a bed with said man. I was a woman who was influenced in ways I couldn’t control by that very man’s scent, voice, and body. I was a woman who was finally coming into herself.

The thought had my lips stretching into a small, slow smile. The sight staring back at me stilled something inside of me. My heart turned quiet and my fingertips lifted to connect hesitantly with my lips. I didn’t know how he did it, but he’d battled every demon I had, and freed the beauty I thought I’d buried forever. If I lost him tomorrow and lived to be one hundred and one, I’d forever be thankful for the beauty he gave me tonight. Because for the first time since I was a girl, I felt no holds barred happiness.

“You all right in there, Amara?”

Startled, I dropped my hand and turned to the closed door. Hurrying to gather my jammies from the floor, I folded them and set them on the vanity before moving, a little hesitantly and a whole lot nervously, to the door.

The sight of Amara in my t-shirt was all I needed to turn as hard as a rock. She wasn’t a tall woman, but from under my t-shirt, her legs looked like they stretched for miles. The amber glow from the fire cast golden shadows over her normally pale skin, and if I wasn’t afraid of her running from me, I would have hooked an arm around her waist, dropped her to the bed and slowly kissed up every mile of her toned legs, from ankle to . . .

“Thought maybe you got lost in my shirt.” My voice croaked on my tease.Croaked.Fuck me, I sounded like a hormonal teenager about to take a woman for his first time. I wasn’t even close to virginal—but I also wasn’t close to claiming her.

“No,” she breathed a shaky breath, lowering her little body into the bed beside me. For the first time tonight, I was thankful for the thick duvet. It was hiding my thick, barely restrained desire for her. “Um—earlier you said I was—um,”

“Mine?” I questioned, relieving her. She was cute when she stuttered, but the last thing I wanted her feeling tonight was uncomfortable. As much as I liked to tease her, making her cute little ass squirm as she thought up a sharp quip, that wasn’t how I wanted tonight to play out. Tonight it was about honesty, our future, and us.

“Yes,”

“And?”

“Well, I was wondering what that meant. Exactly.”

“It means you’re mine and I’m yours,” The explanation was simple. “Like I said earlier, we’re lighting our spark.”

“Yes, but—what does thatmean?”

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