Page 41 of The Dance Deception
‘So.’ I pause. ‘Shall we top and tail?’
‘We could try that. As long as you don’t kick me in the face in the night,’ he says.
‘As long as you keep your stinky feet away from mine,’ I throw back at him.
‘They’re not stinky.’ Then he realises I’m laughing. ‘This is a bit awkward, isn’t it?’
‘A bit. Shall we just get in and stick to our sides?’
‘Sure,’ he agrees.
‘No funny business,’ he adds when we’ve stripped down to our underwear – a vest and shorts set of Sofiya’s for me, a pair of Merle’s boxers for him – and climbed under the covers.
‘Nothing’s further from my mind,’ I laugh as I turn my back to him, even if his muscular legs didn’t entirely escape my notice.
But I don’t close my eyes straight away after he flicks off the light. I can’t relax, too conscious of being in bed with someone who, until a few days ago, was the last person on earth I could imagine being in this scenario with.
I can tell from the sighs that punctuate his breathing that he hasn’t fallen asleep yet, either.
‘It was nice getting to know you a bit better this evening,’ he eventually says into the darkness.
And I smile, pleasantly surprised, and grateful to him for trying to make this easier.
‘You, too,’ I reply, only realising as I say it that there’s actually some truth in it.
Chapter 23
It takes me a minute to remember where I am in the morning. There’s an arm across my middle and a pillar of warmth against my back and for a brief, horror-filled moment I think I’m back at Warren’s. I breathe a sigh of relief when I realise it’s Aleksis. He must have rolled over in the night and is now hugging me from behind.
I don’t feel any inclination to wriggle away, though. To my surprise, it’s not uncomfortable having him there. But my eyes fly open when I realise it isn’t his other hand I can feel poking me in the back. That’s a whole different story. I feel myself go rigid from head to toe, not sure how to extract myself without waking him up.
‘Oh shit, I’m sorry,’ he suddenly gasps, rolling away from me and sitting up on his side of the bed with his back to me.
My cheeks turn redder than I think they’ve ever been. ‘It’s fine, don’t worry,’ I mutter.
‘I’ll go and get us some coffees,’ he says, sounding flustered as he hastily pulls on a T-shirt.
‘White, no sugar?’ he asks at the same time that I request exactly that, which makes us both laugh, breaking the tension.
‘Coming right up,’ he says, and practically sprints out of the room.
I can hear him talking to Sofiya while he’s down in the kitchen, although I can’t make out what they’re saying. When he comes back up with our coffees, I sit up and lean back against the headboard. He doesn’t quite look me in the eye as he climbs onto the bed beside me and apologises again for before.
I glance at him and assure him I really didn’t mind. Then I panic that it might sound like I’m into him or something and get busy blowing on my drink to cool it down, to try and hide the colour creeping back onto my cheeks.
He takes a deep breath and holds an arm out, inviting me to tuck myself beneath it. ‘Shall we start again?’ he suggests.
I hesitate, but now he’s outside the duvet it doesn’t feel so intimate, so I slide myself closer and tentatively nestle against him, conscious of the warmth of his body next to mine.
‘Does this feel okay to you?’ he checks.
And I realise it does. I don’t feel like I need to shy away. So I stop holding my breath and nod. ‘Yeah. You?’
He seems to relax, too. ‘I think I can handle it. But it’s going to be an interesting day today.’
‘You can say that again. Coming here was a lot easier than I expected it to be, though,’ I admit.
‘Oh, Sofiya doesn’t hold anything against you. She likes you, in spite of everything. She’s got a soft side under that tough exterior, you know. Bit like me.’
