Page 47 of From Best Friend to Bride
“That’s too kinky for our celibate marriage,” I replied, yawning. I snuggled back under the covers and pulled the blanket over my head. “Sorry. I’ll work on it.”
“You say that every time, yet I always wake up with you wrapped around me like a koala.” He pulled the blanket down. “Wake up. It’s eleven a.m.”
“Noooo. Lies.” I reached blindly for the blanket, but when I didn’t grab it, I was forced to open my eyes. My vision was still cloudy with sleep, and I had to blink firmly several times before it cleared. “Ooft, that was a good sleep.”
He glared down at me. “I’m glad you were comfortable.”
“It’s not my fault. I gravitate towards heat, and you’re like a human hot water bottle.” I grabbed for the covers again, but he yanked them away, exposing me completely. “Fred!”
“Nana is downstairs,” he replied. “Mel just knocked on the door.”
Well, now I was awake.
“Does she know I’m here?” I sat upright and stared at him.
“You didn’t go home last night, andsheis the culprit behind your tyres, so what do you think?”
I paused for a second. “Oh, good. Then let her keep waiting and she can imagine we had a long, hot, steamy night full of debauchery and kink.” I snatched the covers back as he gaped at me, and I wrapped myself up in the blanket. I hummed happily as warmth spread through my body yet again, and I smiled up at Fred.
He rubbed his hand down his face. “Never mind an annulment. You’ll be a widow if this is how things carry on. You’re going to kill me.”
“Ooh, wouldn’t that mean I inherit everything? How kind of you.”
“Should you be that flippant about me dying?”
I snorted. “Oh, please. You’d survive out of pure spite. As if you’d ever die before me.”
He smiled, leaning down so our faces were close together. “That’s right. I can’t die first—you’d never be able to live without me.”
“Hey!”
He ruffled my hair and got up before I could remove my arms from my blanket to beat him. He disappeared into the bathroom, the sound of his laughter following him, and I stayed happily curled up as the sound of the shower filled the room.
Well.
He wasn’t entirely wrong.
There was perhaps a hint of co-dependency in our relationship, but that was how it’d always been. I’d once been taller than him when we were kids, so he’d overcompensated for it by taking extra good care of me. Even when he’d surpassed me in height, he hadn’t stopped.
But why had I never realised just how far that care went?
Hairbands in the car door. Pads in the car first aid kit. Knowing I had personal items in his house.
Geez.
Even I was starting to think we were a real couple. I couldn’t blame everyone else for all those questions now.
On the other hand, maybe there wasn’t as much of a transition to being a married couple as I’d anticipated.
Not that I knew much about marriage, of course. My parents had hardly been the poster couple for a successful relationship, and unfortunately, I hadn’t laid eyes on the miserable bastard that was my sperm donor in eight years.
Unfortunate in that it was only eight years and not eighteen.
Ah, well. I couldn’t win them all.
On the other hand, my only healthy experience with it was Fred’s parents. Even if they swung a little too far to the unhealthy side of being in love, if you asked me. They’d been utterly besotted with each other for as long as I could remember, and I still believed it was a true miracle that Aunt Vi hadn’t followed Uncle Eric to the grave after he’d died.
I’d truly thought for a moment that she wouldn’t be able to live without him.
