Page 39 of Sweet Dreams
"You weren't supposed to go that far, woman. Although I must say that's the best wake-up call I've ever had." Ivan ended with a sly smile. He rested his forehead on the pillow next to my head as he tried to catch his breath. I stroked his back and just enjoyed the feeling of his body on mine, without work or stalker stress to weigh medown.
Finally, he lifted up onto one elbow and moved his body off to the side of me. He stroked my hair away from my face, just looking down at me. I could tell by his eyes that his brain was whirling, and he wanted to say something so I just kept quiet and let him do it on his owntime.
"I've got a question for you. Don't freak out on me, but I really want to talk about this with you. Okay?" Ivan eventuallysaid.
I rolled my eyes. "That's like the worst way to start a conversation with a girl, but yeah, sure, go ahead. I'll try to not freakout."
He playfully tugged on my hair, then launched into it. "So, I know we haven't been together that long, but based on our conversation last night, I think we're on the same page. Esa, I've spent a lot of years thinking I had to pay back the world, or that I had a debt to repay, and now that feeling's gone. I don't want to waste any more time. You know what I mean? I want to move forward with the things I know will make me happy. And I know for sure you make me happy. We spend every moment possible together, and we support each other with the time we spend at our jobs. And I don't think I've even spent more than a couple nights at my place since we started dating. I don't envision myself choosing to spend time away from you when I could be here, right beside you, exactly as we are right now. I mean, do you? I just see us wanting to spendmoretime together and really integrate our lives now that the stalker situation is over and we can settle into a normal schedule.Right?"
He stopped abruptly, probably because he ran out ofair.
At this point my mouth was hanging open, rather unattractively I might add, as I tried to keep up with his verbal diarrhea. I thought I knew where he was going and what he was trying to say, but I wasn't sure which question he wanted me to answer first. I thought I should clarify what I thought he meant before I gave answers to questions he may not have actually meant. Now I was confusingmyself!
"Baby, are you asking if we should move in together?" I blurtedout.
"Well...yes," Ivan responded, staring intently at me, trying to gauge myreaction.
"Why didn't you just say that?" I laughed. "You only needed like five words or so...not five minutes ofdialogue!"
"I'm sorry! But all the blood left my brain five minutes ago when you had me in your mouth. I was doing the best I could with limited brain power!" Ivan justified. He cracked a smile though, so I knew he realized he went a little overboard with hisspeech.
"It is nice to know I have that effect on you, but to answer your questions...yeah. I'm totally on board. I think we should move in together." I smiled at him, then paused to choose my words carefully. "How would you feel about moving in here withme?"
His face lit up, and I was happy I could bring him joy, simply by saying yes. "I was hoping you'd say that. I know this house is important to you and your parents wanted you to have it. I'd never ask you to leave it. Plus, I know Bailey needs a place to live too, so this house is a better option than my tiny condo," Ivananswered.
I let out the breath I'd been holding. "Oh, thank God! I was pretty sure you'd understand. I just can't sell this place, or push Baileyout."
"I got you, baby. Always," Ivan said before kissing me quickly. "Now, come on. Let's shower, get some breakfast, and then we gotta move some of my things over here. Make it official." He climbed out of bed and held his hand out to help me up too. The boy was positivelygiddy.
We enjoyed a long shower together, where we made use of that perfect, little built-in step again. Previously, I thought it was just for resting my foot on when shaving, but I discovered it was for much more. Thank the universe for large showerenclosures!
Then we got down to business dressed in comfortable clothes, suitable for moving boxes. I wore an old pair of frayed jean shorts, perfectly showing off my tan legs, with a cute racerback tank, so I could also show off my shoulders and biceps that I'd worked so hard to build. Yes, we were moving Ivan in, but that didn't mean I couldn't look good. Bailey would have been so proud. Speaking of Bailey, she was already gone again this morning when we emerged from my bedroom. I was going to have to sit down and talk to that girl. She kept disappearing recently, and I don't think it was entirely to give Ivan and I some privacy. Something wasup...
Ivan made us coffee, and I made my healthy protein pancakes. While we ate, Ivan's phone started chirping as his lifeguard group chat lit up with guys roll calling who would show up for their workout later this afternoon. Apparently, they liked to get together every week or so and do workouts on the sand, and then play some beach volleyball. It was supposed to just be fun, but it ended up becoming competitive, with all that testosterone floatingaround.
"You should come, babe," Ivan threw out there in-betweenbites.
"You think so? I don't know. It seems like a guy thing. I'd hate to feel like a third wheel," I responded. I liked that he wanted me there, but I didn't want to impose on 'guy time'either.
"No way. I want you there. Plus, I can show you off and tell everybody about us moving in together. Say you'll come?" Ivan dropped his fork to grab my hand and plead with hiseyes.
Damn him and those eyes. "Okay..." I said, still unsure how this would go. But I was rewarded with a sizzlin' hot kiss and he did the dishes, so who was I tocomplain?
I left Bailey a message, inviting her to join us if she was available. I was hoping the lure of hot, sweaty men would get her there. I also told her that Ivan would be staying here and that we needed to talk about it, face to face, to make sure she was okay with it all. Given her recent schedule, she was never home anyway, so I didn't think she'd mind, but I still wanted to make sure she was comfortable with thechanges.
We were able to move a bunch of Ivan's things over to my house. At least enough he could start living with me immediately and not have to go back to his condo to collect things he would need for the day. He said he'd round up some of his lifeguard buddies to come over and move furniture and the biggerboxes.
Like a typical guy, he didn't have a lot of furnishings in his condo, and even fewer pieces that he cared about keeping. Made it easy to move him, but I also wanted him to feel free to make my house his space too. So I told him once he was fully moved in, we could go shopping and get a new bedspread and new towels, ones we picked out together. He said he appreciated the gesture, but what I had was fine. I was guessing linens was not on top of the priority list for myhottie.
I'd never lived with a man, but I was looking forward to it. Ivan was so easygoing that I didn't envision a bunch of fights over decor or living habits. He was generally neat, he could cook, and he seemed respectful of my space, so why not indulge ourselves in the pleasure of each other's company? Plus, I got him in my bed every night, so if there were any disputes we could end them with make-up sex. This moving in thing was looking brighter andbrighter.
After moving his stuff over, we put swimsuits on, along with shorts and t-shirts, and headed back out to the beach. We rode our bikes, soaking up the sun and enjoying living so close to the ocean and all the great weather it provided. When we reached the beach to tie up our bikes, we saw that a bunch of the guys were already there warming up and stretching. We left our shoes in our bike baskets and traipsed across the warm sand to meet up with them. I couldn't help but notice we were back at the stretch of beach where everything started. Where one little jellyfish changed mylife.
As soon as the group saw us approaching, they lobbed comments at us, whooping and hollering. Ivan held my hand protectively, but even so I sort of lagged behind, unsure if my presence would be wellreceived.
"The Chocolate Princess is joining us!" This was shouted out by a tall, dark-haired guy with a gorgeousphysique.
"Did you bring us any of your nectar, beautiful?" Another lifeguard, a shorter, beefier looking guy with the most amazing green eyes asked me with a big smile on hisface.
