Page 77 of Who's Playing You
This man!
He not only saved me tonight, but now he was giving me his bed.
“Nicholas, I-I can’t take your bed.”
He just shrugged and ever so nonchalantly said, “Then don’t. Don’t take it. Share it with me instead,” he whispered that last part in my ear after wrapping me up in his arms. He breathed me in deep, burying his face in my neck before planting a kiss to my forehead.
“We do whatever you want, Scottie. If you want me on the couch, I’ll sleep on the couch. If you want to share a bed and put up a pillow fort, we put up a pillow fort. If you want to share a bed and spoon all night, I’ll be the best ever little spoon you’ve ever had, or big spoon if you want to be the little one. Or if you want me to hold you all night while kissing and worshipping every square millimeter of your body, well honey, that would be my absolute pleasure. So you tell me: where do you want me?”
33
NICK SOBA
“Iwant… the last option,” she said on a whisper as she looked up at me.
It was then that I realized that she was finally giving in. She was leaning into her strength and power by conceding some of it to me. She was finally lettingmetake care ofher.
She had been fighting for so long, it had just been her against the world. And she’d had no one to take care of her or look out for her, until me. She, on some level, was realizing that I’d take care of her every need, want and desire.
I’d show up for her. Every time.
“As you wish, my love,” I whispered back where our breath was mingling, before I leaned down and kissed her like no one had ever kissed her before.
When we found ourselves as desperate for air as we were desperate for our next kiss, we reluctantly pulled apart, our foreheads leaning on one another, our breaths still mingling. “As much as I’d love to continue this and have it go where it was clearly heading, you’ve had one hell of a week. You need to take a hot shower and then eat a decent meal. Okay, baby? You need to rest up, because when I do give you exactly what youwant, you’re going to need your energy,” I said as I gave her a mischievous grin.
“Besides,” I continued. “We have all weekend.”
As those words left my lips, she took in a deep breath and said, “Oh no! Our trip…”
I chuckled, because I’d probably screwed up the getaway with my impatience to get her under my roof. “We can still go…” but I realized that she wasn’t into that with her latest life developments. “Or,” I dragged out the R, “I’ll just reschedule it for later in the fall or this winter.” I shrugged my shoulders, showing her it wasn’t a big deal.
“I feel so bad, Nicholas. I’m so sorry. This weekend was supposed to be an amazing trip and I’d planned to really hone your newly-acquired painting talent.” She grinned at me in that teasing way she was doing more and more of, and I loved it so much. “This was supposed to have been our second to last session too.”
The guilt was really getting to her about all of this, even though just a minute ago she’d relaxed and let me take the reins. Now she was trying to pick up the pieces again, and figure it out - by herself. Because that’s what she was used to.
“Hey, hey, shhh. Honey, it’s okay. I’ll reschedule. We’ll go another time. We can still do a daytrip to The Clark on Sunday if you want and are feeling up to it, or we can make our own venture right here,” I said as I gestured around my house. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this place is kind of special,” and I couldn’t help it when I capped that statement with a wink.
I continued, “We can go down to the apple orchard and paint there.”
“You have an apple orchard?”
I chucked. “Yup. And there’s a horse barn down there too. But you know what? That studio out there might also be calling our names. If I remember correctly from not-too-long-ago, wehad some fun out there. I owe you another modeling session so I’dgladlyget buck-naked and have you just stare at me. Just as long as we get a repeat of the last time we were out there,” I chuckled and said all of this lightly, but I meant every fucking word of it.
What we’d done out in that studio had been the highlight of my life thus far. And that was saying something!
By the time Scottie and I fell into bed that night, we were both exhausted. After all the excitement with her apartment flooding (something that I could check off my to-do list now), packing up her things and moving her into my house, by the time she finished taking a shower and helping me make dinner, it was already late.
I had fed Scottie every bite, which I still thought was one of the most intimate things two people could share together. I wish we could take all of our meals together just like this, but I knew that wasn’t possible… for now.
Laying down in my bed, Scottie cradled in my arms,oh sweet baby Jesus!I don’t know what I’d done in this world to deserve this woman, for her to trust me and care about me enough to share a bed with me, but it was the literal definition of ecstasy.
I had crashed so hard with Scottie cradled in my arms, I’d literally never slept so well in my entire life. And I think the same could be said about her, because she had fallen asleep within five minutes of us laying down. The poor thing was beyond exhausted.
I saw the worry on her face when we were getting ready for bed, like she thought I was expecting something. So when she went to the ensuite bathroom to brush her teeth, I’d followedher, wrapped my large arms around her from behind and nuzzled my face in her neck. I had left the most gentle kiss behind her ear before whispering to her, “Honey, all I want to do is sleep with you in my arms tonight and for us to rest. Everything will not look so bleak or stressful tomorrow. Your apartment, your car… it’s just some bad luck. Together we’ll figure it out.”
She had immediately relaxed in my arms and gave me the cutest smile with the toothbrush hanging out of the one side of her mouth and the foam from the toothpaste covering her perfect teeth.Adorable. She was incredible and adorable no matter what she did or how she looked.
As the morning light crept in through my bedroom window - nay,ourbedroom window - I wrapped my arms tighter around Scottie and she let out a contented little moan in her sleep. I then heard the constanttap-tapof the rain hitting the metal roof. One of the things I’d learned about this house since moving in were all the sounds it made. One of my favorites was the sound of the rain hitting the roof.
