Page 80 of Attached At Heart
“I would happily bruise my knuckles for you, Delaney.”
I’d do a whole lot more than that, but she didn’t need to know everything. Not yet.
She shook her head, and though I couldn’t see her face, I could imagine it was exasperated. She thought I was joking, but I wasn’t. Not even fucking close.
“All this cheese is making me hungry.”
I smiled against the top of her head, enjoying the position we were in right now far too much. Delaney leaned back slightly, resting against my chest.
“Want to get food after this?” I offered.
She nodded happily, and we watched the rest of the cheese market, not moving from our spot. Or our position. And I felt like the luckiest man in the whole goddamn universe.
It was a feeling that continued for the rest of the day. From lunch in Alkmaar to a walk along the canals, watching Delaney marvel over all the flowers that lined the streets—all of it was perfect. And real. And not at all like something that was fake or just for show.
It made me realize that I had a few more days here with Delaney to make her understand the same thing.
“Do you have a preference on which side you want to sleep on?” she asked as we approached the bed.
That we would both be sleeping in.
Both of us.
In one bed.
It shouldn’t feel like a big deal. Not considering how we’d woken up this morning, smashed together on the same couch. Me, half-naked. Her, completely naked. We couldn’t get ourselves in a more precarious situation than that, could we?
But itwasa big deal. Because I had to pretend that I hadn’t experienced how good she felt in my arms. How perfect her body was. How precisely we fit together.
“I’d rather not sleep by the window,” I said, not wanting the vision of the sea to taunt me even when my eyes were closed. But then I thought about it for another second, thought about Delaney lying there instead, and immediately changed my mind. “Actually, I’ll sleep by the window, that’s fine.”
Delaney stood next to the bed with a wrinkle between her brows as she considered me, trying to puzzle me out.
She was always trying to puzzle everything out.
I wasn’t sure how she hadn’t completely put all my pieces together yet, how she hadn’t figured out they all added up to equal her.
“You know if I sleep next to the window,” she said slowly, “I’m not going to roll off the bed and into the sea in the middle of the night, right?”
Or maybe she had figured me out more than I realized.
“You never know,” I muttered, looking down as I walked to the window side of the bed and pulled back the covers on it. “I’d like to keep you as far away from that water as possible, thank you very much.”
“Blake,” she sighed as she collapsed on the opposite side of the mattress. “I wish I could just take away all of your worries. I’d shoulder them for you if I could.”
I shook my head and slipped into bed beside her. “You shoulder enough.”
She released another heavy breath as she settled beneath the covers. She turned on her side, facing the interior of the home,and I did the same. We were in the same position, but it felt like there was a whole ocean between us. And as much as our closeness tortured me, the distance did, too. I needed tofeelher to ground myself, especially as the sound of the sea kept crashing into my ears.
I extended my leg until I found Delaney beneath the covers, brushing my foot against hers and letting the littlest connection and that slight sizzling of awareness soothe me.
Delaney gave me a cursory glance over her shoulder. “I know that we’ve established that we’re not the kind of friends who talk about our kinks, but do you have a thing about feet I should be aware of? I don’t think you’re going to like mine.”
A tight laugh fell from my lips. Mostly because hearing Delaney say the wordkinksmade my lungs feel like they were being squeezed.
“Are you saying you want to be the kind of friends who talk about their kinks, Lane?” I asked, doing my best to sound like I was teasing. “Because if you want to change things up, I can give you a full rundown.”
The light of the moon revealed Delaney’s cheeks tinting a vibrant pink, and God, it was so incredibly tempting to keep going, just to see how brightly I could get her to blush. But I didn’t want to push the envelope if she wasn’t ready.
