Page 108 of Level Up
I shift over to give him more room, but he follows and latches on immediately. I don’t know if he’s awake or not, but he makes this happy little humming sound against my back. Althoughhumis much too cute a word for it—it comes from somewhere deep in his throat, almost primal, and vibrates through me. I still don’t know if he’s awake, but I definitelyam now.
He shifts closer to me in a way that doesn’t necessarily seem intentional at first, but then it’s clear that he must be awake because he’s?—
Yep.
Then again, every Hadley/SammyThere Was Only One Bedfic makes it seem like this is just a thing that sometimes happens in the morning, that it doesn’t mean anything—or so the characters loudly claim. (And then they usually end up having sex anyway, which kind of invalidates their argument, but still.)
When he kisses the base of my neck, right above my t-shirt tag that I can feel is sticking out, I know for sure that he’s awake. It’s such a small gesture—such a sweet, tiny thing—but it feels like too much. Too much goodness for one person to take, for one person to give.
“Damien?” I turn my head, though I barely get a glimpse of his face in the corner of my eye. Enough to know that his eyes are still shut, at least.
He hums his response against me again. “Mm-hmm?”
“Um. I think—I mean, I’m probably—What I’m trying to say—” I stammer, and his arm curls tighter around me, holding me close to him. “I think I love you?” I don’t know why it comes out as a question, but he hums again.
“Mm-hmm.” Like it’s a statement of fact.
“And I think—I think you already know that.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And I think maybe you love me, too.” I sound much surer about that one, somehow.
“Mm-hmm.”
“Are you asleep?” I ask, rolling around to face him under the weight of his arm.
His eyes are still closed, but he smiles. “No, I heard you.”
“And that’s all you have to say?”
His eyes finally open and they are staring right at me. “I think you know what I’m going to say.”
“What do you—” I cut myself when he lifts himself up on one elbow and leans over me like he’s going to kiss me.
“You know, after everything we’ve been through… Oddly…” he says, brushing hair out of my face.Why is he calling me by my Play’N handle?He smiles again. “I adore you.”
Well, that’s a weird way of?—
“Oh my god!” I say with a laugh when his words register. “You just Hadley’ed me!”
He grins and gives me a small peck on the cheek.
“How long have you been holding onto that one, then?” I ask, practically cackling as he rolls me onto my back.
“A long time,” he says, leaning in, like he’s waiting for me to kiss him. And so, I do. “A really long time.”
There isn’ta lot of time before I have to get to work at Ink & Well, but we’re able to stop in at Green Bean for a quick breakfast sandwich and a cold brew—orhotcoffee, if you’re a cretin like him. I brute-force Damien into trying the jalapeño havarti and peameal breakfast sandwich, despite his hesitation, and in the end, he thanks me for broadening his horizons with something so glorious. Maybe not in those words.
“Are you gonna be okay for your stream today?” I ask him, reaching across the table to touch his arm gently.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” he says with a shrug. “I’m just going to pretend nothing happened. That I didn’t just TMI all over the place.”
His phrasing makes me laugh, but I sober up quickly and nod. “If that’s what you want.”
He gives me an adoring smile—because headoresme,clearly—and I find myself lost in it until I hear my name somewhere above me, hovering next to our table.
I look up to find a familiar face, one I haven’t seen in almost eight years. One I hoped to never see again. “Cameron?”
