He’s got soapsuds up to his elbows, and he is in the middle of scrubbing a plate, but I see him swell with pride as he grins at her.
I pick up a tea towel and dry the stuff as he passes it to me, putting it away in a bid to get to bed quicker. When we’re finally finished, I smile seductively, and we make an escape for my bedroom.
His warm, soft hands are on my waist, under my jumper, and his mouth is nuzzling at my neck, making my tummy flutter in anticipation of some naked snuggling with him as we stumble across the lounge towards the back hallway where the bedrooms are located. As we round the corner, Mum is just stepping out of the only bathroom down the hall. She’s already in her silk pyjamas. One of her eyebrows rises, and she holds up a hand to halt us.
“I obviously don’t mind you two staying the night together, and what you do in the privacy of your own homes is none of my business. But under my roof, I don’t want to hear any sex,” she states. She turns to Jared and points at his crotch. “If I do, I’ll put a curse on your penis, and it’ll shrivel and drop off. And don’t think I can’t do it.”
Jared laughs, his hand gently stroking my back. “Understood.”
“G’night, Mum.” I roll my eyes and tug on his hand, pulling him into my small box room. There’s barely any space for furniture in here, just a bed, wardrobe, and a shelf that I use as a dressing table.
His eyes roam around, settling on my single bed, and a small smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “You weren’t kidding about the bed.”
Reaching for the bottom of my jumper, I tug it off over my head and drop it on the floor. His eyes darken immediately and drop to my breasts covered only in a pink lacy bra. My teeth sink into my bottom lip as I reach for him, but surprisingly, he steps back, accidentally bumping against the door because the space is so tight.
He shakes his head. “Oh no, I’m not risking a shrivelled dick.”
Ignoring his protest, I begin to open the fly on my jeans, my fingers lingering teasingly across my tummy and hips. I can see the pained, wanting expression on his face. “She only said she didn’t want to hear it. We’ll be quiet.”
He scoffs, shooting me a smug smile, “Baby, you can’t be quiet.” Before I can push my jeans down over my hips, he steps forward, wrapping his arms around me. “Don’t. For Christ’s sake, don’t. I can’t handle it.” He closes his eyes and holds me against him.
I chuckle at the needy quiver in his voice. “Seriously? She was only joking around.”
He nods, kissing the top of my head. “Yes, seriously. Not tonight. Come on; I’m doing so well. Let me at least respect her rules. If you take off those jeans, I’m going to fuck you, and she’ll hear it—believe me. The whole damn street will hear it and know my name.”
The promise and sexy growl in his voice, coupled with his thickening arousal I can feel against my tummy, forces a needy whimper from my lips. I groan, looking up at him to check that he’s serious. Unfortunately, he is.
I pull back and sigh heavily, my disappointment crushing. “Fine, but you’re making it up to me tomorrow.”
“Without a doubt.” He swats my behind, and I flush with pleasure.
I awkwardly step around him in the tight space and pull open a drawer in my wardrobe, finding the spare pyjamas I keep here. “I’ll go get changed in the bathroom. I need to take my make-up off anyway.”
I don’t wait for an answer as I slip from the room, pulling my top on over my head as I go. In the bathroom, I change and do my business. By the time I get back to my bedroom, Jared is in bed and has turned off the light. I stop in the doorway, looking through the gloom at this huge beast of a man stretched out on my childhood bed. His feet protrude from the end, and he takes up three-quarters of the space. It’s surprisingly sexy.
Sighing, I close the door and traipse over to the bed. “I take it, I’m against the wall?” I guess, reaching out in the dark to feel he’s lying at the edge of the bed.
“You want me to? I don’t mind; it’s just that you usually sleep on my left side,” he replies, shifting to the side.
I put my hand on his bare chest and halt his movements, secretly loving that I have a usual side. “It’s fine.”
I lift a leg, accidentally kicking him as I manoeuvre over the top of him, both of us laughing and me pretending not to notice how turned on he is still. As I settle down at his side, trapped between his hot, hard body and the wall, his arms wrap around me, pulling me against him as his leg tangles with mine.
When he kisses me, I smile against his lips. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.”
He chuckles and pulls back.
Light creeps in from under the door and through the crack in the curtains, so I can just about make out his face in the murky darkness as he strokes a hand through my hair.
I close my eyes, sleep calling me already as I snuggle against him, loving the feel of his body against mine. He smells divine. I want to crawl inside his skin and live there.
Suddenly, he lets out a heavy sigh.
I blink up at him. “Are you okay?”
He dips his head, pressing a soft kiss against my forehead. “Yeah. I was just lying here, thinking.”
“Did you hurt yourself?” I joke, running my hands down his back, stopping just before I get to the waistband of his boxer shorts, trying to respect his boundaries tonight.
He huffs a laugh, his hold on me tightening. “Amy, I know we’ve only been together for five weeks, and that’s not very long really. But I just gotta tell you … being with you is like falling down a rabbit hole. It’s disorientating and scary but exhilarating. I have no idea how deep that hole is—maybe I’ll just keep falling forever—but I really can’t wait to find out.”
I gulp at his sweet words, emotion hitting me and making my eyes prickle with tears. “Jared …” I breathe.
“I love you,” he adds.
The three words from his mouth hit me like a punch directly to the heart. He loves me. My mouth pops open in shock, and my fingers dig into his back. I wasn’t prepared. I had no idea how incredible those three simple words could sound until that moment.
He leans in, kissing my lips while I’m still reeling from the shock of it. I feel a tear slide down my cheek as his hand traces up my back to tangle in my hair. The kiss is so full of emotion and affection that I feel it in every nerve ending. My whole body prickles with pleasure and happiness.
When he pulls back, kissing my lips, my nose, my forehead, I whimper and close my eyes. I’ve never felt happier than at that moment, lying in the dark with him.
“I love you too, you know,” I whisper against his throat.
I feel him smile against the top of my head. “I do now.”
I grin up at him in the darkness, hyperaware of where his body is in relation to mine. “Jared, shut up and kiss me.”
And so he does.
When I wake in the morning, the bed beside me is cold. I squint against the shadows, reaching out my hand for Jared … but he’s not there.
I frown and sit up, rubbing at my eyes and stretching like a cat as my body shakes off some of the tiredness. Morning snuggles with Jared are my favourite, so I’m a little bit miffed to wake on my own.