Chapter 14: Nobody Is Watching

I woke to pale light and Heath's eyes on my face.

He lay on his side with his head on his arm.

I didn't know how long he had been looking.

"You slept in your clothes," he said.

"You let me."

"I wasn't going to be the one to undo a zipper." His mouth tilted. "I've learned my limits."

The old phone sat on the nightstand between us, dark.

I turned it face down.

"Nobody's watching," I said.

"No."

"Third term."

"It broke on Saturday. And on Tuesday, in the kitchen." His hand came up and pushed the hair off my cheek.

"I'm not asking for a term this time, Addie. I'm asking what you want."

I had spent eight years learning to want only what was safe.

"You," I said. "Slowly. In the light. And I want to see all of you this time."

His breath left him.

He kissed me, and it was nothing like the altar or the hallway.

It was unhurried, and it asked for everything.

He took my blouse off a button at a time, and the skirt after it.

He stopped to look at each piece of me he uncovered.

"Stop looking," I whispered. "I'll feel stupid."

"I won't stop looking."

He bent his head and took my nipple into his mouth through the lace.

I arched into him, and my fingers dug into his shoulders.

He pulled the bra off me, and his mouth went back to my bare breast.

His hand slid between my thighs and found how wet I was.

"Addie," he said, against my skin, in a voice I felt in my stomach.

"Take your shirt off."

He sat back on his knees and pulled it over his head.