Safe Place to Hide || Chenford / The Rookie

Chapter 23

2 weeks later...

Lucy stirs from her sleep as Kojo bounds up onto the bed, settling next to her. Yawning, she rubs her eyes as she automatically seeks out Tim, and she's rewarded when he walks into the bedroom moments later, sweaty and still breathing heavily from his morning run.

Lucy briefly muses on if it'll ever get old — if the sight of him will ever not leave her feeling like she's literally melting on the inside.

"Mmmmm," she mumbles in appreciation as he peels off his shirt.

He turns to her in surprise, "Look who's awake. What are you doing over there?" He narrows his eyes in mock suspicion.

"Just enjoying the view..."

"Oh yeah? And how is it?" Tim asks, pointedly and unnecessarily flexing as he deposits his shirt in the hamper.

Lucy rolls her eyes and lazily pets Kojo on the head as she yawns once again. "It's alright... not bad. Can't say I haven't seen better, but it's pretty good, I guess."

And then he's diving onto the bed, nuzzling his face into her neck as Kojo grumpily dismounts in response to the uninvited intrusion, and Lucy squeals with laughter and indignation, "Seriously, Tim?! Ugh. You're all sweaty."

He shrugs before kissing her on the cheek and then shaking his head. "Two weeks and it's like the honeymoon phase is already over... Besides, it's laundry day."

"Well, why didn't you just say so? If it's laundry day..." Lucy reaches up to pull him back down to her, and soon the heat radiating off of him from his run translates to an entirely different kind of heat between them as his hand slides up under her T-shirt.

***

Humming as she enters the kitchen, endorphins still supercharged from the morning's activities, Lucy is almost overcome with her feelings for Tim as she watches him assemble their breakfast plates. She slides up behind him, fully appreciating that he hasn't bothered with a shirt post-shower, and presses a kiss against his shoulder blade.

Tim reaches over and pours coffee into the two awaiting mugs — one empty and one almost a quarter full with some sort of sugary almond milk creamer that Lucy loves and has now become a staple in his refrigerator.

He kisses the top of her head as he turns to face her and offers her the mug.

Lucy sighs in contentment and steps back to lean against the island, wrapping her hands around the cup, and reveling in the wave of affection for him that is still washing over her.

"God, I just lo—" Lucy freezes as her brain catches up to the words coming out of her mouth and holy shit she was basically half a syllable away from telling him she loves him, and it's way too soon for that, right? Right?

Tim is watching her carefully, face unreadable. Mortified, Lucy stumbles to correct her misstep, "L-love coffee, so, so much. You know? Isn't it amazing?" Lucy finishes, officially flustered and positive that her cheeks are on fire.

Tim's lips twitch just slightly, the only movement that betrays any kind of reaction from him until he takes a step closer to her, reaching around her to set his cup down on the island before taking hers and doing the same.

Lucy watches, eyes wide, as he turns his full attention to her, hands resting on the countertop on either side of her waist, mere inches between them.

He presses a sweet kiss to the tip of her nose, and his voice is husky, "Yeah," and then another one to her forehead, "I," her cheek, "really," her jawline, "love," her neck, "coffee," the corner of her mouth, "too."