White Orchids (Watty Awards 2013)

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“Oh, shit!” Tyler shouted, nearly falling off of the bed.

Nicki’s eyes shot open and she propped herself up to look at him.

“What the hell, Ty?”

“Are you okay?”

She checked herself over, just to be sure that she wasn’t missing something. When it was obvious that nothing was wrong, she raised an eyebrow. Not like he could see it through the darkness that still filled the room, but she was confused all the same.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Are you okay?”

A warm hand brushed delicately across her face, calming her from the moment of panic she’d had in the wake of Tyler’s shout.

“I thought I hurt you,” he murmured, stroking his thumb against her cheek.

Nicki covered his hand with hers, partaking in whatever middle of the night affections were taking place.

“No, I’m fine,” she said, relishing in how gently he was treating her. “A little confused, though. What happened?”

“I frigging fell asleep on top of you,” he explained regretfully, “How are you even still breathing?”

She found herself in a fit of hysterics and moved across the bed to curl up against him.

“You aren’t as heavy as you think, babe. It was nice. I liked it.”

“I feel so bad,” he said, wrapping an arm around her.

Nicki laughed again and shook her head. “Did you not hear me say that I liked it? I was fine, Ty. It was actually really comfortable.”

“And weird. Who falls asleep on top of their wife?”

“Probably more people than you think,” she countered, rolling her eyes at his stubbornness.

To prove her point, she snuck out from underneath his arm and crawled on top of him, sliding her arms underneath his neck. She could have sworn she heard a soft moan by her ear, and within seconds Tyler had his arms wrapped snugly around her.

“See? How great is this?” she asked, surrounding herself with his warm skin and musky scent.

“It wouldn’t be so great if you weighed two hundred pounds.”

“Why don’t you just go back to sleep?”

Tyler let out a soft chuckle and tightened his arms around her. “I can do that.”

“Good,” she responded, pressing her lips to the center of his chest.

Little did he know, Nicki had no intentions of going back to sleep. The only thing she planned on doing was lying right where she was, appreciating him for all he was worth. She turned her head so that her ear was pressed against the spot where his heartbeat was strongest. It had always been a sound that disturbed her, and one that she didn’t enjoy hearing. Even when she rested her head on Mark, she would cringe away from the thud of his heart. But there was something about Tyler’s that was incredibly soothing to her. It was always steady, and often helped her fall asleep at night.

She skimmed her fingers along his skin in the hopes that she would help him sleep, and noticed that he was covered in goose bumps.

“Ty?” she whispered, trying to figure out whether or not he was still awake.

Her only answer was shallow breathing, allowing her to draw the conclusion that it would take a bit of craftiness to get the blankets over him. They’d been ruffled during the action that had occurred earlier, but they’d both passed out before making it underneath the sheets.