Tetris in Red

24: Tetris in Confusion

24: Tetris in Confusion

Rhys

My door opens just as I land on the bed with a muted thud. Alec leans against the doorway with his arms crossed, his eyes regarding me with a lazy sweep. Tingles rise everywhere his eyes linger. "I'm so—"

"Don't."

If he apologizes, I'm going to apologize too. Obviously, there's absolutely nothing I need to apologize for.

His presence begins to feel comforting than it is a nuisance after last night. And I just... don't have it in me to put a stop to it yet.

You know what happens when you start admitting there's good in people—you begin to empathize.

No one needs it right now.

I turn on my side and rest my head on my palm. "You want to rewrite these scribbles on a paper or what?"

He shrugs and walks toward me, stopping where my feet hanging a meter shy from the ground. "Paper?"

I nod to my suitcase beside the dresser. Alec unzips it and grabs my new notebook from a net pocket. I sit up, hand on the knot of my robe. "Where do you want me?"

Heat creeps up my cheeks as Alec turns his full attention to me. Images of what happened earlier flash through my mind. The urgency in his eyes, his innocent touches, and the way the guitar-string scars on the pads of his fingers brushing on my bareback. Then when his friends entered the room, he covered me like how a man would for his woman.

I didn't need it. I'm confident with my own skin and I definitely don't mind dressing in front of them. I wouldn't have removed my robe in the first place. But I like that he felt so protective of me. I like it.

I like it a lot.

I gaze up at him under my lashes, feeling shy and naked all of a sudden despite the robe still intact. Alec must have noticed this when he says, "I'll turn around so you can cover yourself up. Just need to see your back, is all."

That's unnecessary. "Thank you."

When he turns, I start unknotting my robe. Cold air envelopes my body as it swishes past my shoulder. Using it to cover my breasts, Alec faces me when I told him so. But my back is already turned to him, feeling a bit vulnerable despite my earlier confidence. His footsteps loud over the pounding of my heart.

The air feels so intimate as he sits beside me, the entirety of me completely aware that he's fully clothed still.

"All of a sudden, my hands were painted red." I hear Alec whispers as he traces the words on my back. I never felt so hot.

I inhale. "Red could be a number of things. I wonder which one you're talking about."

"Seduction, anger, passion and love." He pauses. "... I haven't decided yet."

I don't want to touch that, so I ask, "Are you almost done?"

"Two more stanzas, love."

It felt more than that. Like he's writing a full novel on my notebook as I remain in my semi-awkward position. I don't even want to think what the guys were thinking when Alec decided to follow me up here. So I distract myself with other things as he writes.