Cruel Temptation | ongoing

chapter eighteen

C H A P T E R   E I G H T E E N
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Unlike yesterday, I woke up with my bed partner still there. Turning to look at him, I felt a warmth spread through me as I took in the sight of his long eyelashes casting a shadow over his cheeks and the way his hair, always so neat, was messed about. The tingling only increased when my eyes found a small scar behind his ear but, rather than journey straight to my lower belly like it usually did with him, it flowed through my whole body, alighting my senses.

With shaky fingers, I reached out to him. They traced the sharp contours of his face, committing each curve and dip to memory like he was a map and I the wary but intent explorer. It scared me that he could make me feel like this. It scared me that with him, I felt more myself than I had in years. It scared me that he could just take it all away. 

I would never need a man to be myself or to be happy even, that I knew for certain, but a little company didn't hurt. Especially when it made me feel like this.

"That tickles," he mumbled, after I ran my index finger from his forehead to his lips.

"Tickles?" I asked, an amused smile pulling at my own lips. "I didn't know Mr Miller Dreyton was... ticklish."

He cracked open an eye and looked at me. "Doesn't make me any less manly, does it?" I ventured lower with my fingers, along his chest and abdomen. He watched me with a slightly confused expression. I squeezed his side. "Ah!"

"No," I replied. "But that does."

"It does, does it?" he asked, turning us over so he was on top of me, supporting his weight with his forearms.

I nodded. "Afraid so."

He ground into me. "Still think so?" I laughed, before wincing slightly at the early stages of a migraine. "You okay? How's your head?"

"Manageable."

"Would you like me to—" He ran a hand down my side, pulling my leg to rest on his hip. "— make you feel better?"

"What happened to no touching?" I didn't mean it. No, I wanted him to touch me more than anything, give me what he so cruelly deprived me of last night. Why'd he have to do the honourable thing?

"If that's what you want..." He pushed himself onto his hands, putting distance between us.

I pulled him back to me, until our faces were inches apart. "Maybe I wouldn't mind you making me feel better."

He brought his head down to the crook of my neck. "Say no more." I shivered. His hands travelled up and down my leg, eliciting goosebumps all across my skin.

A knock at the door sounded.

"Miller," I said.

He paused. "Ignore it." He presser his hips down, making me groan. Open mouthed kisses were gifted to my skin, letting me forget the person at the door. Come back later, I thought, trying to force the message through the wall at to the person on the other side.

Again, a knock sounded.

"Go, Miller," I told him, dropping my limbs so I was flat against the bed. "I'll still be here."