The Autumn Prince

24. Broken Hearts

I woke first in the dark, windowless room, feeling slightly stiff from sleeping in the same position all night and instantly aware of warm, soft skin beneath my fingers. Less than a week ago I'd have been shocked by such intimate contact, but I'd been warming up to the idea of physical affection, and instead of jerking my hand away, I luxuriated in the nervous thrill of my flesh against hers. The good feelings lasted for several seconds until I realized my hand was flat against her ribs, pressed beneath the contour of her naked breast, at which point I did jerk my hand away, waking her.

"What's wrong?" she mumbled, half-turning toward me.

"Nothing," I stammered back, "I was dreaming."

"Bad?"

"No, not exactly."

"What time is it?"

I turned as far as I could without falling off the bed and tapped my phone. "Ugh, it's after nine."

"It's Sunday, nobody's going to yell at you for oversleeping." She pulled my hand back around her and hugged it against herself.

I leaned close and whispered in her ear, "Rachel's coming for breakfast and Becca's sleeping in the living room. Might be hard to explain that." Katherine mumbled a curse and sat up with a stretch.

"Fine. Maybe you can smooch our house guest and knock her out, then we can hide her in here or stuff her in a closet."

"You're a little frosty this morning."

"I'm just joking. Probably." She crawled over me, pausing to straddle my waist and lean in for a good morning kiss, deliberately settling her weight on my lap. "You sure you don't want to sleep in?"

"This doesn't feel like sleeping."

"Details." She kissed me again then slipped off the bed. "But you're probably right, we need to get ready." As she turned, she let the too-large pajama bottoms slip to the floor and cat walked the last few feet to the door. "Dibs on the shower!"

Katherine Faith Minett was a delight in almost every sense of the word, but she absolutely did not play fair.

I finally stood up, resorting to routine mental exercises to calm my thoughts and ease the tension in my groin before I felt comfortable leaving the bedroom. When I did, the water was running in the bathroom and Becca sat at one end of the sofa, the heavy Glim lying open in her lap while the hagstone dangled from its leather cord around her neck.

"Good morning," I said with a yawn.

"Morning." She smiled, "Katherine is in the bathroom. She didn't say anything but she dropped her shirt on the floor there, but it's way too big so I guess it's probably yours. Your girlfriend doesn't like me, does she?" I suspected dropping the shirt was a kind of challenge, emphasizing the night spent in my bed wearing my clothes—a symbol of her claim on me. Psych majors.

"She's just having a hard time adjusting," I said. "Neither of us anticipated another person. I don't imagine you expected to be here either."

"It's okay, I wouldn't like me either if I was her." She bit her lip and continued, "I'm sorry I tried to ask you out yesterday. I've never done that before. I guess I know now why I did."

"Why would you be sorry?"

"Well it's kind of weird having done that and now I'm living with you and your girlfriend. And we have to kiss and stuff."

"That's not even the weirdest part," I said, and she favored me with a shy smile.

"I guess you're right. She's really pretty," Becca observed again with a glance at the bathroom door.