and found myself living with my walking wet dream. But my life was my own again, my stuff was with me, and I could actually hold a conversation with Kit without making a total twat out of myself.
I squealed in disbelief and covered my face as I remembered that, for one brief moment, it had been even better because my lips had brushed his. I felt elated and terrified at the knowledge that I wasn’t the only one thinking things that probably shouldn’t be thought. I wasn’t the only one thinking about kissing instead of talking, the only one stealing glances. I wasn’t making up the sizzle. I just didn’t know how to take it from a brush of the lips to a kiss to make me forget my own name.
I was also shit scared of what would happen after the kiss. And I simultaneously didn’t care at all as long as I got one taste of him.
My head was a hot mess and I couldn’t wipe the ridiculous smile off my face.
“I need a heavy dose of reality and a larger dose of caffeine,” I muttered to myself as I pulled on my glasses and dragged myself out of bed like the risen undead.
I padded out to the living area and blinked to find Kit already up. He was wearing knee-length shorts and a hooded tank top both in tracksuit material. His feet were bare and his hair was still sticking up like he hadn’t been up for long or, like me, he didn’t really care what he looked like.
“Morning,” I yawned as I slouched over to the breakfast bar.
“Morning. Coffee?”
“Ugh, please,” I mumbled, lying my head on my arms and watching him.
He shot me a look over his shoulder and grinned. “How were you feeling about going over some self-defence stuff this morning?” he asked.
I sighed. “Uh…lazy.”
“I thought so.”
“How detrimental to my health would it be if I took a pass on that?”
He turned and leant on the bench so our noses were almost touching. An electric zing shot through me and I wriggled my nose. Kit looked me over and his smile was softer.
“Depends on if you’re running away or okay, I guess.”
I tilted my head to the other side. “Would you believe me if I said okay?”
His look was more searching this time, like he could actually see into my soul or something. “I would.”
I nodded. “Then I’m saved from exercise today?”
He huffed a laugh as he stood up. “Sure. Why not.”
I smiled as I spun myself on the stool. “Okay. Good.”
“Do you need to study?”
I looked at all my stuff on the table. “How much are we planning on drinking tonight?” I countered.
He appeared beside me and rested against the bench. “Mondays are usually pretty quiet for us. Could be a lot.”
I looked at him, his muscles and his ink tantalising me, his hands all strong but gentle as they held his mug. If I let him start teaching me self-defence then he’d probably have to put them all over me.
Because that was a good idea. My already raging libido needed there to be excessive skin-on-skin contact.
“I’d best get to studying then.”
He nodded. “All right. I’ll leave you to it.”
It was not what I wanted, but it was the sensible thing to do. Also, I hadn’t done any work the day before and I had a feeling I wouldn’t get any done the next day either. So I took my coffee from him, relishing the way my skin tingled as our fingers touched, and went to my pile of mess on his table.
For the first few minutes, my eyes kept lifting and following him as he moved around doing whatever it was he did. But the next thing I realised was him walking into his room and telling me we’d have to leave soon and my dress was on the corner of the table. I was used to getting lost in my work to avoid the real world, but even that was impressive.
I hurriedly packed up, had the quickest shower of my life, and pulled on the dress Petra had sent up for me. I felt ever so slightly out of my element but, when I caught a look at myself in the mirror, all doubts were gone. Just like Friday, when I saw myself in that dress, I looked like a freaking queen, a proper adult woman and I felt amazing.
“Watch out, world,” I murmured as I took one last look at my arse,