to North Carolina and it’s practically the middle of the night. Ethan is upstairs passed out and Nicole is sleeping.
They laugh a little bit when I look at her door. She’s fifteen feet away from me, barely dressed, and sleeping. I can only imagine how beautiful and sweet she looks when she’s in her bed. Christ.
“You nail her yet?” Garrett laughs when I scowl at him. He’s just giving me shit and I totally deserve it, but still. I don’t want him or anyone else thinking of Nic that way. She’s mine.
The thought rattles me. I’ve known her for less than two weeks….but she is. I want all of her.
My lip twitches and I take a drink of my beer so I don’t say something stupid and show them how messed up I really am just thinking about her.
“None of your business,” I say with a scowl.
“She’s got you all twisted up in knots, man.” Chase shakes his head like he’s amazed. He probably is. And she does have me twisted up – but it’s not the reason they’re thinking. It’s not just because we haven’t had sex yet, even though I want too. It’s because she’s all I think about and it feels crazy. I haven’t thought about a girl like this since before I made my first record deal.
Garrett smiles at me knowingly. Apparently he’s going to stop being a prick. He’s the only one of us who has been able to have a halfway normal relationship since we started touring. I want to pick his brain and ask him how he and Chloe manage to stay together when they spend so much time apart. It kills me that in a couple of weeks Nicole’s going to be heading back home to Minneapolis.
And I don’t want her to go.
God I’m messed up.
Suddenly, the door to her room opens and Nicole stands in the doorway. My mouth drops open and I clench my beer when I see her. She has on….practically nothing. I feel my jeans get tighter just looking at her and then I frown. Her eyes are red and her cheeks are pink.
She’s been crying, but before I can ask her why, she crosses her arms and walks across the living area and just climbs onto my lap.
What in the hell? I shoot Chase and Garrett a look and nod my head for them to leave. They get up immediately and thankfully, without a word. I wait until they’re gone before I brush her hair out of her face.
“What’s going on?” I ask and I realize I sound like my tongue is caught in my throat. It might be. Nicole has never seemed so vulnerable like she does right now and she doesn’t say anything so I just wrap my arms around her and lean back into the couch, letting her hide her face in my chest.
She feels amazing and smells even better and it makes me think all sorts of things I shouldn’t be right now, but I can’t help it.
“I don’t want to be alone,” she says, just above a whisper into my chest.
“What happened?” I ask again, hoping she’ll talk to me. Slowly she pulls her face up to me and I resist the urge to kiss her. Her eyes are sad.
“I just had a bad dream.” She puts her face back against my chest and I smile against the top of her head when she breathes in deeply. I can tell she doesn’t want to talk about it, so I don’t ask. I can only imagine what her dreams are like.
Instead, I do the one thing I’ve been thinking of doing with this girl ever since the first time I saw her.
I wrap an arm around her back and another under her knees and stand up. I carry her to her room and she only once looks at me with questioning eyes.
I shake my head and say nothing. This isn’t the night for sex; I just have the strangest and crazy urge to hold her all night and keep her safe and erase the tears from her eyes. She’s had enough to cry about.
I lay her down and take a few steps back. I need some space because even though I know I shouldn’t want her right now; I do. I turn my back and strip off my jeans and shirt and crawl into bed next to her.
Her eyes are all hazy when I look at her and I love it.