was using it as I would my stuffed animal.
I lifted my head from his arm that was out away from his body, and then slowly let it go, trying really hard not to wake him in the process.
Only, he was already awake.
He moved, his eyes coming to me, and he said, “You don’t just snore.”
I blinked.
“I don’t?”
He shook his head. “You sound like a chainsaw being started.”
My mouth fell open.
“I don’t snore that bad!” I countered.
I didn’t, did I?
My family said I snore.
I didn’t know if I actually did or not, but I wouldn’t doubt it.
I’d had nose problems since I was a young kid. When my nose wasn’t bleeding over nothing, it was stuffed up—even if I wasn’t sick. When I was sick, it was even worse.
I’d had surgery to correct a few things, but even then it’d only managed to fix a small amount of the problem. Leaving me to wonder if I’d ever breathe normally through my nose.
But, I guessed, it was pretty normal for me.
“You do snore that bad, and you did it right up against my body the entire night. I think if I could’ve just detached my arm and given it to you, it would’ve been better,” he teased as he got up out of bed, reached down, and slowly pulled sweatpants on over his black boxers.
Since the blinds were still closed on the windows, I only got the vaguest of outlines of his body, but it was enough for me to see that he had a tattoo on his back.
I gasped.
“You have another tattoo!” I crowed.
He grunted something unintelligible and went to the bathroom to relieve himself.
“You pee really loud,” I found myself saying.
There was a long pause then, “I guess we both have our faults.”
Grinning at his quip, I walked to the blinds and yanked them open, realizing that it was just now around seven in the morning.
We woke up too early.
Now what the hell were we supposed to do for the rest of the day?
There was television, sure, but that wasn’t enough to keep us occupied the entire day.
“I’m going to work out,” he said as he washed his hands while looking at me over the sheet. “Do you want to work out with me?”
“I didn’t bring any shoes,” I teased.
He grinned. “We can do it barefoot until we get you some shoes.”
I didn’t really want to work out, but what in the hell else was there to do?
So that was exactly what we did.
We worked out.
And he told me what to do every single step of the way.
By the end, I was sweaty, in desperate need of another shower, and couldn’t keep my eyes off of the man that was in sweatpants only.
The only saving grace that I had was that the sweatpants were black, which not only hid the sweat but also fairly concealed his bulge outline.
I was lying on the mat, back down, and staring at him as he finished up his last set of dumbbell presses.
I watched as the muscles in his shoulders bunched, revealing a well-defined back that made me want to follow the paths of muscles with my fingertips.
A drop of sweat fell from his hair, landing midway down his spine, and traveled all the way down until it disappeared into the waistband of his pants.
“You might as well go get your shower done,” he suggested. “Maybe when I’m finished, you’ll be done.”
I didn’t want to leave him. I liked watching his muscles. His sweaty back.
I ignored his comment and said, “Why wings?”
The tattoo on his back was massive. It took up the entire expanse of his back, starting from one shoulder and spreading to the other.
The wings even curled onto his arm, but stopped abruptly as if it was just cut off right where his shirt sleeves would fall. At least on one arm, anyway. The other arm flowed right into a raven that was on his left arm.
“Broken wings,” he corrected me. “And I got it because of its symbolism.”
“Broken wings?” I asked. “Why?”
He set the dumbbells down and turned to me, revealing his stomach.
His abs.
His very sexy, definitely has more than a six-pack, abs.
“Just a reminder that though I may be here, right now, I’ll never escape.” He shrugged.
That only made me realize that I needed more of an explanation than what he was giving me.
Dammit.
I opened my mouth to say something more, but he walked past me out of the workout room.
“If you’re not going to take a shower first, I