Love to Hate You (Hope Valley #9) - Jessica Prince Page 0,68
closed, feeling like I was floating on a cloud as he traced my hairline with the tips of his fingers before slowly and gently dragging them through my hair.
I managed to peel my eyelids open so I could look up at him, and saw he was watching his hand with fascination. It was as if watching my hair fall through his fingers was mesmerizing. His expression was so soft and unguarded it nearly stole my breath.
“I need to clean up,” I whispered a few minutes later. I hated the thought of losing him like this, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep with him leaking out of me.
He moved, but not to let me go so I could get up. Instead, he rolled, throwing his legs over the edge and climbed out of the bed. I watched, with my knees curled closer to my chest, as he padded across the floor to the bathroom. I heard the sink turn on and off before he returned, carrying a damp washcloth in his hand.
He put his knee onto the mattress and leaned over me, placing his palm on my thigh and gently applying pressure until I lifted it. My heart swelled, the emotions that were bombarding me almost too much to contain. It was just as Sylvia had said. Without even realizing he was doing it, he was nourishing that beauty he held in the palm of his hands.
I sucked in a short gasp when he gently brushed the cloth over my folds. He stopped instantly, his eyes darting up to my face. “Was I too rough?”
I smiled at the concern chiseled into his handsome face. “No, honey. I’m just a little sensitive is all. But in a really good way.”
The worry melted away, replaced with a triumphant smile as he finished cleaning himself from my skin. He tossed the rag across the room, and I was way too blissed-out to give him shit for not putting it in the hamper. Instead, I stretched my limbs, grinning at the dull aches and throbs in my body from Micah’s ministrations.
My stomach chose that moment to let out a little growl. We’d been so desperate to tear into each other that I’d forgotten all about eating dinner, and my body was letting me know it now needed to be taken care of in a different way.
Rolling across the mattress, I climbed out of the bed and grabbed my panties from off the floor, stepping into them and pulling them up my legs before snatching up Micah’s discarded shirt.
“For the love of God, why are you putting on clothes?” he grunted, looking like a mopey teenager as he stared at me from the bed.
“Because I’m starving,” I told him as I did a few of the buttons up and untucked my hair from the collar. “You’re welcome to stay in here and pout, but I need sustenance.”
I let out a little squeak and jumped back on a giggle as he lunged for me, attempting to grab my arm and pull me back.
“Uh-uh. Food. Then play.”
With that, I darted out of the room on a peal of laughter as he ran after me.
Micah
I wasn’t sure what woke me, but when I blinked my eyes open, Hayden’s brightly decorated room was bathed in darkness, only the faint white glow of the moon filtered through the window.
Movement at my side pulled my attention to Hayden’s sleeping form. She’d been curled against me the entire night, her long, silky hair fanned out across my skin. I’d never considered myself a cuddler, but as she rolled to her other side in her sleep, the space she’d just occupied and the skin she’d been pressed against suddenly felt cold.
I wanted her back against me, but before I went about seeing to that, I felt a need that couldn’t be ignored. Carefully sliding out of the bed, I quietly padded out of the room and down the stairs. I checked the locks on all the doors and windows and shut off the few remaining lights still on throughout the house. Standing at the living room window, I stared out at the street, my eyes scanning as if I were looking for some kind of hidden danger lurking in the shadows that I needed to protect the woman upstairs from.
It was a sensation I’d never experienced before. I was protective of my family and the people I loved, sure. But I’d never had someone in my life who made every protective