Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,59
feel. Should I say something to Mason? That’s just awkward. Should I ignore it and act like I always have with him? I don’t want things to change with us; he’s, like, my best friend. And how can I possibly say something to him when I still can’t look him straight in the eye without guilt gnawing at my stomach?
“Is that why you get all jealous around him?”
“I don’t get jealous around him.” He defends himself quickly.
I feel a corner of my lip curve up in a smile. “You totally do.”
He runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “I just … I’ve never felt like this before. It’s weird seeing my best friend trying to put moves on my girl.”
Oh my God. Is Aiden Parker insecure? I didn’t think that was an emotion he even felt. And over me? Of all things? My pulse racing, I crawl into his lap, and his arms automatically go around my waist as he gazes down at me.
“It’s you for me, Aiden.”
He lowers his head and kisses me like he’s suffocating and I’m the air he needs to survive, his arms tightening, pulling me closer to him until I don’t know where he starts and I end. We end up tangled in his sheets, his kisses on my neck doing things to my nerve ends I have only dreamed about.
When he comes to kiss my lips again, I can’t help what happens next: I yawn right in his face. My eyes widen in embarrassment, the mood totally killed. But instead of rolling off of me in disgust, Aiden laughs.
“Guess we should get some sleep,” he says, moving so fluidly that he ends up under me, with his hard chest as my pillow.
“Aren’t you gonna kick me out so you can get some sleep?” I tease.
He kisses my forehead so sweetly that my heart nearly explodes. “No, I’m comfortable just like this.”
Whether it’s the alcohol, the late hour, the new revelation, or Aiden’s reassuring presence, I fall into a peaceful sleep as soon as he wraps a strong arm around my waist and pulls me close.
14
I wake up the next morning expecting to find Aiden’s heavy but comforting arm wrapped around my waist, but the bed is empty. Trying to ignore the sense of longing as I sit up, I rub the sleep from my eyes. It’s only six o’clock, and Aiden isn’t in the room at all. I wonder if the twins are up and ready to open their presents.
When I slide out of bed, the early morning chill hits me all at once, and I slip into a sweater Aiden left on the edge of his bed. Snuggling into it, I resist the urge to smell it like a total psychopath, but it totally has the alluring smell that’s distinctly Aiden.
When I get out of his en suite bathroom, he walks into the room at the same time, a tray in one hand and a present in the other. “Hey, Merry Christmas.”
I sit cross-legged on his bed as he closes the door and smile at him, eyeing the items in his hands.
“Merry Christmas,” I reply. “Did Santa come last night?”
He sits cross-legged on the bed in front of me and sets the tray between us. “Yes. The milk has been drunk and the cookies have been eaten. Even the carrots Jason and Jackson left out for the reindeer are gone. All the stockings are filled with chocolates, face masks, nail polish, and other sparkly stuff for the girls, lots of food for the guys. I think Noah got coal.”
I bite back a laugh. “How about your brothers? What did Santa leave them?”
“Jason and Jackson got a video game each, and I’m kind of annoyed at Santa for indulging their video game addiction.”
My heart warms at his humor. This is how Aiden should always be. Relaxed; happy. I gesture at the tray sitting between us. “What do you have there?”
“Since we all agreed to wake up at the ungodly hour of seven to exchange Secret Santa presents, I figured waking everyone up would go over better if we had some hot chocolate and coffee already made.”
I laugh as I take my mug of hot chocolate off the tray and take a sip.
“This is so weird. You’re a grinch the other 364 days of the year, but you’re nice on Christmas.”
“I am not a grinch.” He looks into his coffee and adds quietly, “Plus, the twins love waking up on Christmas morning and drinking hot