Everything But (23 page)

She thought about it and nodded.  “You know, I don’t think we should even think of it that way.  Instead, well, we got through a rough spot.  And I feel like tonight, we
kinda
started over.  Don’t you?”

His smile finally reached his eyes.  “I like that.”

She leaned over and kissed him.  Then she glanced at the tub.  She needed to turn off the water because it was already getting too high. 
“Are you ready to get in
?”

“Should I get in first?”

“Probably…isn’t that how it’s done?”

He laughed.  “God, we’re pathetic.”  He grabbed the champagne flutes and set them on the floor next to the tub and got in on the side opposite the faucet.

“Oh, crap.  Hold on a second.”  She’d forgotten one of the most important parts of this fantasy—candles.  She had a couple in her room as well as a lighter, so she grabbed them.  Riley grinned when she came in and set them on the counter.  She lit them and then switched off the light.  “Now it’s perfect, right?”

His eyes sparkled when he said, “Yep, I think so.”

He held out his hand for her and she took it,
then
stepped in the tub.  She sat down in front of him and asked, “Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“Nope.
  Lean back.”  She rested
the back of
her head on his chest and felt an overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort, an almost foreign emotion.
 
And even though part of her felt like she should make conversation, the other part of her felt comfortable saying nothing, just enjoying the moment.
  His arms were wrapped around her and she felt better than she had in a long time.

After a while, he asked if she wanted a sip of her soda, so she did.  As she was handing him back the glass to set on the floor,
his finger
touched her wrist.  The
marks
were still there but fading.  “Jesus…I’m really sorry about that.”
  He took her glass and set it on the floor.

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.  It hurt you.”

She smiled and turned her head, trying to see his face.  “It really
didn’t
hurt.  I didn’t notice it till after.”

He didn’t say anything, just lifted her wrist to his lips and kissed it.  And they stayed in the tub until the water grew
cool,
not talking like Erin had thought they would, simply reflecting.  She wondered what Riley was thinking about.  If he was doing what she was, he was looking back over the past few days, wondering how the fuck
his feelings had grown so quickly.

Erin didn’t know it, but his thoughts weren’t so far from hers.

* * *

Riley didn’t protest when Erin invited him into her bed to spend the night.  Riley knew how his parents were, though, and they’d be that way until the day they died—worrywarts.  But he also knew they might be in bed already, so he sent his mother a text, letting her know he wouldn’t be home till morning.

Once they were in the bedroom, she told him to get comfortable and asked if he needed anything.  When he said
no
, she switched off the light and snuggled next to him.  She smelled and felt so good, and having her pressed up against him made his primal self stir deep within.  But no way was he going there—she needed her sleep and it was close to midnight.  He didn’t even know what time she
normally
awoke in the morning, but he wasn’t going to make her day tomorrow difficult by
giving it to her one more time.

He almost shook his head.  No, he didn’t really think of it as
giving it to her
.  In fact, he was moving into the
make love
territory.  Jesus Christ…he couldn’t believe how quickly he’d collapsed in the shadow of this woman.  He had no idea how she had this hold over him or why.  He only knew she was something special and unlike any woman he’d been with over the past decade.  And she might have seemed a little
starstruck
at first, but that hadn’t sustained her.  No, he knew that the first night they met.  Sure, he suspected she hadn’t
completely
minded when he’d pulled her body into his that first night as she was trying to extricate herself to drive out of the parking lot, but she’d been strong and stood up to him.  When was the last time a woman—a hot, desirable woman—had done that?  Shit…it had been ages.

And then the whole handcuff debacle.  A lot of women he’d been
with in
the last few years never would have said a word, no matter how they’d felt.  But she had no fear of telling him exactly what she was thinking or feeling.  Everything between them felt honest and open, and now that they’d cleared the air…well, anything seemed possible.

He gritted his teeth and breathed in her smell.  He could tell she was drifting off…her breathing was growing more steady and quiet and her body felt like it was relaxing more.  He knew he should leave right now if he ever expected to stop himself from falling down that abyss
,
but before he fell asleep, he knew he’d made a conscious decision to
stay. 
To hell with it.

Chapter Twenty-three

RILEY WOKE UP
to Erin’s alarm blaring.  It only rang a few seconds and she
turned it off but rested her head back on her pillow
.  It was dark in her room, so he couldn’t judge the time.
  Her back was to him,
but she was
facing the side of her bed where the alarm clock was.  Riley moved over and wrapped her in his arms.

He couldn’t tell if she actually fell back as
leep.  As he lay there, his cheek
touching her hair, breathing in her sweet smell, he knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep.  In fact, he was wondering how much time she
gave herself
to get ready in the morning.
  He had dreamed about her most of the night and his thoughts weren’t exactly pure
, so he wondered if they could sneak in a little fun before she had to go
.

Finally, unable to stop himself, he brushed her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck, just small, warm kisses.  That’s when he found out she was awake.  She shiv
ered and then scrunched her shoulders
.  “Morning,” she said.  He said it back but kissed her again
, once, twice, just tiny little kisses on the nape of her neck
.  “You better quit that.  I don’t have time this morning.”

He let out a long breath.  “What if we were able to finish by the time your alarm goes off again?”

She giggled.  “We’d just be getting started.”  She rolled over and he thought maybe she was going to go for it.  Instead, she pecked him on the lips.  “You can sleep longe
r if you want.”  She
roll
ed
over to get out of bed, but
before she could sit up,
he wrapped his hands around her waist.

“Not so fast.”

“Riley, I have to get ready.  Like it or not.”

He kissed her neck again.  “Well, shit.  I guess if you feel the need to be responsible…”

He let go of her and she sat up.  “I happen to like my job, so I guess I better.”  She switched off her alarm
clock
.
  And even though it wasn’t light in her room, he could see her outline as she walked across the room and pulled
her robe off a hook hanging on
her closet door.  “If you want breakfast, I have plenty of food in the kitchen.”

He sat up and stretched his arms. 
“Maybe in a while.
  Are you
gonna
eat something?”

“Nah.
  I’m just
gonna
jump in the shower.”

He felt a smile spread over his face.  “Sure you don’t want some company?”

A light laugh flowed from her mouth as she walked back across the room.  “You’re a little devil.”  She kissed him on the cheek.  “Behave yourself.”

“All right.”

He sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes and heard her start the shower.  He was going to get dressed and realized his
jeans
were in the bathroom.  So he got up and tapped on the door.  He heard Erin say something, so he popped his head in.  “Can I grab my pants?”

“Yeah.
  Go ahead.”

H
e entered the bathroom and, even though he was tempted to rip the shower curtain aside and ravish her, he just grabbed his jeans and underwear off the floor and put them on.  “Mind if I use a little toothpaste?”

She pulled the shower curtain aside and
peeked
her head out.  “No, go ahead.  It’s in the medicine cabinet.”

He took the tube out and squeezed some on his index finger, then cleaned his teeth and tongue as best he could.  But he wasn’t thinking about what he was doing.  Instead, he was thinking about Erin.  A week ago, he’d been hanging with his band mates, complaining about how he had to make an appearance at home.  Sure, he’d played it up a little, because he really
did
want to see his brother and he’d even wanted to see his parents…just not for an entire week.  But he’d never expected to find this woman and fall as hard as he had.

Riley paused and looked hard at
himself
in the mirror.  Yeah, his eyes weren’t lying.  He was falling.

And that was fucking stupid.

He was going to be gone in just a few days.  This was supposed to just be a little fun.  Somehow, he’d managed to get his heart entangled in the whole mess.

And he wasn’t planning on telling her everything.  No way.  But he needed to talk to her about what he could manage.
  He’d tell her everything but.

That meant, no matter how tempting it was to just hop in the shower and have his way with her, he
would
behave, just like she’d asked.

She’d said she didn’t want breakfast, but that might have been just because she hadn’t wanted to fix it.  So he said, “Thanks,” and left the bathroom.

There wasn’t much light coming in the kitchen either although the sun was coming up.  He turned on the light and smiled at the flowers on the table.  That had been a classy move on his part
(rare for him)
, and he loved that they were still vibrant and colorful.

Well, she’d said there was plenty of food in the kitchen, so he needed to decide where to start.  The fridge would most likely have the freshest food, so he opened the door and looked around.  No eggs, but he did find some butter and jelly.  No milk.  No bacon.  Just what did this girl
eat
for breakfast?

He opened the freezer above the fridge and found a box of link sausages.  That was something.  Then he saw a can of grape juice and snagged it.  After moving a few more items, he found a box of frozen waffles.  He set them all on the counter and then started looking in the cabinets.  There was a box of oatmeal packets.

Riley came to the conclusion that Erin either didn’t eat much breakfast or
she
didn’t like it very much.
  But he’d make do with what he’d found.  He had the sausages in a skillet and the juice made by the time she made it to the kitchen, dressed in her robe with a towel over her head.

“Good…you found some stuff.”

Riley turned around, just having moved the sausages around with a fork.  “Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that.  Didn’t you say you had plenty of breakfast food?”

She grinned.  “No.  I just said I had
food
.”  She joined him at the stove.  “You’re pretty industrious.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her, just a small, sweet kiss.  It was hard restraining himself, but he really didn’t know how much time she had before she had to go.  “I heard once that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  So, here I am, making sure you go to work with fuel.”  He almost followed that up with telling her it made him a good
boyfriend
. And he wondered what the fuck was wrong with him.
  He could barely even remember the last time he
had
been
a boyfriend…and that reminded him why he didn’t want to be one again.

“Well, I appreciate it.  It’s better than the glazed donuts they leave in the teacher’s lounge every day.”

He grinned.  “I didn’t say I was making any for
you
.”  She wrinkled up her nose and playfully tried to wrench herself away from him.  He didn’t release her, though.  “Of
course
I made some for you.  If it was just for me, I’d go out to eat.”

She relaxed.  “Oh…so you’re willing to do my bidding?”

He smiled again.  Maybe there would be time after all.  He’d already assessed the table…seemed pretty sturdy.  “What did you have in mind?”