Unexpected (17 page)

~*~

Ryan makes hot dogs and tater tots for
dinner. We eat in the living room, as usual, but we both leave
space between us this time around.

After cleaning up, I grab a plateful of
cookies and bring them back to the Ryan. I hand him a cookie, then
set the plate down on the coffee table as I sit. I grab a cookie
for myself and settle in next to him. He lets out a long breath,
his whole body relaxing as he wraps an arm over my shoulder,
drawing me closer. We snuggle on the couch together like we've been
doing the last few weeks. I realize in this moment that this is
where I want to be.

Ryan is who I want to be with.

Once the movie is over, Ryan gets up to go to
bed. “If I don't see you in the morning, have a good day at work
tomorrow.”

He leaves the room before I can respond. He's
trying to be good, to let me set the pace again. I lift my legs up,
hugging my knees like I did earlier. I don't want to go backwards.
I definitely want our friendship, but I want more.

So much more.

I give myself a minute to gather my courage,
then pick up my pillow and go to his room. I knock on the door
lightly, then open it when he tells me to come in. When I do, he's
sitting cross-legged on the bed with a notebook in hand. He sets it
on his nightstand, raising an eyebrow as I come over to the bed. I
place my pillow next to his and we climb under the sheets. He shuts
the light off and I move closer to him, curling into his body. His
breathing pattern changes at the first touch of my hand to the bare
skin of his chest. Pressing a kiss there, I whisper, “Can we start
here?”

Letting out a breath slowly, he whispers
back, “I would very much like to start here.” His arms encircle me,
holding me closer. “Please promise to tell me if I'm moving too
fast.”

“I promise.”

“I don't want to rush anything with you.”

Those are the last words I hear before I fall
asleep in his arms.

Chapter Twenty-two

–
Ryan –

I wake up to Alina's soft lips briefly
touching mine. I must not have heard her get up this morning
because when my eyes peek open, she's sitting next to me dressed
for work. She stares at me, her hand running through my hair and
down the side of my face.

“What is it, Alina?” I reach my hand up to
cup her face.

She closes her eyes, lifting her hand to
cover the one I have on her cheek. A slow smile builds as she
shakes her head. “It's nothing really...” She looks down at me,
amusement in her eyes. “I've been thinking about us and as much as
I keep telling myself that we need to take our time, I continue to
run instead of walk.” She chuckles and I join her, my thumb
caressing her cheek. “Are you still okay with...everything?”

“Of course,” I answer. When she came into my
bedroom last night and cuddled next to me, it felt like she gave me
the breath of life. I'm not going to push her further. If she wants
us to take our time, I'm fine with it.

“Okay,” she says. “I have to leave for now,
but I'll see you in a few hours.” She leans down again, kissing me
tenderly.

I breathe out a sigh when her lips leave
mine. “I want to do more of that when you get home.”

She smiles, a faint hint of pink showing up
on her cheeks as she bites her lip. “Of course.”

~*~

I spend the entire time Alina is gone wishing
she were here. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. I make myself a
sandwich for lunch and continue to work on my latest song. The song
is coming along nicely, probably easier than any other I've
attempted to write. But in between these things, I wish Alina had
today off so we could spend the day together. When she left this
morning, it hit me that she was opening the way for more. Slowly,
but still more open.

I want to keep her at ease and not pressure
her into anything that makes her uncomfortable. But how? I have to
have a plan, something for us to do when she gets home. For some
reason, today feels special. We're starting out as something more
than friends. We need more than just routine.

An idea hits me suddenly and I immediately
get to work on it. It involves a quick run to the store, but I
manage to make it back just before she does. When she walks inside,
she gives me a funny look. “What's going on?” she asks.

I set down the last of the supplies on the
living room floor. “Ever build a blanket fort before?”

She grins. “I've built a couch cushion fort,
but not a blanket fort.”

Alina and I get the chairs from the kitchen
table, setting them up in a square. We each take one side of my
largest blanket and pull it over the chairs. After about fifteen
minutes, the blanket fort is nearly complete.

“Now all we need to do is fix this end so we
can see the TV still,” I tell her.

She taps a finger to her chin as she takes a
quick glance around the room. She brightens, holding her finger up.
“How about this,” she says, grabbing one of the extra throw
blankets. “Let's tuck this blanket in under the top blanket, then
find a way to hold it in place on top of your entertainment
center.”

“That could work.”

It takes a few minutes of tampering and
reworking the rest of the fort, but we manage to get the last
blanket in. As we're kneeling under it, one corner begins to sag.
We both reach for it at the same time, and seconds later, the
opposite corner begins to sag too. Before either of us can turn to
fix that one, the whole thing tumbles down on us. We are tangled in
the blanket, Alina giggling while I chuckle. She holds onto me as
we both collapse on the floor. There's nothing else we can do since
the whole thing is falling over around us.

Our faces are touching now, cheek to cheek. I
move my lips along her jaw. Glancing down at her lips then up into
her eyes, I ask, “Do you want me to kiss you?”

She shakes her head. I frown, but before I
can ask her why, she whispers, “I
need
you to kiss me.”

With those words, she melts me. I cup her
face and kiss her, delicately, gently. A tentative sweep of my
tongue over her parted lips and she responds by teasing me with her
tongue. We kiss like that, careful, languid, for I don't know how
long. All I remember is the sweetness of her lips, the taste of her
tongue, and I wonder how I've gone this long in my life without
this.

Without her.

She pulls back, a smile tugging at the corner
of her lips. “You know, I think that was the first time we've ever
kissed like that.”

“Like how?” I ask, brushing her hair
back.

“Slowly...not frantic or out of control.” She
touches a finger to my lips, her eyes half closed. “It was
nice.”

“So, you don't like out-of-control kissing?”
I tease, running my hand over her arm.

She smiles, her cheeks flushing. “No, I like
that kind...and the slow kind.”

“Me, too.” I kiss her cheek. “Come on. Let's
fix this mess.”

We make our way out from under the blankets
and stand back up. Her hair is tousled, strands everywhere, and her
part is crooked. I let out a snort and she gives me a look.
“What?”

“Your hair.” I reach out to brush some of it
back.

“Oh, God. Is it bad?” She messes with it
herself, shaking it around as she fingers through it to straighten
it out again. “How's that?”

“You made it worse.” Her mouth falls open and
she's about to turn to check it out in the bathroom when I stop
her. I spin her in my direction, step forward, and hold her waist.
“You look fine, I was only kidding.”

Alina scrunches her nose at me and pokes me
in the side. “Thanks a lot!”

“You're just too adorable.”

“Having a tangled mess of hair is
adorable?”

“On you it is,” I murmur, drawing her even
closer to kiss her deeply. “We need to stay on task, though.”

“Why?” she asks, her eyes falling to my
lips.

“
That's
why.” I tilt her chin up. “I
like kissing you. Wait, scratch that. I
love
kissing you.
It's possible that I'm becoming addicted to your lips.”

She sucks in a breath. “Is that so?”

I nod. “So, I'm going to step away.” I let
her go, putting some space between us. “And we're going to get this
fort back up so I can finish setting up this date.” I pick up the
corners that fell and pull them back over the chairs.

“Date?”

I pause and peek over my shoulder at her.
“Well, yeah. It's kind of a date, isn't it?”

“I suppose it is.” She smiles and helps me
situate the blankets. “Okay, handsome. Let's do this. I'm anxious
to see what's coming up on this date.”

I smile back. “Anything for you,
beautiful.”

Chapter Twenty-three

–
Alina –

Ryan's sweetness can be overwhelming at
times. From what I can tell, there isn't a mean bone in his body.
He's extremely generous and continually kind. He has also somehow
managed to sweep me off my feet in a matter of twenty-four
hours.

He's phenomenal.

It takes some effort, but we finally get the
fort set up without it falling down. Ryan grabs all of our pillows
and piles them underneath, along with a couple blankets. Then he
brings out an armful of snacks and places them on the floor in
front of the fort. After he puts on a DVD, he slips into the fort
and reaches a hand out to me. “Won't you join me, my dear?”

I giggle, taking his hand and climbing under.
“'My dear'? Really?”

“Too formal?”

“Just a smidgen.”

“Okay, then. I'll just keep calling you
beautiful.” He presses a kiss to my forehead. We both lie on our
stomachs and he pulls a blanket over us. I snuggle in closer to him
and he nuzzles my hair. “Ready to start the movie?” I nod and he
pushes play on the remote.

We watch
Blazing Saddles
while eating
barbeque chips, Oreos, Swiss Cake Rolls, and various mini chocolate
bars. It feels nice to kick back like this. Sure, we watch movies
and TV shows often, but only on the couch while eating dinner.
Maybe what makes it even better this time is being this close to
Ryan on a completely new level, the notch above friends.

When the movie finishes, Ryan turns to me and
presses a quick kiss to my nose. Then he pulls back, glancing over
my face, seemingly lost in thought. I look into his eyes for a
moment, gauging where his thoughts might be. “What is it?”

“Like I told you before...” His gaze is
trained on my lips.

I'm becoming addicted to your lips.
I
break out in a smile. “Right.” I reach for his hand and he slips
his fingers between mine slowly. “I want this so much, I really
do.”

“You're worried about what the future holds
for us.” Such a straightforward comment—one I can't argue with. I
nod, pressing my lips together. “I am, too,” he admits.

My eyes widen. “You are?”

“Mm-hmm.” He brings my hand to his lips,
pressing a kiss to it. “You and I both have experienced some poor
relationships in the past. I know about Drew, but I'm sure there
were others before him, just like there were others before
Victoria.”

“Yeah.” My previous boyfriends flash before
my eyes, along with the frustrations each of them brought me.

“Each relationship is a gamble—a calculated
risk. Every time we choose poorly, we may begin to wonder if the
next one will be the same. But we keep trying because we don't want
to give up on love. With us,” he says, squeezing my hand, “it's
different. In a new way—in a
good
way—and that's a hell of a
lot scarier than anything in the past. You know why?”

“Because we don't want to lose each
other.”

“Yes...nothing hurts worse than losing
someone you care about, especially when they mean the world to
you.” He looks me in the eye. “The past may have sucked, but I
believe there's a chance for a very happy future. There's a reason
for everything...and all those bad things that happened have led me
to one thing.”

“What?”

“You.
You're
my world.”

His words create a flutter in my heart, one
that's in a world of its own. I've had heart flutters before—plenty
of crushes, too—but this one takes the cake. It's scary to take a
chance on a new relationship, especially ours because it's so new
and stems from less than two months of knowing each other. Deep
down, however, I can't deny that Ryan has become my world, too. If
someone told me years ago that it's possible to begin to fall for
someone in such a short period of time, I probably wouldn't have
believed them.

After those words settle on my heart, my hand
cups his scruffy cheek, the pad of my thumb running over his bottom
lip. He closes his eyes and breathes out a sigh. I replace my thumb
with my lips, gently brushing mine against his. He doesn't force
any more than that; he's letting me set the pace. I press my lips
more fully against his and he reaches up to cup my cheek. Our lips
part, then fuse together as though it’s what they were made for,
joining in a dance that leaves me breathless. His tongue caressing
mine, his teeth lightly biting my lower lip, his mouth swallowing
my moans and gasps.

It's absolutely electrifying.

Ryan breaks the kiss. “Alina, how far did you
want to go tonight? Because if we keep this up, it's going to go
very
far.”

“Oh,” I breathe. I hadn't really put much
thought into what all the kissing could lead to. Not that I never
thought about it—because I
have
ever since the mistaken
identity in the shower—I just didn't pause to consider how worked
up we could get. “Maybe...maybe we could slow it down, you know, a
little bit.”

“Okay,” he says with a smile. “But I feel it
only fair to warn you.”