19: Steamy

Adult situations and longer than normal because there was just no good place to break it up! Enjoy. :)

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      After dinner, the three of us watch TV for a little bit before Adele's bedtime. I stand in the doorway of her bedroom while he tucks her in, and I'm further reminded of how I'm falling madly in love with him as I watch him with her. Bryce is sexy enough as it is, but watching him with his daughter and how sweet he is just makes me want to melt.

       Once Adele is all tucked in and everything, I back into the hallway behind me to give him space to close the door. Once he does, he turns around to me and his arms immediately find their way around my waist.
       "So, what should we do now?" he mumbles quietly to me, and immediately my mind flies to his bedroom behind me. I look up at his warm brown eyes as he looks like he's trying to figure out my thoughts.
       Then, a roguish grin covers his face as he suggests, "How about I change into my swimsuit since you already have one on and we make use of that ridiculously-expensive-to-maintain hot tub I have outside?"
        "You knew?" I ask, asking about my suit.
        He curls his lips in and presses them together for a few seconds like he's debating how to answer my question before he finally says, "Well, there's the obvious... the fact that I discovered it just before Adele walked in on us. But," he looks guilty for only a split second before he continues, "I could see it through your shorts when you were leaning on the railing earlier." I make a little shocked sound to which he replies, "Well, Erin, you have an impeccably nice ass and there it was. Why shouldn't I look?"
       I so badly want to call him a perv for hiding and staring at me, but honestly I can't help but feel flattered. Instead, I tell him to go put on his suit. I head to the downstairs bathroom to remove my shirt and shorts, put my glasses on the rim of the sink, and take down my braids before heading out the sliding glass door to the aforementioned hot tub.

        I just had to wear a bikini, didn't I? I think as I hear Bryce walking up behind me. I hate it that I feel nervous again. Adele has been put to bed, I'm in a hot tub in a bikini, and even the man's feet are sexy, I think as I see him step down into the hot tub out of the corner of my eye. I have an overwhelming desire to rake my nails across his chest and run my tongue down his collarbone, but I squelch it and force myself to stare at the trees in front of me.
        Talk, Erin, you big chicken.
        But what do I talk about?
        He speaks up, "Comfy?" I nod, to which he replies, "You don't look it."
        I purposefully sink down and rest my head against the edge of the hot tub and look at him to ask, "Do I now?"
        A corner of his mouth goes up in a sideways smile, and I feel that intense feeling coming off him again. I get the feeling he's going to want to discuss what he told me last night. My eyes close, and I face my face upward as I sit here and try unsuccessfully to relax. I feel ridiculous.

       The warm water swirls around me as I feel his arm move behind my head and him scoot closer to me. I turn and look at him a little nervously, but I still try to portray a sense of calm.
        "You're trying too hard," he says.
        "What do you mean?" I ask even though I'm pretty damn sure I know.
        "It's just me after all," he says quietly while his hand moves up and down my forearm.
       Yeah. Just you. Just the man that professed a want to try and find out everywhere I'm particularly sensitive only a few hours ago.
        He asks, "What is it?" Then he grins triumphantly before he says, "Okay. It's my turn now to ask you what you're thinking."
       I bite my lip nervously. Damn it! Why do I have to be this way? By now, Sean would've been all over me, and I wouldn't have time to be nervous. I can't shake the feeling that Bryce wants to talk about what he told me last night.
       He leans down to talk quietly in my ear. "Erin, if you don't stop biting that lip I will steal it from you and bite it myself." I jump a little, release my lower lip from my teeth, and turn to face him. His face hasn't moved an inch from where he had it to speak into my ear. He runs his finger down my jaw and asks, "Are you going to tell me what you're thinking or am I going to have to guess?"
       Well, that sounded like he thinks I'm thinking about physical, not emotional, stuff. I might be able to handle the physical a little better.
       I take in a breath and say bravely, "Well, right now I'm thinking how badly I want you to kiss me."

       He smiles and does as I request, but I'm disappointed when he keeps it short. My eyes open in surprise to see his staring back at me as he says, "Very nice thought. However, that's not what you were thinking when I asked, is it?"
       As if in a trance or under some truth serum, I answer, "Not quite. I was thinking about how nervous I was and still am right now and how that irritates me."
       The only thing I see are his eyes as he replies, "Now that I believe, but why?"
     I want to hide from those eyes, so I look down at the water swirling around us, watching the bubbles pop occasionally. An unknown amount of time passes before I think, I need to answer the 'why.'
       "Is it because of what I said last night?" he asks, and I look up at him again to see a solemn expression on his face.

       When I don't contradict him, he looks worried as he says quickly, "Erin, don't worry about it! I only told you because you said something to the effect that you had no way of knowing that you're not like the rest of them. I wasn't going to tell you for a while because I didn't, still don't, want you to feel like you have to feel the same way. I told you no one understands better than me about what you're going through, and I just know I'm at a different place than you are. I don't have to mention it again if it makes you uncomfortable!" He stops his impromptu speech to look at me with a desperately worried expression that just melts my heart. "I didn't know what else to do!" he exclaims.

      Stopping him before he can really start panicking, I place my fingers over his lips. I don't understand why he looks so worried that him telling me he loves me is a bad thing. "Bryce," I say in what I hope is a soothing voice, "I'm a little nervous because of that, yes, and for all the reasons you guessed." He closes his eyes like he's in pain before I continue, "But I'm also... um... elated I guess is a good word."
       He lightly kisses my fingers before he reaches over and gently pulls them off of his mouth. "I'm sorry, Erin. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, and I still don't."
        I smile in spite of everything and say, "You're apologizing again for things that don't need an apology." I can't resist reaching up and stroking his cheek, watching as he closes his eyes. I wish he'd just stop looking so damn worried.
       "Oh yes I do need to," he says, and I roll my eyes. "Because now I worry that you feel like you have to say something similar since I told you I love you." He said it again. He opens his eyes and continues, "You don't have to. I don't want you to feel forced to feel anything, yet all the same, I had to tell you. And now I'm terrified that me admitting that will scare you away."
        That's crazy. "Why?"
            

        He closes his eyes again before he answers, "Because that's what I would've done if someone would've said that to me at the point where you are now. I was nowhere near wanting to start up anything remotely serious. And you said something to that effect Friday night." Was it really just last Friday? "You said you weren't ready, that the hurt was too fresh. I remember that quite clearly because those words tortured me for the next twelve hours."
       I miraculously know what to say, "And during those twelve or so hours, I decided I want to be with you, ready or not. It still hurts like the very devil from time to time, but not so much when I'm with you. All the time I'm reminded what an ass he was and how wonderful you are."

       Just kiss me already!
       "So," he asks, and I feel torn between wanting to shut him up and hear what he has to say, "I'm not scaring you away? Erin, you're a runner. Something scares you or bothers you and you run away." His hand grips my shoulder hard as he goes on, "And I've become the type that that's my biggest fear. Please don't do what you did last Friday and last night. If you have a problem, talk to me, don't run!" His free hand reaches up to cup my cheek, and I can't help but feel that it's another way of holding on to me.
        I go from mentally begging him to kiss me to wanting him to back away for a minute. This scares me. He's clinging, and I don't know if I can live up to the expectations or hopes he has. I can guess, probably correctly, that he's so happy he's finally found someone that he really loves, and he'll hold on to that at almost any cost. He's staring at me like that again, I think as I slowly reach up and trace his chin, neck and collarbone with my fingertips. Okay, worst case scenario: what if I end up hurting him? What if I am just using him as a rebound? Yes, I say I'm falling in love with him, but what if I'm really not? What if I only just want him because he makes me forget 'he who must not be named'?

       I should've seen this coming, but I'm still a little surprised when he kisses me. The hot tub's timer must've finished because the jets turn off. The silence is deafening. I notice everything around me in a state of hyper-awareness: the sounds of the waves, somebody honking rudely at someone else on the main road a little ways off, but mostly the very-quiet sound of him kissing me slowly and repeatedly. With every single one, I feel like he's telling me 'I love you, I love you' over and over again.
       I don't know if I can handle this! He's right. I'm a 'runner.'
      Bryce, I'm scared out of my mind right now. I'm scared of hurting you. I'm scared of falling in love and getting hurt again.
       I make the smallest movement to pull back, and that makes him hungrily deepen the kiss. His arms wrap around me in a gentle vise. My hand rests on his shoulder where it had pushed only seconds before, and I haven't a doubt in my mind that if I went completely limp he'd easily and happily hold me to him exactly like he wants. As it is, I'm resistant. I can't decide whether or not I want to make him stop.
       He makes a low moan in the back of his throat, almost like he's saying 'Erin, please just let me kiss you breathless' or something. The thing is, I don't think he wants to stop at just that. I breathe in a quick breath when he suddenly jerks me the rest of the way to him, and I feel my body mold itself up against his. No, he doesn't want to stop.
       I go completely rigid in shock when I feel his right hand, quick as lightning, undo first the top tie and then the one around my torso of my swimsuit top before he reaches around and effortlessly pulls it away. Oh my god.
       The act of pulling my swimsuit top away causes him to loosen his hold of me for a moment, and I succeed in pulling away. Thank goodness, my hair does a good job in covering me up as I back into the corner.
        He swings around in front of me with a no-nonsense expression in his eyes. I feel shock and a jolt of adrenaline when he suddenly places his hands on my knees and pushes them apart before he moves forward to kiss me again. I've started shaking, and I can't stop.

       We twist around, and he sits once again on the bench in the hot tub while I'm turned towards him. With one hand under my right knee, he pulls me close to him, and I'm startled as I feel my nipples graze his chest.
        I say his name in shock when he leaves my mouth, traveling downward before I reach my hand up to try and halt the movement of his hand as he's obviously going for the ties to the bottom of my bikini. Our fingers have a miniature war of their own down at my hip.
       After a forceful exhale, he lifts his head up and brings his wayward hand up to hold the back of my neck. His thumb draws a line back and forth along the back of my jaw up to my ear and back again as he asks, "Is this too fast?"
        "Yes," I answer automatically. I swallow and watch his eyes rake over me as his hand starts moving up and down my neck.
        "I wish it wasn't because I desperately want to make love to you right now, Erin," he says, and then those brown eyes pierce straight into me.
        Holy shit! I work on breathing, just breathing because that's all I can handle right now.
       The hand on the back of my neck moves me towards his mouth so he can passionately attack my lips with his. As he continues to kiss me and hold me to him, shock courses through me as the hand that had been holding my back slips down and makes quick work of one side of my bikini bottom. I make a sound of protest and try to move away as my hands reach down to try and stop him from undoing the other side. Bryce, I told you!
        I succeed in stopping his hand, but now I'm worried he'll try again the second he thinks that I think he's given up. That same hand reaches around to my butt to pull me back towards him, slipping underneath the half-off suit.
        He leaves my mouth again and kisses me along my jaw as he mumbles, "Why? You're not a virgin, are you?"
        I now have a hand on that misbehaving one of his that's under my suit so that I'll know if he goes for the last remaining tie I have. I feel his fingers working at gathering up the string as it floats free in the water behind me.
        "Are you?" he asks again, this time incredulously.
        Distracted by the little battle going on behind me, I answer, "No."
        "Then why?" he asks, now pulled up so he can watch my face and the mild irritation there. His wayward hand stops its gathering, probably because it possess the entire string now. I feel the string from the front floating against my thigh. His entire focus is on my expression as he waits for my answer.
        "I made a promise to myself."

        "Oh yeah, you mentioned something like that last night. What do you mean?" he asks, kisses my cheek slowly a few times, and pulls back again to listen for my response.
        I suddenly want to cry. I feel ridiculous! Here's a man that says he's in love with me and wants to make love to me, but I'm worried that he's just going to add me to a long list of women he's had. Who knows if he hasn't pulled this same set of lines with a million other women? I feel his hand let go of the string.
        "Erin?" he asks, his voice full of concern as now both hands cup my face.
        I try to jerk out of his grasp, but he holds me fast. I know exactly what he'll say if I tell him about my promise to myself. He'll think it's ridiculous and I should just drop it.
        "Please tell me what's wrong," he requests. "I refuse to let you run."
        "Oh, you refuse?" I ask angrily. I feel cornered.
       He closes his eyes for a long second, obviously not happy with what I said. He answers, "That's right, because I want you to tell me... whatever it is that probably is the reason you ran last night as well. What is the promise? A promise to yourself to not let me make love to you?" I look away and don't answer for a while before he asks, "That's it isn't it?"
         I still don't answer. He keeps just calling it making love and nothing else.
         He takes a deep breath and says, "You don't trust me. ... Of course you don't. There is absolutely nothing I can do to make you trust me right now. And you won't until you do." He lets go of my face, and I hide it in my hands.
        In the back of my mind, I think that I might want to move away, but I don't. Instead, I say "For at least a week" in a small voice.
       "A week? Why a...? Oh," he answers his own question. "I told you that things are different with you."
        "I decided this before you said that," I say, my hands still covering my face.

       He's quiet for several minutes. I'm scared to move even though I really feel like it would be a good idea if I did.
         I feel his hands lightly tugging on my wrists, trying to pull my hands away. When I let him, I realize they're wet with tears that I didn't even know I shed. I look him in the eyes for a split second before I look away, but I still catch the undeniable look of loving devotion in his eyes.
         He reaches up and wipes my cheeks with his thumbs as he holds my face again. "You're driving me insane, but whether or not you believe me, I do understand why you would make that kind of promise to yourself." He pauses. "Okay. A week. I'll prove it. I could possibly go longer, but I doubt it to be perfectly honest."
         "I'm sorry," I whisper.
       I look up at him to see a grin cover his face again as he says, "There you go apologizing for things that need no apology."

        I can't keep the little smile from showing up on my face as I slightly roll my eyes. Then I jump a little as I'm startled when he kisses me again. He's every bit as passionate as he was before.
       Not much time passes before he pulls back so that he can say, "However, if you think for one minute I'm letting you leave this hot tub yet, then you're mistaken." Huh? "Because now," he makes me jump as he succeeds in pulling the last string loose on my bikini, "I have you naked, and I intend to make as much of that as I'm allowed to."
      He's distracted by pulling my swimsuit bottom out of the hot tub to throw it against the wall of the house, so I dart away from him in the direction of a towel I had laid out earlier. He catches my arm when I get halfway across the hot tub.
       "Bryce, this has gone far enough. Too far even. I can't handle this right now!" I exclaim as he joins me in the middle of the hot tub. He's on his knees with his arms wrapped around my middle as I squirm to get free. I'm overly aware of everywhere my body touches his, and that's way too many places for my comfort level right now.
      "Erin, calm down, okay?!" Calm down. He wants me to calm down when I'm completely naked in his arms. Yeah, right! "What can't you handle exactly?" he asks with one hand caressing my face. I'm hyperventilating.
     "I want at least the bottom half of my suit back," I say in a stern voice.
     "You want me to surrender the battle I just won?" he asks. Oh my god, he thought of it as a battle too. Well, I'm winning the war.
     "Please. I'm very uncomfortable right now. You asked me to tell you when I had a problem with something. Well, now I do," I say, trying not to panic and staring into his eyes pleadingly.
     He takes a deep breath and says, "Okay." Then he lightly kisses my lips before turning to exit the hot tub. He's only out for a couple of steps to and from the suit bottoms, but when he turns, I see how far his suit sticks out from him there. I have to quickly look away before more panic sets in.
     In a flash, he's back with my suit in his hand. He hands it to me and I awkwardly put it back on with a square knot on each tie. I can feel him watching me as I do this, but I don't look up to see for sure if my suspicion is correct. I want to curl up into a ball and hide.
     "Thank you," I say lamely and look at the water as I stay on my knees in the middle of the tub.
     He moves into my line of vision and grasps my face to lift it so I'm looking at his as he asks, "Can you handle me kissing you?"
     What does he mean? "What do you mean? Of course I can handle that."
     "Just making sure," he answers before he kisses me again. I'm treated to what will heretofore be referred to as a 'Bryce kiss,' which is a kiss that starts out sweet and simple and gradually grows in intensity until I get to a point to where I'm only able to just desperately hold on to him as he devours me from the inside out.

     He stops kissing me to ask, "What about this?" His hand moves to my breast and his thumb starts teasing my nipple as I try to catch my breath. What he's doing right now isn't helping me. "Hmm?" he asks again.

     Son of a bitch, let me fucking breathe! I think and wonder at my foul-mouthed inner voice. Oh shit. No, there's nothing wrong with that, I think as he toys with me. I hear some strange, wordless noise come out of my mouth unbidden.

      "Can I safely assume this is okay?" he irritatingly asks again. "You can nod, you know," he explains to me like I didn't think of that myself. Well, I guess I haven't.

     I don't know why, but I can't make myself nod. Damn his magic hands! I think as I struggle for lucid thought.

      I see him smile a small smile as he leans in to whisper in my ear, "I think I found another one of those sensitive areas, but this one is no surprise. Still... I wonder..." Then he starts nibbling on my ear again.

      I make some sort of 'ah!' sound as a quick yell escapes me. He firmly holds me to him with one hand while the other stays on my breast and his mouth on my ear as I try to thrash around.

      "Shh! You'll wake Adele," he says quietly into that same ear.

     I'm panting as I reach around to lightly hit him on his back before I hiss, "You should've thought of that before you did that then!"

      He smiles and turns to look at me, apparently amused by my mild irritation, before he says, "You never said whether or not that was okay. I mean, I'd like to assume it is, but I need to know, my beautiful Erin."

      I throw my hands up in the air before smacking them back down on his shoulders before I say, "Yeah. Fine. Sure." My voice sounded belligerent.

      "Okay good," he says quickly.

       I gasp in surprise when he suddenly lifts me up and I feel his tongue trace a path along my breasts before settling on one of my nipples. I shudder as he takes in a lot more than I expect, sucking and teasing me with his tongue. Vaguely, I'm aware he's slipped his hand underneath my swimsuit to grab my ass as a way of holding me up as well. A week is suddenly a very long time. Holy shit, he's not stopping. Not stopping.
      The hand on my butt pulls me closer so that I can feel his hard length pressed up against me between my legs. Swimsuits are on. Thank God. Too tempting otherwise.
       Then he moves to the other side and starts rocking me against him. I feel like I'm barely hanging on to my sanity and I've lost all control over my own body, almost like I'm just his toy as he rolls my hips against him. His tongue continues to tease me as I'm drawn inside his mouth to the point that, combined with the way I'm rocking against him, a vaguely-familiar pressure starts building below my navel. From just this?! I think as I unconsciously get a tight fistful of his hair.
        He groans, releases my breast and says, "Shit, Erin, you're so beautiful." My body gets lowered a little into the water again before his mouth claims mine. If he hadn't, I might be ready to scream from frustrated need. So he intends to torture me because of my decision?
       His left arm wraps around my torso, helping me to remain upright, as his right travels over me. Then, slowly, almost in a questioning manner, that hand slips under my swimsuit from the front. My eyes fly open and find his when he finds that I'm not stopping him. He wears an expression as if to say, 'I'll stop if you really want me to, but I don't want to.' I don't want him to either. My eyes drift closed as I feel two of his fingers enter me.
        He leans down to mumble into my ear, "Relax and just let me hold you up."
       Relax? You want me to relax?! I think incredulously as I cling to him in desperation, going out of my mind from what his fingers are up to.
       His arm tightens around me as he lifts me up off my knees before he whispers, "Relax, baby. Just go limp and let me hold you while I do this. I promise I won't let you go."
       Shit, it's a trust thing. I don't know if I can do that. I hear myself whimper as he slows down to a crawl. I haven't a doubt he'll be able to hold me, especially in the water, but to actually surrender that much to him might be more than I can do. I whimper again as I fight for control of myself.
       "Erin, you're fighting me," he says quietly. Shit. How the fuck does he know that? "Relax and just let me take care of you." Oh shit! What? Isn't that just the kind of thing I hear in my fantasies? Damn. My grip of him slackens, and he says, "That's it, baby." I want to cry. Whoever would've thought just surrendering like this would be so damn hard?
        With a shaky exhale, I let myself go limp. I'm immediately rewarded. My body weight that the water doesn't take away gets added to the pressure of his hand and fingers, and he increases his tempo.
      And I completely lose control over myself.

      True to his word, he holds me securely while I feel every nerve ending in my body go haywire. The water swirling around me feels like a warm, wet blanket, and Bryce feels like my anchor to the world. A few times I feel myself wanting to regain some semblance of control over my own body, but Bryce wordlessly discourages me from doing so each time.
      I feel myself unconsciously tense up as that same vaguely-familiar tightening sensation builds again. I try to be a good girl and let him keep holding me up, but it gets harder and harder to do that as the pressure builds and builds until I want to scream. If only I could. I do, however, hear myself whisper his name as my hands turn into claws on... his arms... I think.
       My hips jerk forward as he simultaneously presses firmly back. Stars explode before my eyes, and I feel my head crash into his chest. He forces me to experience wave after wave of intense aftershocks as I continue to writhe in ecstasy.
       Magic hands.

        .......

       When I feel myself start coming back from the land of no thoughts, I feel his arms around me. My head rests on his shoulder, and my arms are around his neck. When I blink, I feel my eyelashes brush up against his arm. His hands start stroking my back.
       He leans down and whispers very quietly, "I love you."
       Too damn perfect, I think and start crying. Perfect except for how he's still in need. I feel myself shake with my quiet sobs.
       "Erin?" he asks and pulls back to look down at me. "What is it?" I hate how he sounds worried. Then I hear a quick intake of breath before he says, "Oh shit! I said it aloud. Just ignore me and the things that fly out of my mouth sometimes."
        My voice sounds irritatingly whiny as I sniff and say, "No! It's just it's so perfect, or it would be if it weren't for me and my messed up self ruining it. I wish I weren't so fucked up." Language, Erin, I think as I rest my forehead on his chest and try to stop crying.
      "You're... not, ...Erin," Bryce says slowly with emphasis on each word. "You're recovering, and I'm the lucky dirtbag that gets to try to help you." He takes a deep breath and squeezes me, and I love the way he feels up against me as our bodies press even closer with every intake of breath.
       "Shut up about calling yourself a dirtbag, Bryce. You are not," I say and hear him laugh quietly like he doesn't believe me for a second and is just humoring me by not arguing. All I'd have to do would be to lift my head a little and I could run my tongue down his collarbone like I wanted to earlier, I think to myself. Then I do it.
      I hear him breathe in sharply, and his arms tighten around me. I guess I'll have to hold off on raking my nails across his chest since I'm pressed up on him so tightly. I make up for it by raking my nails everywhere else. Then I get hold of the waistband of his trunks and work on pulling them down.
       His breathing sounds the tiniest bit shaky as his hands run down my arms to aid me. Once they're off, he stops me as I reach for him. Huh? I think as I look up at him in question. Oh, I think next as he pulls me along to the other side of the hot tub.

      I'd done this loads of times for Sean (and rarely did he ever return the favor), so I'm happy I don't feel at a loss as to what to do. However, this time it's different. I'm doing it because I want to do it, not because I've been coerced and nagged to death about it.
       I love this feeling of power I have over him. With something so simple, I've taken this gorgeous, strong man and turned him into putty in my hands.
       "Oh god, Erin," He breathes in sharply. "Yes, just like that," he moans, and I smile down at him. He looks up at me as I'm smiling, and only for a split second does he look like he wants to get onto me for grinning like this at him while he's pretty much incapacitated. However, he immediately gives up trying to do that and instead lays his head back against the edge of the tub with another moan.
      He tightly grips my hips and thighs as his breathing becomes hitched and irregular. I mean, he really has a tight hold on me, and I worry I'm going to bruise. I decide not to worry about it right now though as I relish the feel of him in my hand.
       His hand suddenly grabs mine as he comes and lets out a noise from the back of his throat. While he recovers, I happily rake my nails across his chest like I'd wanted to do earlier. His eyes roll around in his head for a while as I just let my hands wander of their own free will. Then his eyes come around to my face.
        Without warning, he gets hold of my upper arm and jerks me against him with a look that I don't understand. His hands fly up to hold my face as he sits up enough to passionately kiss me. I eagerly kiss him back, and he sits us up all the way, wrapping his arms tightly around me as we continue our little tongue tango.
       "I so fucking love you," he says after he suddenly jerks back. "Deal with it because I'm going to tell you. Or... I just did. If I don't tell you I'll explode and all these little 'I love you' sound bytes will come flying out of where I was standing only moments before. So, I've got to let them out from time to time."
       In spite of my apprehension, I can't help but giggle at the mental picture he just gave me. That was kind of gross -- but also incredibly romantic.
       He laughs along with me for a second before he asks, "Oh, so I'm funny, am I?" Then he doesn't let me answer.

      Not much later, we finally get out of the hot tub and wrap towels around us to protect us from the suddenly-chilly wind. As I make my way over to where Bryce threw my swimsuit top, he catches up to me and stops me.
      As he reaches up to run his thumb across my cheekbone like he apparently likes to do, he asks, "Will you stay?"
       Stay?! .... Stay?! He wants me to stay. With Adele here. Oh crap. How do I answer him?
      "I want to..."
      "But?" he asks.
      "But it's not a good idea, don't you think, with Adele here. She's only barely grasping the idea of me." He sighs sadly, and I continue, "Don't you think that would be too much change for her?"
      "Curse you for making sense," he says almost irritatedly. "You're right, of course, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it anyway." He smiles a little and looks at me with that look again for a few minutes while I get lost in his eyes. He kisses the tip of my nose gently before he says, "Then I guess you'd better be getting dressed else I just throw you over my shoulder and keep you here against your will." He grins widely as I feel an expression of shock plaster all over my face. "I'm kidding," he says with a grin. I feel a little silly and relieved before he says, "Kinda."
     I back away slowly and get my suit, not losing eye contact with him the entire time. It occurs to me that I'm treating him like a wild animal, be it a stupid way to handle a wild animal or not. The way he's looking at me now makes me very nervous.
     I open the sliding glass door and dart to the bathroom.

     When I emerge from the bathroom, he's back to my normal Bryce again. As I finish fastening my watch to my wrist I take a glance at the time. Good grief! Three a.m.?
      After we walk outside, I turn to him to say, "It's really late... or early depending on who you are."
     "Not so odd for me to be up at this hour. A lot of the time, I get up to see Adele off to school and then go crash out again." He pulls me to him. "Does this mean you're going to sleep late on another one of my days off?" he asks.
      "I have to sleep sometime!" I protest.
      He suddenly smiles before he says, "Here's an idea: How about I come by your place as soon as Adele is off and on her way to school?"
      The thought of groggily making my way to unlock my door when it would probably feel like the middle of the night occurs to me as I ask, "About what time would that be?"
      "About seven-thirty."
      In four hours. Yes, it's going to feel like the middle of the night.
       He must be reading my expression because he says, "Then we could just sleep some more in your bed. We don't have to stay up."
       "But I'd have to get up and answer the door, and I'm betting I'm not going to like that," I say, but I really like the idea he has. "I guess I'll just get over it though."
       He takes in a deep breath and says, "Good. Although, my bed is going to feel huge without you in it." Even in the darkness, I can see his eyes beg me to stay.
       "I'd better go so we can sleep the hours away," I say quietly to his wordless plea before he leans down to kiss me in such a loving manner that afterwards I myself want to blurt out that I love him.
        "Well then goodnight," he says quietly.
        I have no idea what expression is on my face as I think about how I almost did blurt it out. What does this mean? "Goodnight," I say quickly before he can see too much of whatever expression is on my face.

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Like those hot tub poses? They're now available here. :)