“Not when I have this.” She flicked up the little white card in her hand. Her student ID. I didn’t see anything unusual about it. We all had one.
I matched my strides to hers. “I don’t understand.”
Halting in front of the door, she turned to me, holding the card under the lantern above the door. “Look closely.”
Squinting, I moved in, reading the text. “You got a fake ID? Kenna,” I scolded. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or disappointed.”
She rolled her eyes and scanned the card in front of the reader to unlock the door. “You just graduated from dad to grandpa.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
I followed Kenna into the elevator up to the fourth floor. She used the smart key in her ID to unlock the dorm room. Turning the handle and cracking the door, she glanced over her shoulder, putting a finger to her lips. “Take a good long look at your girlfriend and then go home Micah,” she whispered. “I’m getting ready for bed. When I get out of the bathroom, you better be gone.”
Nodding, I stepped inside behind her, cautiously closing the door behind me. I dropped Kenna’s bag on the entry rug, careful not to let the cans rattle and wake up the others. Josie required white noise to sleep, so duel small fans ran from either side of the room, filling the space with a gentle lull that was relaxing but not good for detecting burglars. I had no clue if Ainsley had any sleeping quirks, but from the utter quietness of the room, I was guessing she didn’t mind the steady humming of the fan blades.
Kenna tiptoed to the left side of the dorm toward the bathroom. It was dark, but my eyes adjusted after a few moments, and I went to the side of Mads’s bed. Seeing her tucked soundly under the covers, the pressure clamping down on not just my heart but my lungs evaporated. I drew in my first easy breath of the night.
Strands of her silky honey hair spilled over the pillow where her cheek pressed against the white cover. The serene expression on her face made Mads angelic. Unable to stop, I trailed the backs of my fingers along the side of her jaw to her chin. Watching her sleep, it was hard to believe the things her mouth could say and do.
She tipped her head slightly into my touch, a soft purr-like sound that made my heart patter escaped her parted lips. My intent had only been to see her and leave, but now that I was here, I couldn’t make my feet move. They remained rooted to the ground.
Kenna was still in the bathroom doing whatever the fuck girls did before bed. I nudged off the back heels of my shoes, slipping my feet out of them, and went back to check the door, making sure it was locked. Shedding my shirt, I pulled a corner of the sheet down and climbed into bed beside Mads. The twin-size mattress hardly fit me, let alone the two of us. I carefully gathered her in my arms, positioning her so she was more or less lying on top of me. She never fully woke up but snuggled against me, her face resting in the crook of my neck.
Soft whispers of her breath brushed against my throat, and although it was a simple action, desire curled inside me. Not the instant lust I often felt with Mads that drove me absolutely insane. This was a quiet need that settled inside me—comforting, even. I never thought need could be a source of contentment.
Inhaling her scent, I closed my eyes, my nostrils filled with sweet orange blossoms. My muscles, my limbs, my mind, and my entire body relaxed. Within minutes, I finally dropped off into a sleep I desperately needed.
Her side of the room was what Mads coined clean-chaotic, meaning it was clean for her standards. Clothes were scattered over her desk, a few underneath it, and more tossed over a chair. I didn’t mind the messy side of Mads. She wasn’t always put together and polished as so many of the rich girls at Elmwood Academy had been. She didn’t mind that I saw her without makeup or care that her hair was out of place. Mads was real.
She also didn’t bat an eye at finding me in her bed. Still half asleep, I felt Mads’s arms tighten around me, and her face nuzzled against mine as she rained kisses on my neck and cheek. It was her morning ritual whenever she stayed the night with me.
It wasn’t a bad way to wake up. No, it was fucking glorious to have her warm body pressed into me, to feel her nipples grow hard under the thin T-shirt and brush against my chest. Our legs were interwoven, and despite my eyes being closed, I felt her gaze on me and sensed the smile on her lips.
I wanted to be woken from sleep every day of my life just like this, which scared the shit out of me. For years, I’d loved Mads, but I never let myself fall in love with her. I couldn’t. Once I admitted it not to just her but myself, then it became real, and I would never be able to let her go.
“Morning,” her raspy-from-sleep voice greeted me, a whisper in my ear.
I grunted groggily, battling between more sleep and convincing Mads we needed to have morning sex. I wanted both. If only I could do both, like have sex while sleeping. God, yes. That was what I wanted.
Her laugh tickled the side of my face. “I am not having sex with you while you’re asleep.”
Had I mumbled something out loud? Probably. I did have a tendency to talk in my sleep, so I was told. I didn’t believe it. There were secrets in this brain that I had to take to the grave. “But if I wake up, then we can—”
She pressed her lips to my mouth, silencing me. The kiss didn’t last long enough, my mouth clinging to the very last second as she pulled away. “When did you get here?” she asked.
I finally forced my eyes open. Mads’s rumpled hair framed her heart-shaped face in a sexy disarray that made my fingers itch to dive into it and mess it up further. “Late,” I responded, my eyes roaming over her face. “Why do you look so damn good in the morning?”
Her nose scrunched. “Did you lose your contacts?”
I didn’t wear contacts or glasses, a fact she was aware of. My vision was fucking perfect. “I wish you could see yourself the way I do.”
Flattery wasn’t working this morning. “I’ll pass.” She snorted.
I imagined all she thought I saw were her tits and ass, and she wouldn’t be entirely wrong. I enjoyed her body, all parts of it from her head to her toes, but she had this aura about her that seeped into me, and I absorbed it like a sponge, soaking up all her goodness.
A song started to play—Imagine Dragons, I thought. It was too early to be recalling song names off the top of my head. “What is that noise?” I groaned.
“My alarm,” she said, a bit too chipper.