Chapter 31
Light the lamp – to score a goal in the sexiest way possible
Rowan
Iroll over and check the clock once again. Ten o’clock. Usually, I’m asleep by nine on nights before I need to open the bakery the next morning, but I’m finding sleep difficult to find tonight. It’s the first night I haven’t slept with Ash beside me and I’m not too much of a man to admit I miss her warm body cuddled up to mine.
I was an idiot to avoid her for the past year. I could have been sleeping next to her for months instead of weeks. But I’m not going to dwell on my mistake and ruin my future. It’s in the past. Rowan the Idiot has left the building.
I flop onto my back and consider messaging Ash to make sure she’s okay. Who am I kidding? If anything happens to her, I’ll know within minutes especially considering the Gossip Gals are attending the paint and sip evening at Aspen’s bookstore.
I must manage to fall asleep because the next time I check the clock it’s midnight. Where is she? She said they’d be finished by ten. I’m halfway out of bed when I hear the front door open. An object falls to the floor and Ash swears.
“Stay there,” she mumbles.
Stay there? Did she bring someone home with her? What the hell? I switch on the light but before I can roll out of bed to confront her, she stumbles into the room and collides with the foot of the bedframe.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she shouts from where she landed on the floor.
“Did you bring someone home with you?”
She peeks over the bed frame and blinks up at me. “Who would I have brought home? I promise there’s not a goat in your living room.”
Shit. There’s a goat in my living room. I fling the covers off of me and stand. Ash wraps her arms around my leg before I can move.
“Really.” She giggles. “There are no goats in your living room. Or a lynx or a caribou or a porcupine.”
I rub a hand over my face before reaching down to pick Ash up and lay her on the bed. I come down on top of her.
“What are you talking about?”
Her fingers trace around the lines in my forehead before gliding down my nose and across my cheeks. “Your face is far too pretty for a man. It’s not fair.” She pinches my lips together. “And your lips are way softer than any other man’s.”
I ignore the little ball of jealousy in my stomach at her reference to other men’s lips she’s kissed. She won’t be kissing anyone other than me from now on. The thought is enough to dispel any remnants of envy.
Her nails scratch my jaw. “Why don’t you have a beard now? You always had one when you played football.”
“You want me to grow a beard, I’ll grow a beard.”
She glances away and since we’re close, I can feel the heat emanate from her cheeks. I grin. “Do you want to know how it feels to have my face between your legs when I have a beard?”
She nods and I lean my forehead against hers. “Okay. I’ll grow a beard.”
“Just like that?”
“It isn’t hard.”
She wiggles beneath me. “But I do feel something that is hard.”
I pump my hips into her stomach, and she arches her back until her chest is rubbing against mine. “What are we going to do about it?”
“I’m going to ravish you.”
I chuckle. “Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to ravish you?”
“Nope. It’s my turn.” She wraps a leg around me and twists until I’m lying on my back and she’s looming over me.