9. Yellow
When he woke up in her bed that morning, Danny literally could not believe his life. He had reached out at the one thing he was most afraid to want and she was curled up beside him in sheets that smelled like tangerines and sunshine.
He pulled his arm around her head and leaned into her shoulder, letting his lips press there at the soft flesh between her breast and her arm. The warmth of her skin drew him in and he left his face pressed there for a long moment, thinking of all the ways he had tried to screw this up. All the warmth and openness that had so intimidated and infuriated him once- it was spread out across the bed in front of him because he had finally managed not to run away from his feelings. For her. This book that had been sitting on his shelf, he had finally given himself permission to read it whenever he wanted and dog-ear all the pages.
Danny let out a sigh of relief and sleep and utter happiness and raised his head slowly, looking at her face covered in bright yellow sunlight. Mindy looked reckless and lovely. This was the impression of her that he would hold in his heart from now on. It wanted to get complicated, but he would make it simple- this thing between them. He could screw this up any number of ways, but if he could keep the image of this happiness he was responsible for in just a day- straight ahead in his sights... this could work.
"Mindy. Hey, wake up" he whispered this into her ear as he slid his hand under the sheet and across her stomach.
Mindy's eyebrow twitched and she grimaced slightly. "Hey." He shook her slightly.
"What?" her eyes were still closed, but her could see her breathing quicken slightly.
"I'm gonna go get food. What do you want?" he took the opportunity to move his hand down to her hip and grasp the flesh in his flat hand, thinking of how good it felt the first time he touched it. It was like an itch that he had barely been ignoring, this need to put his hands on her. And she had let him finally scratch it.
"Mmm, no, I don't think so." She opened her eyes just a crack, looking up at him. Her mouth twitched in a smile. They stopped then. Stopped breathing, stopped talking, stopped thinking. For just that moment they held their breath and looked into each other's eyes. Impossible. That he should be in her bed. He knew this.
"No? To food?" his eyebrows shot up and he grinned and knew where this was going. "Is this one of those things where you go to bed with one woman and wake up with another?"
Mindy made a face. "I wish. As it stands, it looks like I'm kinda stuck with the guy I went home with, huh?"
"Hmm." He kissed her full on the mouth. "You don't have to be stuck with me, you know." He shrugged, but pulled her tighter into his embrace and brushing a thumb over her right nipple. "I could just leave."
Mindy looked away from him and rolled her eyes. "That was kind of an empty offer, considering the circumstances." She rubbed her hip against dick, which wasn't going anywhere, apparently. He groaned and started to brush his lips just under her earlobe.
"That guy... is irrelevant to the current conversation." At this, his thumb started its sweeping motion over her ribs, just under her breast.
"If I were you, I would not be so dismissive of your friend there. I'll have you know that he played a very important role in the fact that you woke up here this morning. I'm not sure you would have made the cut on your own merits." She was staring off to the side and doing that arched-brow, schoolteacher look that he could never resist screwing with.
He stopped abruptly and lifted his face away from her a few inches. "Oh, really? That's interesting to note." His right hand trailed just a finger down and over her belly button. "There's nothing else to recommend me? My mind perhaps?" At this he brushed his knuckles over the soft spot between her legs and was rewarded with the sight of Mindy biting her lip. Then she laughed. Like, a full on, eyes crushed shut cackle as her hips bucked up against his hand.
She turned to bury her face in the pillow as he continued barely touching her. "God, you're such a jerk."
He said with his mock-indignant voice "I'm just trying to be clear on the present situation, here." On the last word, one finger dipped imperceptibly lower. "I wouldn't want to be where I'm not wanted."
For a moment there was a stalemate, his finger hesitating on the area in question and Mindy refusing to look at him as a pink flush crept over her face. It was quickly becoming his favorite color.
Quietly she whispered into the pillow, "You... have some other good qualities, too."
This earned her the attention she was seeking, and he brushed his flat thumb over her. He watched her face soften and he leaned over to kiss her cheek, and was a little surprised when she turned her head and deepened the kiss immediately. The warmth that spread out in his chest distracted him from the increase in the tiny moans being emitted from her throat as he cradled her jaw and focused on dipping his tongue into just the edges of her lips in tandem with his other attentions.
"Mmmph! Danny!" she squeaked out against his mouth as he pulled back. "This isn't working."
He felt the blood run out of his face a little bit. "Oh."
"What? Oh, no dumbass." She giggled as she pushed his hand away and slid her knee under his hip. "I just thought your friend might need to join the party." As she said this she tilted her hips up to tease him slightly, making him aware of the sizable problem he had been pressing into her hip.
He didn't move for a second and she looked at him weirdly. "Oh." The tone had shifted and the hand that reached up to cover her left breast was gentler than even he had known it could be. He dug deep and forced himself to say the thing he wanted most to not say right now; "I have been a dumbass." He made himself look into her eyes then, and trailed kisses over her neck as he entered her, licking and listening to the sounds she made as he moved inside her.
The feeling of holding her in his arms as she writhed underneath him was the scariest, happiest feeling he had ever known. And as she came and moaned out his name, pulling at his hair, he let himself go completely inside her, holding back nothing and burying his face into her chest.
They stayed that way for a long time, holding one another and thinking of how impossible it was how that they were in this place.
