Happy holidays! Merry Christmas! Have a heaps good Wednesday! Whatever you're celebrating, may your beer be cold, your pavlova light, and your company kind.

If you're like me and this time of the year is sucky AF because you're missing loved ones, fearing conflict, or dealing with bad memories, I'm sending you a whole lot of love and light.

I wrap a towel around my waist and, before I open the door, flick off the bathroom light. I don't want to disturb Bella.

Alistair had shaken me awake before he headed out on night shift. 'Go to bed, kids,' he said. 'You're gonna wake up with your necks fucked.'

Bella and I had untangled ourselves and stumbled towards my bedroom, flicking off lights as we went. Bella had stepped out of her shorts and climbed into my bed, and was asleep again before I'd pulled off my shirt. Because I had fallen asleep beside her in my work gear, I decided to take a quick shower, not wanting to get into bed still wearing the day's sweat and grime.

The problem is, once I step out of the bathroom, I realise I'm no longer tired. We probably fell asleep before seven o'clock, and my body clock is now thoroughly confused. While I would be quite content to just lie in bed and watch Bella sleep, it seems a little too stalkerish. So I flip my lamp on, and when Bella doesn't stir, dig through my bedside table for the novel I haven't picked up in months.

It's not a particularly challenging read, something Katie and my mum would call a 'beach read,' so I pick up the thread of the narrative pretty quickly.

I've read about fifty pages when Bella rolls over and blinks up at me.

'What the fuck?' Her voice is thick with sleep.

'Al kicked us off the couch,' I explain. I glance at the time. 'Maybe an hour ago. You were pretty zonked.'

She shakes her head. 'No, I know that.' She swallows. 'I meant, what the fuck are you wearing?'

I look down at my bare chest. 'Uh…'

'The glasses, Edward,' she says, exasperation tinging her voice. 'Since when do you wear glasses?'

I shrug, feeling my ears grow hot. 'I only need them for reading, or if I spend a lot of time working on the computer. So they don't get much use these days.' I could probably count the number of times I've worn them this year on one hand.

'You know they're really fucking hot, right?'

'Uh…' I mean, when I was first prescribed them, Tanya told me not to stress because I looked 'fine.' She definitely didn't have the kind of reaction Bella is. Maybe it's the newer frames…

'I didn't know you were much of a reader,' Bella says. She reaches for my book, turning it in my hands so she can check out the front cover. 'Any good?'

I shrug, dog-earring my page and tossing the book back on to my bedside table. 'It's okay. I bought it because I needed an easy read for when I can't sleep.'

Bella smiles and runs her fingers through hair. 'I know it's like the absolute worst thing for insomnia, but I'm a compulsive Instagram-scroller when I can't sleep.'

'I like to read,' I tell her. 'I know it doesn't fit with the tradie stereotype, but I was a bit of a nerd in high school.'

Bella nods. 'Yeah, when we had lunch at your folks', Katie told me that you're smarter than she is.'

'She did?' I shake my head, frowning. 'That's definitely not true.'

'She also said you'd say that.' Bella pushes herself up to sit and gathers her hair up into one of her wobbly buns.

'Well, as my dad will tell you, I couldn't hack the pressure of the HSC and I bombed out. Badly.' Keeping my promise to travel with Katie had been easy when I didn't get the marks needed for any of the uni courses I had applied for.

Bella's expression softens. 'You had a lot to deal with while you were still a teenager,' she says quietly.

'So did you. So did Katie.' I shrug, giving her a small smile. 'It's okay. I was really upset with myself for a couple of months after school finished. But I met heaps of people when Katie and I were travelling—people who had taken all different paths in life. And eventually I realised my ATAR wasn't the sum total of my life. I'm happy with where I'm at.' It's true that I'm a couple of years behind a fair number of my peers, but I know where I'm headed and I know I'll get there.

I push my hand through my hair and sigh. 'How are you feeling, anyway?' I nudge Bella's shoulder with mine.

'Yeah. A bit better,' she says. She smiles small. 'Sleep helps. Sometimes. It's like hitting reset, I guess.'

'Yeah, I get that.'

Bella yawns and stretches 'I think we went to sleep too early, though.'

I chuckle. 'Yeah. I reckon you're right.'

'What time is it?'

'Half past eleven. Are you hungry? I don't have any crumpets, sadly. But there was some pizza left over, or I've got some sourdough we can toast.'

Bella contemplates the offer before she shakes her head. 'Nah, I'm not hungry.' She wriggles back down under the covers and turns to me, her expression morphing to one I recognise—one that usually means she's about to make me a very happy man.

'Come here,' she says. I move to take my glasses off when she grabs my arm. 'Leave them on.'

Smirking, I roll on top of her, settling between her legs. My body reacts immediately, my stomach swooping, my dick growing hard.

'You're so fucking gorgeous,' I tell her.

She arches up to kiss me. 'Just for that…' she says, a little breathlessly. She pushes me back on to my back and moves down the bed. Her fingertips sweep down my thighs, dragging goosebumps to the surface.

I shake my head. 'Bel. You don't have to.' I never want her to be uncomfortable or apprehensive when we're being intimate.

Bella smirks up at me. 'Shush. Just give me a heads up.' She snickers at her own choice of words, before she kisses my hip and takes hold of me.

I'm being honest when I say I could absolutely live without this if it was something Bella really didn't enjoy. But that doesn't mean it isn't fucking unreal, the feel of her strong hands and her warm, wet mouth moving on me. More than that though, it's the way she meets my gaze, the way she smirks up at me like she knows exactly how good she's making me feel. It's just Bella, really. I'm completely in love with her.

I stroke her cheek. 'You gotta stop, mate.'

She shifts to the side, still stroking me as she reaches up and wraps her other arm around my neck. She pulls me down to kiss her. I kiss her hard until I lose control and I come, forehead pressed against hers, groaning and gasping into her mouth.

It takes me a while to catch my breath. Bella bounces off the bed and returns with a towel. Once I've cleaned up, I toss the towel in the direction of the en-suite and wrap my fingers around Bella's ankle, tugging until she's sprawled across my bed. I hook my fingers into her underwear and drag it down her legs, then nudge her knees apart. I rest my head against her thigh and reach for her hand.

'Show me,' I say, 'how you do it.'

Bella looks at me, lip between her teeth, before she nods. She's already squirming as she walks her fingers down over her abdomen and between her legs.

'Fuck me.' It's the single most erotic thing I've seen in my life. And then Bella arches her back and grabs a handful of my hair. I do what she wants and put my mouth on her until shudders run through her body and she cries out my name.