AN:
I just...I feel like you guys will like this chapter...
Thank you so, so, so much for all of your amazing reviews! I've been so distracted with some heavy things going on in my personal life at the moment, I started drawing away from writing but having so many people reach out and tell me how they were finding this story was such a good motivator to get me back at my laptop for this story!
Seth's POV
Jasmine was quiet for a couple of long minutes after Daisy exited the house, both of us watching the closed front door through the hall from our seats at the kitchen table. She tapped her inch-long, hot pink nails against her mug a few times before she finally sighed, looking toward me, her ice blue eyes narrowed as if she were trying to read me in some way.
"I hope she makes it back before it starts raining," I started unsurely. The air was heavy with the oncoming rain, and I could smell it through the window half-opened to my right, in the distance, travelling toward us.
"She'll be okay. She doesn't mind a walk in the rain, at any rate. She'd probably welcome it."
"So...I guess we're having our talk?" I asked, again sounding too much like a child who knew they were in trouble. Jasmine, while difficult to read and always with an effort of intimidation, had been kind to me each time I'd met her, though not in the way she accepted and doted on my imprint whenever she was around. I hadn't seen her react that way to anyone else she'd come in contact with, actually. I wouldn't like to be on the blonde woman's bad side.
She didn't make an attempt to smile, but swallowed heavily and straightened in her seat a little, crossing her arms and leaning over the small table toward me. "I guess I just want to know that you're serious about her."
"I am," I told her instantly. "I'm not the kind of person that hangs around for one thing and takes off when I get it."
"I hear you," she started dismissively. "But that's something a lot of guys say. And Daisy's been screwed over more times than I can count. She's hot. She attracts a lot of male attention, but she's probably the last girl to go along with it. Usually she'll end the conversation before it gets anywhere, and that obviously didn't happen with you."
I half-shrugged, running my thumbs along the edge of the table uncomfortably. "I didn't exactly hit on her the first time we met. I think it helped that we started a friendship instead of me telling her I was interested."
"But that's just not what she does," Jasmine said sternly. "Daisy isn't the kind of person to just let someone into her life like that, especially a guy. The only friendships she has have been made through family, or work, and she sticks with them. I can't imagine her meeting someone out and about and striking up a conversation with them."
"Maybe she's changed a lot since the last time you saw her," I offered.
She twisted her lips and looked down at her coffee for a moment. "You know, my brother asked her out for years before she said yes to him. Three years. She didn't want to get into a relationship and have it end. She was so determined to meet one person and stay with them, and it didn't happen. I remember asking her questions like the ones I'm asking you now, thinking I was going to have to look out for my brother, and she became more of a sibling to me than he ever was. I don't want to see her get her heart broken again, Seth."
"It's not my intention," I told her evenly. "She means too much to me for me to just sleep with her and change my mind about her. I know Alex messed her up, she's told me a few things about their relationship, and I'm not going to do that to her. I don't want her to be stuck with someone who doesn't put her before everything else in their life."
Jasmine nodded in agreement. "He put her last. He worried about his friends and his job and his hobbies before her."
"And I won't do that to her." I promised. "She said she'd never met his friends; she knows all of mine. They love her. She gets along with them." The majority of them, I thought, my mind on Nessie. "I don't want my life to be Daisy, and then everything else. I want her to be a part of all of it."
"What about you?" Jasmine asked. "Do you think you've got yourself sorted enough to take care of her?"
"I'd do anything for her," I said immediately. "I work hard, and I'm motivated. I've got a good support network. I've got a stable family, and close friends."
"Okay," Jasmine said simply. She nodded at me slowly, and I raised my eyebrows. "I like you, Seth. I like you for Daisy. I like how she is around you, as well. She always seemed on guard with my brother, and she's at ease with you."
"I feel like I'm asking for her father's blessing to marry her," I chuckled quietly.
"Nah, I'm way more scary," Jasmine grinned, lifting her mug to her plump lips.
Daisy was quiet when she got home, smelling like Alex and drenched through her white dress. She'd walked to the bakery barefoot, and she dragged small pieces of grass and dirt into the house with her, excusing herself to change while Jasmine warmed the pies in the oven.
She returned in an oversized shirt and a pair of bike shorts, sitting at the end of the table with her chin in her hand. She hadn't looked at me since she got back.
"You were out longer than I expected you to be. I tried to call you, to see if you needed me to pick you up." Jasmine said quietly as she watched her friend. She was annoyed at her, and she wasn't trying to keep it hidden.
"I know," Daisy sighed, "I'm sorry. Your brother was waiting at the shop when I got there. I told him this morning we were probably going to get lunch from there today."
Jasmine swore under her breath, reaching for her phone and typing quickly. The message seemed to be a long one, and she threw her phone back at the bench angrily when she was finished.
"Are you okay?" I asked Daisy quietly, nudging her knee with mine under the table. My stomach dropped when she pulled her legs away and shook her head silently, picking at the placemat in front of her. She seemed completely torn apart, and I was doing everything I could to stay at the table and not get up to hunt down her friend's brother in the middle of a thunderstorm.
The food was delicious, but for once in my life, I didn't feel overly hungry. Daisy had one small piece of chicken pie, the plate of cakes in the middle of the table untouched by her, which was definitely not normal. I couldn't help but glance at her every few minutes, watching her eat slowly as if she couldn't taste her food, and I wanted to drag her away from her friend so I could talk to her, but I didn't want to disrespect Jasmine in her own home, after the conversation we'd just had and her decision that I was, indeed, suitable for her best friend.
Jasmine said she had plans with her boyfriend when we were finished eating, whether they were made previously or she just wanted to give us some space, I'm not sure. She excused herself to get dressed and left shortly after. Daisy stood from the table, washing our plates silently before she left me in the kitchen and wandered back to our bedroom, grabbing her towel and disappearing into the bathroom. I heard the shower turn on, and I hovered in the hallway for a long time before I forced myself to go back to the bed we were sharing and pick up my book, not taking in any of the words I was reading as my eyes skimmed the page over and over again.
I wanted nothing more than to be home, in La Push, away from her stupid ex-boyfriend. She'd been on edge around her family, and now she seemed completely and utterly broken again. Her moving away was meant to be her way of self-healing, and coming home, if only for a week, had seemed to throw her over the edge again.
She returned smelling more like herself. I noted that she'd brushed her teeth, and my nerves returned full-force when I considered that. She sat on the edge of the bed, still not looking at me, and I watched her play with her hands, opening her mouth a few times as if she was about to speak, but not being able to say anything.
"Hey," I said softly, pushing myself forward so I was sitting beside her. "What's going on?"
"I did something really, really stupid." She said softly. I watched her closely as she lowered her head, her large eyes filling with frustrated tears that immediately fell onto her hands.
The rain beat heavily on the windows behind us, and in the cold room, I felt a little like I was home.
"What happened?" I didn't reach out to her, not wanting to scare her away in her fragile state, but I sat close, silently letting her know I was there for her.
She took in a deep, shaky breath and shook her head to herself. "Alex offered to drive me back, and I took him up on it. It was raining, and I didn't want to ruin all the food. But he drove me to the beach instead of here, and he parked and told me that he was sorry about everything, and that he missed me, and he wanted me to come home."
I felt a growl building in my chest, but I pushed it down and swallowed heavily. I had nothing to say to that, and my heart thumped heavily with what she was saying, suddenly worried she was going to confess that she wasn't coming back with me, choosing to stay to take things up with him again. I wondered if I could let her do that, and decided I could, if it was what she wanted. I could go home and keep in contact, take on Hugo and wait for her to decide that she was unhappy again, and come back to find me.
"He kissed me, and I kissed him back," she whispered. My heart shattered in that instant, and I lowered my face to rub it roughly with my hands, sighing heavily. This was it. She might come back to empty her house and take Hugo with her, relocating him so he could live here with Juniper and her and her stupid fucking ex-boyfriend.
She couldn't stay here with him if I killed him.
"Are you angry with me?" she asked quietly. I could hear her tears had stopped, for the moment.
I thought about that. "I'm not angry at you," I said honestly. I was angry at Alex. I was angry that he'd asked how I felt about her last night, and then gone and taken her from me when I knew he had no intention of treating her right. "I'm a bit confused. I don't really know what…what are you going to do? Are you coming back when I leave, or are you staying?"
"What?" she asked. I felt her straighten up, and I turned my head, keeping it rested in my hands as I looked at her. Her face was strange, a small and confused smile playing around her lips. "I'm going back to Forks. I'm not staying here," she said it as if it was the stupidest idea in the world.
"But…Alex is going to be here. And you always said you tried so hard to make things work between you."
"Yeah, and I also said I was stupid for trying. He's never going to change, Seth. He'd be proud of himself and all over me for a few weeks, and then he'd go off and screw around and party and leave me on my own again. I'm not happy here. I told him that. And…and I told him, I kind of have this huge crush on my best friend…"
If my heart had shattered before, I don't know what I was feeling now. Every tiny fragment, scattered throughout the length of my body ignited, tingling through me unsurely, ecstatically, leaving me light-headed, and overwhelmed.
"Well," I started, clearing my throat because apparently my voice didn't know how to work anymore. "I'm sure Jasmine wouldn't think twice about leaving her boyfriend for you."
"Shut up," she chuckled, nudging me with her side. I caught her before she could move away from me again, lifting my hand to brush the tears from her cheeks with both of my thumbs. I paused, holding her face, studying her silently. Her round green eyes watched me closely, staring at me, waiting for me.
I relaxed my hands as I leaned toward her, letting her know if she needed to move away from my advances again, she was welcome. But she didn't, and her breath was warm and delicious against my mouth as I hesitated, a fraction of an inch away from her lips, soaking up the intoxicating excitement that flowed between us, waiting for something that had taken such a long time to happen.
I finally moved forward, just that tiny bit more, and captured her lips gently, sighing against her mouth in ecstasy. She was almost frozen, not really reacting, and I kissed her twice, too gently, before she finally moved, meeting my lips with her own, her hands rising to grab my arms, holding me to her while she leaned further and further into me.
I'd lost my mind in that moment, and I was unaware of the time passing and the thunder roaring outside of the little room. All I knew was her, her warm sweet scent filling my nostrils, a hint at the taste of her which now filled my mouth, making me starving for her as I drank her in.
We finally paused, still holding each other, our foreheads pressed together as we breathed gently. I felt her eyelashes against my skin as she opened her eyes to look at me, a small frown creasing between her brows.
"What's wrong?" I asked her in a whisper.
She shook her head, her hand tight on my upper arm. "I don't know, I…" she shook her head again, and pulled away from me slightly, grabbing onto my hand. I turned it upwards and laced our fingers together. "Kissing you feels different."
I chuckled breathily and squeezed her hand. I could tell her everything, tell her why she was feeling that way, but I wanted to wait until we were back at home, surrounded by my natural habitat before I let that secret out.
She smirked and ran her other hand down the length of my arm, making my skin tingle at her touch. "You're keeping things from me. I know that. And it's okay, but you have to tell me one day, okay?"
I didn't tell her she was wrong, like I knew she expected. She was used to having things kept from her, and I wasn't going to be that person. "Not yet," I told her gently. "Let's get the rest of our holiday done, and get home. I want to enjoy things how they are for a while."
"You're not going to run off on me when we get back?" she asked with a small smile, but her eyes looked up to me with a hint of worry.
"I'm not going anywhere," I promised.
Daisy had asked if I wanted to spend our last night in Sydney, getting a room at a fancy hotel and going out for a nice dinner before we caught our flight on New Year's Day, and I could think of no better way to welcome in another year.
We'd spent our last few days stealing small kisses, one in the morning, and one at night, and then whenever I felt like I couldn't stop myself, but we'd both seem to come to the conclusion that we were going to take things slowly and let them happen naturally.
Peggie had invited her immediate family over for dinner on our last night in her home town, cooking a feast and letting me help in the kitchen. Daisy's stepmother had originally suggested going out for a big dinner, but my imprint wanted to spend as much time close to Juniper as she could, and the dog sat at her feet during our meal, as if she knew their time together was ending again soon.
Before our dinner, we'd gone to another beach, exploring the large caves and swimming out to huge pieces of rock where we sat in the sun and people-watched.
Daisy seemed more and more comfortable with me as the days went on, and a great portion of our time in the water was spent with her legs wrapped around my waist, my arms holding her gently as the water pushed us to and from the sand.
Her mother and sister smirked at us knowingly during our final night, not saying anything, though they seemed aware we were different around each other. We made a point of not touching in front of her family, not wanting to partake in public displays of affection that would raise more questions than she would be able to deal with.
She made the rounds, hugging each and every family member closely, telling them she would see them soon, and wasn't afraid to hold her grandmother the longest at the front door as we made our way back to her friend's house to stay for the night.
"Take care of yourself, please. I'll call you every week." She murmured emotionally into her grandmother's ear.
"Don't you worry about me," Peggie told her sternly. "You take care of yourself, and Seth. He's good to you."
I was surprised when Daisy's father shook my hand tightly, reaching up to rest his other hand on my shoulder. "Thanks for taking care of my little girl," he said quietly. "You're a good man."
"She'll be safe with me," I promised him. "I'll make sure she keeps in touch."
Juniper followed us to the car, and Daisy cried, jumping out again to hold her dog tightly one last time, before forcing herself away, waving to her family as she backed out of the drive. She would see her sister in the morning, when taking back the car, but her mother would already be at work.
"How are you feeling?" I asked her as we made our way back to Jasmine's house.
"Not great," she admitted softly. "I know I'll be better tomorrow. It's just hard, saying goodbye to Juniper, and Peggie."
"Thank you for letting me meet your family." I told her. She smiled back at me in response.
I made dinner that night, telling Jasmine to sit down when she hovered to help. I pulled out all the stops, making sauce from scratch and cooking everything to perfection. Daisy watched me happily, her eyes following my hands as I chopped and mixed things quickly, her eyes in awe as I showed off a little.
Jasmine was well aware of our relationship progressing, but she accepted it silently, smiling when I grabbed my imprint's narrow hips to move past her, or kissed the top of her head as I put the plate down in front of her on the table.
We woke before sunrise, to say goodbye to Jasmine as she headed out to work. She told us she'd come out to visit at one point, saying she needed a holiday when work calmed down a little.
Daisy and I migrated back to the little room that had housed us during our stay, and put our heads back on the pillow, facing each other and smiling softly.
"Are you excited to be going home?" she asked me quietly.
"I am," I told her. "But it'll be a bit sad to be heading back to work and normal life. Thank you so much for bringing me out here. I know my mom will love hearing all about it."
We didn't manage to go back to sleep, talking quietly about our time here, and what we were expecting from heading home. Daisy was nervous to see my friends again, seeing as we'd made progression in our relationship. I told her not to worry about it, and that they wouldn't give us a hard time. They were going to give me a hard time, for sure, but the guys knew better than to tease imprints in any way that was going to upset their wolf.
We had showered, dressed, and packed our bags by midday. We caught an Uber back to the train station and headed to Sydney, making assumptions about what the other passengers in our carriage were doing for the day, and stupid facts about their personal lives.
Daisy had booked a hotel without me knowing, the night previous, and it was only a short walk from the train station. We would be catching an Uber to the airport in the early hours of the morning to head back to LAX, and finally Seattle.
The hotel was nice, one spacious room and a modern bathroom. It had a view of the city, and Daisy let out a happy noise and dove head-first onto the giant bed in the center of the room.
"I love super king-sized beds!" she grinned, spreading her arms and legs out, enjoying that she didn't reach the edges from her spot in the middle. "Think about what we could get up to in this," I opened my mouth, speechless, but struggling to find a witty response, and she grinned mischievously back at me. We hadn't travelled past a few small kisses, and I was happy to keep things slow for her, so as not to push her too far too fast. I didn't even know if I was ready to make the final physical leap in our relationship. I didn't want the excitement to be over so soon, but she threw her head back and laughed, saving me from answering.
"What do you want to do tonight? We still have about five hours of sunlight left…there are fireworks over the Harbour Bridge for New Year's Eve. We could find somewhere to watch that, or we could stay in and watch it on TV. Do you want me to give you a tour of Sydney? We could find somewhere nice for dinner?"
"Relax," I told her, seating myself on the bed beside her legs and smiling down at her. "What do you want to do, Daisy?"
She pursed her lips as she thought about it. "I want to walk around Darling Harbour and get Jaffa flavored ice cream." She decided, whatever that was.
I stood, expecting her to follow, but she pushed herself to the end of the bed and smiled up at me expectantly. "But I want to practice kissing you first."
"Practice? I was under the impression you were aware of what you were doing," I grinned nervously. After our first kiss, everything had been closed-mouthed and quick. She'd never initiated anything, whether that was due to the fact that I was more than a head taller than her, or just because she was shy, I wasn't sure.
"Kissing you is different," she said softly. "Besides, I've only ever kissed four people before."
"Really?" I was surprised by that. Alex had told me she was quick to rebound in the past, and I'd assumed she'd kept herself busy with more people than that."
"Yeah," she told me. "Why, how many people have you kissed?"
I had to think about that. I wasn't known at home for being one of the more adventurous guys when it came to women, by any means, but I'd done my fair share of dating. "Nine," I finally counted. "Do you hate that?"
"I was expecting a lot more," she smiled. "Alex didn't really like kissing. We didn't do it a lot. And I wasn't seeing the other two guys for very long. I dated them to flush Alex out of my system, the two times be broke up with me before. And then I hated myself for it, so I just disappeared out of their lives. I didn't have any feelings for them, which is gross. I had a lot of stage kisses, but they were choreographed, so…"
"What, you think stage kisses don't count?" I joked with a gentle smirk.
She rolled her eyes at me. "Well, the guys I was kissing usually went home to their husbands at the end of the night,"
"Ah," I pulled her hands out of her lap, tugging her to her feet, and dropped them to push her hair back from her face. "I don't think there's a way to practice kissing. I think you just figure it out with the person you're doing it with."
"Then we should work on figuring it out," she smiled.
Who was this girl? I know she was being respectful of her friend while staying in her house, but I hadn't expected her to be so flirtatious once we were out on our own. I grinned at her and lowered my shoulders, pausing for a moment in front of her face to let her come to me. She did, and I cradled her face as she kissed me first, for the first time, sighing because I couldn't seem to help myself. My hands lowered themselves to the small of her back, lifting her slightly onto her toes for easier access to her lips as I kissed her back, slowly, so gently, my mind hyper aware that she was so small and so breakable.
She finally pulled away, sucking on her own lips as I straightened up. "I like kissing you," she said in almost a whisper. "We should do it more."
"We should," I agreed hoarsely. "Do you want to go?"
"Yep," she grabbed the small brown leather handbag off the floor where she'd left it and slung the long, thin strap over her shoulder, letting it fall against her hip and almost disappear in the full skirt of her backless sundress. "We'll walk. We can find more things to do, that way."
She showed me Darling Harbour, buying me ice cream, ignoring me when I insisted on paying. I had put the money my mother had gifted me for Christmas into my bank account at the airport before our flight, and I intended on finding the nicest restaurant we could for dinner and treating her, so I eventually let it go. We walked into small stores full of handmade items by local artists, talked to people about their dogs, Daisy always crouching down to say hello properly and scratch their ears, and ended up at a small museum full of Native Australian art.
"Different to your culture, huh?" she asked me, pointing out techniques and colors I hadn't seen before in traditional Native American art. "We used to have a class at primary school, and they'd teach us Aboriginal art forms. Once a year a man would come and play didgeridoo and cook emu and kangaroo and crocodile sausages, but I couldn't bring myself to eat the poor emus."
"You didn't mind the fluffy little kangaroos?" I chuckled.
"Everyone eats kangaroo," she rolled her eyes. "Do you want to go meet one?"
"Of course I do."
We walked to the zoo, getting in immediately because she'd already bought tickets online without me knowing. It was busy, with locals on holiday and people who had travelled to Sydney to see the firework display. Daisy was too excited for the afternoon seal performance, and we sat in the empty stands half an hour before it was set to start so she could get a good view. When they came out, showing off for all the snacks of small fish in the world, she made noises usually kept for someone seeing a baby, or a very small dog.
"I love seals," she whispered, putting her hands over her mouth and listening to the trainers speak of ocean conservation and the programs they had in place to protect the creatures in the wild.
"Are they your favorite?" I whispered back, though everyone else talked loudly with their children. She nodded, laughing as two seals performed a very well-rehearsed trick and clapping her hands. I smiled down at her, more entertained by her child-like reactions than the show in front of me.
Kangaroos were softer than I'd expected, a little like rabbit fur. The creatures roamed the eating area freely, most of them seated under small trees as they napped with the hot day. They also liked chin scratches, which I was all too happy to give them.
"What's your favorite animal?" she asked me curiously as we stopped to watch a mother and baby giraffe.
I smiled to myself, "Wolves,"
She laughed quietly. "Of course! I forgot you were a wolf-man."
"Don't go letting out the secret so loudly, they'll lock me up."
She grinned at me, turning to follow the continuous path around the zoo, until we'd seen everything and arrived at a dock for ferry boats. We caught one back, to the other side of the harbor, and she pointed out the Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge, which I'd only ever seen so clearly in posters and on television. She told me about one job she'd had at the Opera House, which she'd hated. I wanted to see her sing on stage, but I knew I wasn't going to get the chance when she was so adamant about never returning to her old line of work.
We'd walked for so long throughout the day that I worried about her feet getting sore, but she never complained. She'd put on a pair of bright yellow Converse in the morning, matching the color of her dress perfectly, and they were well-worn and looked comfortable on her feet. We ended up in China Town as the sky darkened, and I told her I wanted to buy her dinner.
The restaurant was a little too fancy for our casual clothing, but they seated us welcomingly, handing us multiple menus and leaving us to choose from the hundreds of options.
"Everything looks pretty delicious," she mused, her eyes trailing down the lists quickly.
"Should we just get one of everything?"
She snickered and went through about fifteen options that had caught her eye, asking if there was anything in the mix that I would enjoy. I ended up just ordering the majority of what she'd said, and the waiter looked at us like we were crazy, but complied.
There was too much food, even for me. We left a little on each plate, and I leaned back in my chair, feeling a little sick from overeating for the first time since I could remember.
It was almost half-past-ten when we wandered back to Darling Harbour, slow from the food and long day. Daisy was tired, but she wanted to experience New Year's Eve outside, where we would be able to see the fireworks in person, and she held my hand as we wandered through the crowded streets and into an overpopulated park. We found a small spot under a huge fig tree, seating ourselves on the grass and listening in on conversations from the people around us.
"Did you have a good day?"
"It was the best day," I smiled. "Thank you for showing me around."
"I mean, it's no First Beach, but I do what I can," we both laughed quietly, and she adjusted herself to lean against my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders effortlessly, kissing the top of her head softly and breathing her in. She seemed happy to stay like that. The air in Sydney was cooler than it had been for the most part in her home town, and she didn't seem bothered by the warmth of being so close to me. She played with my other hand, pulling it toward her in my lap, tracing patterns on my skin.
"Remember when I stabbed you?" she asked my suddenly. I snorted in amusement, and she ran her finger over where the knife had connected with my skin. "You know, normal people would have a scar from something like that. For like, seven years, at least."
"I guess I'm too advanced for you 'normal people'," I brushed it off lightly. Her lips fused themselves together thoughtfully as she studied my skin, no trace of previous injury, and hummed quietly.
I'd always thought it was a little funny, that the guys who had imprinted could be so caught up in just a simple touch from their mates, but feeling her feather-light touch on something as innocent as my hand was enough to make me want to close my eyes and fall into her. If she'd said she wanted to stay in that spot forever, never moving until we wasted away, I would have been happy to do it.
The park got busier and busier, until we were almost on top of other people sitting on all sides of us. The excitement in the air grew deliciously, and young couples, like us, looked at each other adoringly as they awaited the countdown.
Daisy didn't join in with the numerical cheers, her wide forest-green eyes focused on me intently as the people around us counted down the seconds to the new year, and when they reached one, and the first lot of fireworks exploded loudly across the water in front of us, we met each other halfway, our lips joining solidly and working against each other knowingly, as if we'd kissed just like this a thousand times before. Her hands were locked around my neck, holding me to her as if I had any notion of breaking away. When we finally did part, the famous bridge was alight with colors, looking as though it could have been exploding. Daisy pointed out a couple in front of us with a loud laugh, watching as they got a little carried away and caught the attention of the majority of the people in the immediate area.
We waited until the display of lights was over, and a little longer after that, watching as the crowd immediately stood and dispersed from the park, our hands joined as we sat silently and waited for the streets to clear before making our way back to our hotel.
Daisy showered first, changing into another small set of pajamas that drove me just as crazy as the first I'd seen her wear. She sat on the bed and looked through her phone when I took her place in the bathroom, emerging in my shorts and old t-shirt I'd slept in every night of our holiday.
"You don't need to wear your shirt to bed, you know," she said, not looking up from her phone when I emerged. I threw my towel over the back of the arm chair in the little room and immediately obeyed her, taking my shirt off and dropping it in the small pile of clothes beside our suitcases.
She looked up, studying me silently, and I smirked confidently. "Are you checking me out?"
"I am," she answered honestly. "I like how you look."
"I like how you look, too," I told her, climbing onto the mattress beside her. She was on top of the blankets, and the air conditioning was churning out enough cold air to raise goosebumps on her arms and thighs.
She smiled at my admission, straightening her legs out and pointing her toes. "I really like you, Seth," she said quietly. "I know it's way too soon to say that, but I want to tell you. I hope that doesn't freak you out,"
I replied by kissing her, tasting the toothpaste on her lips as I brushed through her hair with my fingers. She smiled at me, her eyes focused in thought when I broke away.
"We have to wake up in a few hours," she sighed after a long moment.
"Have you set an alarm?"
"Yeah, I'll get ready and pack everything up. You should try to sleep in until we leave, I know you couldn't sleep on the plane on the way over."
"I'll get up and help," I insisted. I set an alarm on my phone as well, for the same time as hers. "You look tired,"
She yawned, on cue, and I chuckled and climbed under the blanket, motioning for her to follow me. She ignored her pillow, laying her head on my chest as I wrapped my arm around her, resting my hand on her hip, on top of the blankets.
"Thanks for the best holiday ever," she sighed as she closed her eyes.