Part 8: while you were NOT sleeping!
Willow woke up cradled in warmth. Since her alarm had not sang, she figured she had a couple of more minutes to lay there. She snuggled back down into the softness of her covers.
They weren't soft, they were rather… hard…
They weren't her cover….
And IT, not they, grunted and wrapped IT'S arms around her!
She let out a sharp squeak as Erik hugged her to his sleeping body, and then the overwhelming feeling of warmth and security of having someone's arms around you settled over her.
She sat there huddled in that warmth, not wanting to move and disrupt it.
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Erik woke when something in his arms shifted. For a moment he actually panicked. However, the breathing thing in his arms snuggled into his chest. His arms reflexively came up around her. It was a she. It was…
Willow! He was splayed across a couch with his co-star and… friend…
Or was it turning into something more?
He started to shake his head then stopped, his arms settling more firmly around her 'sleeping' figure. If this were to be the only time he was ever going to hold anyone and be held back, he wasn't going to rush it. He held her, his eyes closing.
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Willow expected the clock to start singing sometimes soon. Then she would be pulled out of his arms, and she'd have to act like she just woke up. Until then however, she could pretend to be sleeping. She let out a sigh and rubbed her nose into the soft hair that decorated his chest. Buttons and unbuttoned themselves through the night, and his shirt was not opened to mid-chest.
Erik froze, hardly managing to keep his body from stiffening as she touched his check. His skin broke into gooseflesh, and he let a soft, contented sigh escape his lips.
He knew that, were she awake, she would not be touching him so. No one would touch him so freely… so, whether it was taking advantage or no, he would have time to feel 'guilt' later, he enjoyed the touch while he could…
Willow once again snuggled deeper into Erik's broad chest. It did occur to her that she had never woken in a mans arms before, and had never slept the night through with anyone's arms around her.
A small smile played over her lips, and she managed to open her eyes a bare slit and see the time…
5:15… she had forty-five minutes, if he stayed asleep, to revel in the feel of strong-arms enveloping her in a protective hug. She shifted in those arms, scooting closer and closing her eyes once more. She inhaled the scent of him. She didn't know that a man could smell so… unique and wonderful. There was the vague scent of her own perfume, and then the smell of some type of Men's' cologne. But, underneath that… a unique smell, all his own. Masculine, and utterly… well, Erik.
She placed that sent in the back of her mind, because she knew that she would never be this close to him again. She hid so many things behind her mask, and secrets were not becoming, and he couldn't possibly care for her… not that she cared about him in that way, he was her friend, she could admit that… he just happened to be an utterly, masculine, very male, and rather sexy friend. She let a small smile play on her lips again, and felt him give an involuntary jerk as her lips grazed the sensitive skin of his neck.
Erik's whole body jerked as her lips curved into a smile, grazing his neck where no lips had touched before. Christine had been the only one to kiss him.
Minutes flew by, and he ever-so-slowly allowed himself to entertain the thoughts of those lips on his own when-
"MASQUERADE! PAPER FACES ON PARADE! MASQUEARDE, HIDE YOUR FACE SO THE WORLD WILL NEVER FIND YOU!"
Both Willow and Erik gave startled jerks. Willow, however, sleeping on the outside of the couch, rolled onto the floor, with a string of RATHER unladylike words that Erik had never heard come out of a females mouth. She picked herself up off the floor, her face burning like a stoplight. She started to get to her feet, and tripped once again. Erik looked quizzically at her as he caught her in mid fall.
Her blushing face turned up to him…
"Thanks…"
A moment of silence…
"I apologize for falling asleep at your home…" he trailed off, because h wasn't sorry in the least bit. 'that fate which condemns me to wallow in blood, has also denied me the joys of the flesh…'
Had she too, been denied physical contact because of whatever was under her mask?
He shook his head. Nothing so bad as I, a small cynical laugh escaped his lips as he looked down at his rumpled shirt to hide the look of loathing in his eyes for himself.
As if her eyes were attached to his, her gaze followed, though, where his eyes had focused on the wrinkles in disdain, hers focused on his broad chest…
'Nice chest…' she murmured, and Erik looked up t her…
"What was that?" hardly managing to keep the blush from spreading up to her face, she quickly racked her brain for a lie.
AH! "I said, I may have another shirt in my chest…" See, the word chest was used…
He looked at her for a moment, then nodded, following her back to her room, where she fished him out a black men's dress shirt. It fit him snugly enough across the chest that every muscle he had ever built showed. It also smelled strongly of an American cologne that Willow identified as "BOD". She got a spaced look whenever he got to close to her, and, when asked, simply explained that BOD was, quote, "An orgasm in a bottle." She had blushed afterwards, but he just grinned.
Finally, the two were ready to leave for class… Crawling into his car, a small blush once again spread across her cheeks.
"What is it?" he asked, tilting his head sideway in a rather alluring gesture…
"It's just…" a smirk played over her rose colored lips. "I've never woken up with anyone beside me before." She quickly added, "not that I was beside you for very long awake… I had a close encounter with the floor." They both managed to laugh over that. When the quieted, he answered.
"I've never held anyone while they were sleeping…" Pause, "Not that you stayed away in my arms for long enough…" again they chuckled, while both secretly thought…
While you were NOT sleeping…
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