Three's a crowd

6

The next morning I woke up in a great mood. Riley still had his arms wrapped around me almost as if he were afraid I would flee in the middle of the night.

I watched him for a while, admiring each intricate detail of his face, before carefully sliding out of the bed to get ready. I grabbed my shorts and a shirt as well as some clean underwear and quickly showered, careful not to wake him.

When I was done I pulled my hair into a wet ponytail and put my makeup on before opening the bathroom door to throw my clothes in the basket.

As I opened the door he was sitting up on the bed looking at me.

"Morning beautiful." He smiled.
"Morning sleepy head."
"Sleep good?" He asked.
"Yeah, you know what I really did. It was different sharing the bed, but I think I like it." I smiled.
"Well you... miss charming, talk in your sleep!" He laughed.

"Shit, really?" I asked as I felt my cheeks flush.
"Yep, I learned all kinds of secrets last night." He laughed.
"Stop!" I said throwing what was in my hands at him.

I thought I had thrown my towel, but in fact it had been my bra, which coincidentally happened to land on his head.

"You know I always thought the first time I'd have one of these near my face would be a little different to this." He teased as he pulled it off and threw it into the basket.

"Funny!" I said sarcastically walking to the basket to put my other clothes in there. "Go get ready, we have to leave soon."

"Geese, you spend one night with a girl and she starts bossing you around like she's your mother!" He joked as he climbed out of the bed.

To say that I wasn't accustomed to male problems anymore than they were to women problems would be an understatement. My hands coming up to shield my face immediately after my eyes caught a glimpse of the large swollen area under his pajamas.

"You may want to make that a cold shower!" I stated turning away from him.
"Shit!" He said before running into the bathroom causing me to laugh uncontrollably.

A short time later he came out in a towel, his exposed chest and abs highlighted in the glow of the morning sun. I couldn't help but turn away as my breath hitched at the sight of him.

"Sorry I forgot to grab my clothes when I ran in there." He said quickly going to his dresser to pull out some underwear.
"It's okay, you can change in here. I'm sure I'll get used to seeing you without a shirt by the end of the week." I said turning back to face him as he pulled on some shorts.

"Britt." He smiled walking towards me until he stood in front of me as I sat on the bed. "I meant what I said last night. I don't want to make you uncomfortable. If I need to change in the bathroom, I'll walk five feet to the bathroom." He said.

"I know, it's just I want us to move forward. I mean riding my bike scared me as a kid, but once I got used to it I loved it." I explained in the only example I could think of.

"Are you comparing seeing me without clothes to learning to ride a bike?" His eyebrows arched playfully as I laughed.

"Shut up, you know what I meant!" I smiled running my hands up his bare chest before wrapping my arms around his neck.

Riley leaned down towards me as my lips parted in anticipation. The room suddenly felt warmer as he bent over me. I could have sworn he was going to kiss me when his hands started to mercilessly tickle my sides.

I fell backwards, pulling him on top of me as
I thrashed around while his lean body pinned me to the bed. His legs were on straddling my waist as he continued to tickle me.