Look Back at Me (Fleckney Fields Series, Book 1)

Wake Up to It

1/2 <3 

K. xx

***

When the alarm reached her sleeping mind, her first thought was that her flu must be back. She felt hot, couldn't move, and she always woke up before her alarm - and why would she even be in bed in the middle of a day? And then she remembered. She opened her eyes and looked at the man in front of her. He was frowning, and scrunching his nose, bothered by the alarm - and then he shifted, trying to bury himself into her, with irritated grumbling. He rubbed his nose to her neck, and she recognised these slow lush movements of his. The tone of the noise in his throat changed, and then his hips pressed into hers. Her body reacted - first with lust, and then resistance - and she shivered unpleasantly. He kept trying to press tighter into her - and suddenly there was no bed under her. She gasped, and her buttocks, and then her shoulder blades met the floor. She yelped, from the pain that echoed in her spine.

"Bollocks, what–" he muttered, and opened his eyes. "Vi, what are you–"

"You pushed me off the bed," Viola pointed out, grabbed to the edge of the desk, and pulled herself up.

"Oh sorry," he said, groaned, and rolled on his back. "We're in my sleeper."

"We are," she said with a chuckle.

She pulled her mobile out of her handbag and turned off the alarm. He yawned and stretched in all his massive length. He threw his arms above his head, grunted, and arched his back. Rhys Holyoake, she suddenly remembered, did everything with gusto, if circumstances allowed. He enjoyed his food, his sleep, lazy lie-ins, and busy days with equal amounts of enthusiasm - if he wasn't stressed or rushed. Clearly, at the moment he felt neither. Viola turned away from him and looked down at her mobile. Yola had sent her three texts, and Viola could guess their content quite easily. No doubt, someone would have informed Yolanda of the kiss at the bake by now. And of course, she would have made certain conclusions regarding Rhys and Viola leaving together.

"What's up?" he asked quietly behind her, and she turned and gave him a small smile. 

She wondered if he could tell the difference between her sincere smiles, which were endlessly rare, and this plastic one she was so good at.

By now, everyone who had paid attention and was at least a bit interested would assume they'd been sleeping together. It didn't brother Viola, she'd known it would happen when she'd chosen to kiss him in front of the whole county. What worried her was that she suspected he shared such expectations.

"Should we head to the river?" she said, and tucked her phone back into the handbag.

"Vi, what's wrong?" he asked.

She looked at him over her shoulder, and saw that he'd stretched his hand to her, inviting her to come back to bed.

She wanted to. Heaven above, so much! Except, all she wanted was to hug, and curl into him, and feel warm and safe. She felt no hunger, no desire. All Viola suddenly felt was tired. She wasn't sure she had energy to deal with the complicated, taxing, emotionally loaded question of having sex with her ex-husband.

She could pretend to be deaf. Just as Fiona had mentioned, it was a skill all Holyoakes were most proficient at - and it would be almost entertaining to turn the tables.

Except, they had tried this sort of relationship, hadn't they? The one without any communication, without voicing one's needs and fears, the one that had failed miserably ten years ago.

Viola sighed, leaned her back against the desk, and gave him a soft look.

"I'm worried that you– I'm not worried, that's not the right word," she said and shook her head. "I love what we have right now. I've just had the best sleep I've had in years. And the bake was fun. And I want to go skating."