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

Saturday

They made love twice more in her bed, and shared her Prosecco, and he wouldn't stop kissing her, as if tasting it on her lips, and as tired as she was, she just couldn't stop running her fingers through his quickly drying hair, and over his shoulders, and cupping his jaw, and rubbing his beard with her palms. And then they ate the sushi, and he kept trying to feed more to her than to eat himself, lying through his teeth that he'd eaten on the way, and she laughed and told him they needed to order him food or he'd shrivel from all the exertion - and she got up to find her phone, and when she was back, he was already asleep. She slid under the duvet, curled into him, and fell asleep in less than three seconds.

***

She opened her eyes and stared outside. It wasn't fully dark, she could see streaks of light dancing in the charcoal clouds. She'd slept through the night! With him wrapped around her, his heavy hairy leg pressing hers into the sheets! Without nightmares, quite comfortably, perhaps slightly too hot, but nonetheless! She blindly found her phone on the bedside table and looked at it. 7:34. That can't be right!

"Go to sleep, Vi," Rhys grumbled, pulling her even closer into him. Viola closed her eyes and relaxed into his embrace, when he suddenly muttered, "I'm hungry."

She wondered if he was talking in his sleep. A cosy noise rumbled in his throat, and he dug his nose into her hair insistently.

"You smell nice. Like a satsuma," he added and gently brushed his lips to her earlobe.

Most of her products - including her shower gel, the matching body lotion, her hand cream, and her foot cream, as well as her shampoo, conditioner, and her hair mask - all had citrus smells, yuzu being her favourite, closely followed by red grapefruit. She had always been very particular about the cosmetics she used, choosing, when possible, organic, cruelty-free, sustainable, and fair trade.

"Are you craving marmalade toast then?" she couldn't help but quip. All that effort and consideration - and the man compares her to the most boring of the fruit family!

He groaned and scrunched his face, probably trying to open his eyes. Viola took mercy of the ridiculous man.

"Sleep, love," she murmured and kissed his cheekbone.

"I can't," he said in the same grumpy tone. "I woke up, because you moved... and now I want you."

Viola gave him an amused look.

"I moved, and now you want me," she repeated with a chuckle, and he hummed confirming. "Maybe I should go make coffee," she said, "and let you sleep, since–"

She was interrupted by him squeezing her a bear hug - and a certain part of his anatomy demandingly poking into her hip. He normally didn't enjoy sleeping starkers - hadn't enjoyed all those years ago - but the previous night they surely hadn't bothered with laundry. His clothes were still on the floor of her bathroom, in a crumpled heap.

"Well, have me then," she said with a soft laugh.

He slowly opened his eyes, and gave her a surprisingly sober sharp look.

"Are you– alright with it?" he asked, frowning.

"With what?"

 Viola studied his dark face. He didn't answer, and she kissed the tip of his nose.

"With me– having you." He drew his eyebrows even closer. "Yesterday, I lost control. When I just came in, and you had that soft thing on you, I just– It was so bloody sexy– and you jumped on me. I know I can be rough sometimes," he said, his face shameful. "You yelled like a banshee. I thought I hurt something."