Seven

Chapter 33

Seven takes a couple calls before we finally settle into bed for the night. I call Jeremy and get the rest of the week off from the liquor store at Seven's suggestion, he's worried my stalker will turn up there again. Jeremy gives me some stick about not working but I know he's only teasing. I wish I could tell him the real reason I'm calling in sick, he might be able to help but when I suggest that to Seven he disagrees. Telling me he's going to handle it. I don't know what that means exactly but I'm confident in his assurances.

Just like last night Seven clings to me in his sleep. I wake up in the morning with his head resting on the bare skin of my stomach, it seems he's lifted the material up to do so. Feeling his naked torso hug around my hips is quite the feeling to wake up to. He's so warm that I hardly notice the sheets only covering from my thighs down. He has become my blanket and I, it seems, his pillow.

Seven doesn't wake when I scoot out from underneath him in the morning. He stirs, sounds a small hum in his throat but never opens his eyes and falls back into his soft snores. I watch him for a moment, sprawled across my bed, tanned and toned limbs stretching across the entire mattress. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps. His hair a mess of curls that flop onto his forehead and slightly into his eyes. His lips parted and pouty as quiet, breathy snores fall from them. Seven looks so young when he sleeps, I feel like when he looks like this I can imagine his younger self. See the boy in him that once was, the boy who's childhood was stolen away far too soon - much like my own.

You learn to grow up quickly without parents. Although Grandma Mera tried her best to make my childhood normal, when your guardian is in her retiring years you learn how to look after yourself the way I imagine most do when they move out of home.

I wonder what my Grandma Mera would think of Seven. How would she react to me bringing home a man like him? I know his tattoos would have thrown her off, but I think she would've fallen for Seven's honest eyes and dimpled smile soon enough. I pad quietly out of my bedroom to inspect the pile of boxes still in my living room containing Gran's things.

Soon.

I think to myself. Soon I will get the courage to open them up and go through them. I'm not quite ready yet, but I know I will be soon.

I carry on into the kitchen and begin pulling out ingredients to cook Seven and I some breakfast. Eggs, bacon, tomatoes, beans, breakfast sausages, mushrooms, hash browns and some toast - a full English fry up for the two of us.

I am almost ready to dish up the mountain of food I've fried, sizzled, poached and simmered when I hear my name from the bedroom.

"Lily?" Seven calls, his voice has that husky roughness to it from sleep. I'm about to reply when he calls again, this time a little louder and he sounds panicked.

"Lily!" Seven appears in a rush to the doorway of my bedroom, his hands holding the frame of either side to catch him due to the quick pace he'd moved at. He's still in his black briefs, red marks his face from sleep, his hair sticks out in all directions and his eyes have that glossy look to them. He must have only just woken up.

Seven and I stare at each other across the room, I freeze with the kitchen tongues in my hand waiting to understand the panic he seemed to be in seconds before his eyes found me.

"You were gone when I woke up I thought...I thought something had happened." He explains, voice strep and croaky. I smile warmly to ease his nerves.

"Nope, just making us breakfast." I click the tongues at him and his shoulders visibly relax.

He takes a seat at the bench to watch me dish up our plates. His portion is a lot bigger than mine but I hope I haven't made him too much or too less. I'm not use to cooking for a mans appetite.