TWH: Word Prompt Challenges

"You've made a mess of me, but God I love it so much."

And now for the return of the Word Prompt Challenge. [Bwahaha] We get another glimpse at lawyer!Tom and Paige from [I'll Always Want] More.

--------

I had thought him to be sleeping, or I never would have said it. As soon as I'd spoken one of those eyelids had fluttered open, revealing just a fraction of those grey-blue eyes.

"Hmm? What was that?"

He's smirking at me, I can see that much in the pre-dawn light of the bedroom. He wasn't supposed to have heard that - the brutal honesty behind my softly spoken words. We're not ready for that, are we?

I can't help but smile back at him even though I'm trying not to. I bury my chin further into my pillow, both to hide the smile and protect him from my morning breath. "Nothing. Sorry. Go back to sleep."

He understands me, despite my pillow muffling my words. Both eyes are open now, and he shifts his head to adjust how his pillow supports him - just a fraction to combat the way I had ducked my head. "It's never 'nothing' when you speak, Paige. Particularly when, and correct me if I'm wrong..." He arcs his eyebrows for a moment, his smile expanding to engulf his face in a clear display of delight, "the L word tumbles from those all-too-kissable lips."

"L word?" My cheeks are getting warm - which is just a response to the look he gives me while talking about my lips.

It's not that I'm afraid to tell another man that I love him. Certainly not that I'm giddy or nervous at the idea of love. We've just been careful, very careful, to avoid labeling what we have, what exists between us. It's been complicated enough trying to figure out the mess of my divorce, and how to resolve my relocation, as well as the fact that we had lusted after one another while he was still my lawyer. Add to that the fact that we had started sleeping together after everything was finalized...

"I don't know what you're talking about, Tom. You must've been dreaming."

"Mmphh." He rolls onto his side, shifting under the sheets to scoot his body closer to mind. He doesn't appear convinced by my assertions. "If you say so, Paige, but for the record... I believe it's you that has made a mess of me - and my bachelor pad."

I laugh, a deep and unbridled, joyful noise escaping me as I turn, my body already responding to the motion of his. He's done this - enabled me to laugh again, brought me back from the shell of a person that I was when we met. "That's what you get when you give a woman the keys to the kingdom, counselor."

My words draw a shudder from him. Curious that words net such a reaction from him, when I should be the one shaking for the light biting kisses he applies to my neck.

"Observation," he says as his lips brush my skin, "I'm certainly not complaining."

The L word. Love. Love him. I do. And yet I haven't told him. I've let him love me and made him wait to hear any such profession in return. "Ok." That's all he gets for a little while, my mouth unwilling to do more than seek out his. "Ok, you weren't dreaming. Before. I do."

"Do?"

Maybe I'm not the only one distracted this morning. Before I can change my mind about telling him, or my thoughts become entirely focused on the way he moves his hips, I need to get the words out. "I do love it. This. Us. You."