Red Shoes, Black Coffee (Red & Black #2)

29 | One and only

Ada

Jed snores

I lay on my side, my hair spilled on the pillow beside me, facing him. That little smile hasn't left my lips since I woke up to his soft snores some time ago.

They are not the loud, keep-me-awake-at-night kind of snores. They are softer, quieter - more like murmurs. Somehow, I find them adorable. My chest expands the longer I lay there, watching him breathe.

It's probably creepy as hell, but oddly comforting.

I feel my cheeks heat when I think of last night, which is stupid, considering that there's not much to blush about. After I slammed on the breaks, the two of us went to sleep like some old people. I left Jed's bedroom for long enough to don the tank top and boxer shorts that serve as my pajamas and brush my teeth. When I slipped back inside, he was already reclining on one side of his double bed, leaving the other for me. I almost freaked out in the doorway and run back to my couch.

But as I pushed off the threshold, I figured I was done with running. With my heart in my throat, I drifted over to the bed and slipped under the covers. I didn't think I could fall asleep with Jed next to me. I have, once, but that time was nowhere like this one.

That night I had been scared and shaking, desperate for a contact with another human being. Jed was there for me when I needed him, and that was all. Just him offering me comfort, scaring away my demons and erasing all my fears. Besides, we slept on the couch back then. Not in his bed. It wasn't this personal. This intimate. This... stress-inducing.

And not nearly as pleasant.

When Jed rolled and settled his arm over my waist, I felt something melt inside of me. Oddly, it didn't wake me up like I thought it would. No, the touch carrying enough electricity to make my heart burst worked to calm me down and helped my eyelids drop. Before I knew it, I was falling asleep, and it was the best slumber I've had since the burglary in the dorms.

As I lay there, watching Jed sleep, I notice his eyes begin to open. I quickly shut my own, not wanting him to know I've been lying here all that time, staring at him like an ultimate creep. I stay like this for a few moments, then pry one eye open, just enough to see if his have already closed. I open both my eyes then and blink once, then close them again. I keep doing this for a couple of minutes until one time I open my eyes, finding Jed already watching me.

A slow smile pulls at the corners of his lips when he catches me. Warmth momentarily invades my cheeks and I press further into the pillow, feeling flushed.

"I knew it." He says.

I find myself smiling back, then pout a little. "You ruined the fun."

Jed's eyebrows shoot up at the same time his hand moves. Sneaking from under the cover, it wanders up and up before landing on my cheek. Jed's fingers trace the flushes skin there softly, though his eyes never leave my own. Sparks of amusement twinkle in those brown depths, still slightly misted with the remnants of sleep lurking in them. "So you admit that watching my handsome face was fun."

I snort, acting as though I considered this idea ridiculous. "You wish."

"Of course I do." Jed says with a sly smile. The and around my waist tightens, drawing me closer. "Though not as much as you wish I didn't wake up, so that you could ogle me some more."

"As though you weren't doing some ogling yourself."

"Do you blame me?" Jed sweeps his head down, kissing the tip of my nose. "I can't help it. Not when the view is so nice."