Imperfectly Beautiful (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #3)

Requests and Rings

-NATALIE-

Ever since I was a little girl, I'd always loved Christmas. It was the one day of the year when everything seemed perfect for a moment and I loved spending time with the people I loved most.

Thus, as I snuggled down into my covers with my phone while Scout and Logan snored next to me, I couldn't help, but smile at the flood of texts and social media notifications celebrating the holiday.

Layne and Rebecca had both made adorable posts of the three of us throughout the years with a sweet Christmas message and I'd crafted a similar one to post to my own page about how glad I was to have them as my friends.

Within seconds, I got a like from DJ with the comment, 'elfin' beauties' and I laughed to myself as I responded back with a smiling emoji.

I scrolled through other posts for a while before my phone buzzed and text came through:

see you're up posting pics, sexy ;)

I didn't even have to check to know who it was from. Instead, I closed out of my app and tucked my phone under the pillow while I stared up at the ceiling. I'd gone back and forth in my head a million times on what to do about Heath's request about sending him a "sexy" picture for Christmas.

On one hand, I found his advances to be flattering. After years of feeling like no one noticed me, I had all of his attention and he genuinely liked me. However, on the other, in my gut, I didn't feel settled about the idea of stripping down for the camera. I liked kissing Heath and flirting back and forth over texts—that was sweet and fun and harmless, but exposing myself to him came with a risk. He claimed that he wouldn't share the pictures with anyone and that I could trust him and I did trust him—but still there was a part of me that wasn't sure. I wasn't trying to tease or lead him on and I wanted him to be happy, but there was still a lot of mystery surrounding him and I wanted to take it one day at a time to get to know each other. I didn't want to do anything that I couldn't take back, but I didn't want to lose him either.

I was torn.

Not even a full minute passed before I felt my phone vibrate again and I pulled it out to see an incoming call from Heath. I glanced over at Logan to check if he was still asleep and then rolled over on my stomach to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sexy Brown Eyes," he said in a husky, low voice, that sent goosebumps across my skin and butterflies to my stomach. "Why didn't you text me back?"

"Oh, um, I've been dozing off on and off, I must've missed it," I cringed at my own lie, but I didn't know what else to say.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's been a long day. I think I'm the last one awake."

"I see, well, I was just wondering what happened to my Christmas gift," he said. "I've been looking forward to it, babe."

I gazed up at the ceiling again, "I forgot about it, Heath, I've just been so busy."

"Well, if you're the only one awake now, you could send me a little something, couldn't you?" he asked.

I could feel the heat rise in my body, "I'm in bed."

"Even better," he practically moaned. "I know you're sexy as hell lying in bed."

My cheeks reddened, "It's not like that. I'm in my uncle's guest bedroom with my dog and my little brother."

"Okay, so how about just a sneak peek under the sheets?"

I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut, "I don't think so."

"Why not?"

I needled my lip, "I'm just not ready for that."