You opened your eyes slowly, disoriented at first. This wasn't where you remembered being. What you remembered last was sitting beside him on the couch, your head drooping sleepily on the cushions. You had been trying out a tentative friendship now that you'd gotten a few things sorted out. It would have gone well, but of course you had fallen asleep.
A tiny movement of your body confirmed your worst fears. You were stretched out on the couch on your side, your back pressed against the cushions and the rest of your body draped over his. One of your arms was pinned beneath you and the other was resting flat on his chest, rising and falling with every breath he took. His heart was beating evenly in your ear and the fact that you found the sound comforting caused a moment of alarm. Just days ago you loathed him with a passion and now you were so close that you knew without looking that your hair was fanned out over his shoulder and the one arm that he had wrapped tightly around you. The fingers of that hand were digging gently into your ribs over your sweater while his other hand rested on your shoulder, his thumb gliding slowly back and forth.
One of your legs was slung across his hips and entangled in his legs like a human pretzel. There was no way to move without waking him up, and considering your history you didn't want him to realize you had apparently been asleep together like this for at least a few hours. You didn't even like him much, not really, not yet anyway, but for some reason this moment was making you breathless, your nerves waking up and paying rapt attention to his closeness. And it felt good, great even. This would not do.
How in the hell you had gone from sitting on opposite ends of a couch, silently watching a movie, to being completely entangled was completely beyond you. It was the closest you had ever been to him, well except for those damned dreams that had plagued you since the moment you met him. The fact that you couldn't complain about the way you felt in his arms frightened you. This was a man who you barely tolerated, who had acted like an absolute asshole and you were only now starting see that maybe he wasn't as bad as you'd originally thought. But it was a huge leap from being able to sustain a conversation without snapping each other's heads off, to this!
Right at that moment she you were finding it profoundly difficult to breathe, you were so bloody aware of him.
He was awake, somehow you sensed that without having to look. Just like you knew that his attention had shifted from whatever was on T.V. His eyes, those eyes that even when you hated him still drove you crazy, were burning a hole in the top of your head.
Your eyes fluttered open while you wished for him to get up and move away, all the while aching for him to stay exactly where he was. The hand that had been resting on your shoulder shifted, the very tips of his fingers grazing along the skin bared by your sweater where your neck met your shoulder. Goosebumps broke out all over your skin as his fingers gently swept up the curve of your neck. Instinctively your own fingers curled into the soft fabric of his jumper. You noticed the heat of his breath in your hair and the fact that the rhythm beneath your ear had sped up slightly.
It had to be a dream again, that was the only explanation. His fingers were stroking your cheek and jaw line, so soft, yet it was making your mind swim. Surely it had to be a dream, why would be he be touching you like this after the way you'd treated him. And you couldn't possibly feel like this about him anywhere other than in your dreams. You usually got hot, flushed and trembling around him, but that was anger and dislike. Wasn't it?
It didn't even matter, the only thing that existed in your world right then was him, the heat from his body, the touch of his fingers, the smell of him. Bloody hell, you thought as your mouth went dry, he'd enveloped every one of your senses to the point where you swore you could taste him in the air.
He shifted and your mind screamed in panic. No! Don't go, don't leave me! But he wasn't leaving, he was scooting down on the couch, his one arm and leg still wrapped around you. His heartbeat faded from your ear as your head came to rest just beneath his jaw, his fingers still stroking your skin, yours still gripping the wool covering his torso. Your face was pressed against his neck, the rough skin chafing your cheek, the smell of him racing into your nostrils with every breath.
