Finding Cupid

Chapter 8

POV: Alice

            The bed was really, really warm—the comforter was cocooned around me like I used to want it when I was a kid. Something about the feeling of being wrapped up in softness compensated for the absence of a mother tucking me in at night. I moaned softly and rolled over with the intentions of cuddling further into the covers when I hit something hard. Had I hit the wall?

            It took a lot of effort for me to open my eyes, as they sometimes got dry in my sleep and hurt when I tried to open them, but when I finally got them open I nearly screamed.

            Eros was lying there on top of the sheets, his arms thrown carelessly about him, his hair curling wildly from the heat of sleeping. He looked relaxed for once in the short time I had known him. He looked like he could be smiling and his eyes could light up and—

            No. I couldn’t think like that. I had been emotional for fifteen minutes and I had a man in my bed. The events of last night came back to me. Had I really acted on the feelings that the cure gave me? The war in my head raged on, the fight between my reasoning and the arrow; I had only known him for three days, but the serum in the arrow gave me the sense that he had been present in my life for many, many years. I hated it, the way that he pulled me towards him even in his sleep. My fingers itched to run themselves through his hair, to part the curls and play with them, to run themselves over the curve of his lips, to see what a cupid’s bow really felt like. At the same time, I wanted to go home and never see him again. I wanted to forget everything that had happened, forget Eros, forget the way my stomach flipped when I saw him. I hated him for screwing with my life, for screwing with other people’s lives. So what if they never found love? It was better than having it all be a lie, a product of someone else’s meddling.

            But wasn’t that what love was? A product of other people? No one would know what love was if someone else didn’t define it for them.

            Groaning, I rolled onto my back as far away from Eros as I could get in the Queen-sized bed and pulled the pillow over my head.

            “This is so confusing,” I growled into the pillow. “I hate this!”

            “Would you shut up? Some people are trying to sleep,” Eros growled back at me, not even opening his eyes.

            “Eros, you spent the night in my bed. I am absolutely not going to shut up. I cannot believe that I let you sleep in my bed! One moment of weakness and I’m cuddled up with another man!” I bemoaned. He rolled on his side to face me, and I scooted a little further away. I may despise the man, but morning breath was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

            “We weren’t cuddling… well… there was this one point, I think it might’ve been around three, where you curled yourself into me a bit, kind of like a little kid… it was pretty cute, actually,” he mused. My blood burned hot red and raced to pool itself in my cheeks.

            “You’re kidding, right?”

            “Nope, but it’s okay. You only felt me up a little bit,” he teased. His voice was so playful that it took me by surprise and I looked over at him to see if I could get some insight as to whether or not he was telling the truth. I was shocked to find that he was staring at me, his eyes a mixture of the calm and the storm. They were crinkled at the outer corners, like he wanted to smile but wasn’t quite sure how. “Good morning, Alice.”

            “Good morning, Cupid,” I sighed. His mouth quirked up a bit. “Sorry if I felt you up in my sleep. I’m a sleep-cuddler, and it was emotional, and I didn’t mean to… accost you like that.”