After his meteoric rise to superstardom, Jim O'Brien is no longer a small-town boy who plays in bars and dreams of success. His handsome face is plastered on the covers of celebrity gossip magazines, and his voice alone is enough to make girls swoon...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I didn't know how long Jim and I stayed on the bathroom floor.
He got sick once more, and I held him, caressing his skin until nausea subsided, and Jim felt better.
"We should go to bed," Jim said, nuzzling into my neck. He also had his arms around me. They circled my waist and kept me pressed to him as if he feared that I would leave. What a ridiculous thought that was.
"Are you sure you're okay? Can you stand up?"
"Yeah." Jim smiled. "We need to get some sleep. Come on, Beautiful. Let's get you to bed."
Without letting go of me, Jim started to get up. He wouldn't fool me — I could see how weak he still was, although some color returned to his face, making him look slightly better.
Once he was on his feet, Jim took a couple of steps and halted in front of the sink. He opened the cabinet, grabbed a new toothbrush, and handed it to me.
We brushed our teeth together. Now and then, I glanced at our reflection in the framed bathroom mirror. Jim was still shirtless, and one look at his torso was enough to make my cheeks flush.
After rinsing his mouth with mouthwash, Jim took my hand in his and led me to the bedroom. Pausing next to his built-in closet, Jim opened it and took out a T-shirt, which he then handed to me.
"Thanks," I said. "I'll get changed in the bathroom."
Jim nodded. I rushed to his en-suite to put his shirt on me. It wasn't long, and my lower body was on display. Luckily, I could shower after work, and my underwear was pretty. Not that Jim would notice — darkness enveloped the room when I reentered it, and Jim was already in bed.
I assumed he was asleep, but as soon as I lay down next to him, he drew an arm around my waist and pulled me flush to his body, my back to his front.
"Sweet dreams," Jim whispered, pressing a chaste kiss to the skin between my shoulder and my neck.
"Sweet dreams, Jimmy," I replied, snuggling into Jim's warmth.
***
Despite my exhaustion, the sleep I managed to get was little.
I woke up in a couple of hours, according to the glowing digits of the clock Jim had on one of the nightstands.
Rolling onto my right side, I studied Jim's sleeping frame. He was lying on his back. The sheet covered everything below his waist, but the rest of him was exposed to my eyes.
Seeing him like that, handsome and vulnerable, did inexplicable things to my heart. I felt tenderness, warmth, and, for the first time, desire.
Even when we were sitting on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor, I felt my body react to Jim's closeness. He seemed to be able to wake up all my senses by just being in close proximity to me, making me crave his touch.
