Chapter 481 Chapter 481
Noah quickly picked up the clothes he tripped over and tossed them in the direction of the basket in the corner. He paused to see it was full. When had he had time to do laundry? Going over, he yanked open the dresser drawer and was relieved to see he had another pair of jeans left to pack for tomorrow.
Closing it, he turned in a circle and looked around the room. Emersyn was sleeping in here tonight. Why had he thought that was a good idea? Putting his hands on his hips, he tried to settle his breathing so he wouldn’t freak out. He looked down at the jeans he wore, and his eyes rounded, he couldn’t sleep naked, not with her in the bed.
After tearing through two drawers, he finally found the track pants Beth had bought him. Pulling them out he looked at them. They reminded him of the loose pants they made him wear all those years. It was these or naked.
Stripping off his jeans he stabbed his legs into the soft material and pulled them up. Looking down at them, he sneered, he hated the feeling of them brushing against his legs.
Shaking his head, he turned around and looked at the bed. There was only one pillow. Lunging for the bed, he crawled across the mattress. Where was his other pillow? He couldn’t’ share one pillow with her. He looked between the wall and the mattress, and it wasn’t there. Checking the top of the bed, he got off and looked underneath. It was a pillow; how hard would it be to see? Grabbing the blankets that were balled up, like they usually were after a night of wrestling in his sleep, he was relieved when the pillow fell out of them.
He placed it at the head of the bed and brushed it off like it was dusty or some shit. This was not going well. He was out of breath like he’d just run ten miles. He untangled the sheet from the blanket and shook it out, trying to get it to land on the bed neatly. He’d watched Kelsey do it and she had some kind of magic that made it float onto the bed like a feather. His landed in a twisted strip in the middle of the bed. Dropping it, he rushed around the bed to fix it and almost took his ankle off on the bedframe. Cursing, he dropped down to rub the bone as pain shot up his leg.
A light tap on the door had him freeze, panic paralyzing him for a few seconds. Jumping up, he opened the door and the breath whooshed out of his lungs when he saw her. Had she gotten more beautiful in the last five minutes? He was sure she had. When he realized he was staring at her, he shuffled out of the way so she could come in.
He closed the door and then the room felt like it shrunk. His eyes flicked to the window, did it even open?
“Have you talked yourself out of it yet?” She gave him a tender look.
Hissing out a breath, he shook his head, “not yet, but my head is working on it.” He would always tell her the truth, even if she didn’t like it.
Nodding her head slowly, she turned and looked at the bed and tilted her head to the side. Without a word, she went over and took a hold of the sheet and lifted it in the air and did this motion with her wrists and the sheet landed across the bed like ripples in the water. Apparently, it was female magic to work a bedsheet properly.
“I changed twice.” She said in a soft nervous way, “which is silly because they’re basically the same outfit, just different patterns.” She walked to the end of the bed and picked up the heavy blanket.
Noah stood there unable to move. He watched her work the blanket with the same ease as she had the sheet. She moved silently, with grace and he was awestruck by it. He blinked and looked at what she was wearing. The bottoms were loose and seemed to flow around her. Pattern, what had she said about the pattern? It looked like paint splotches on the material to him. When she finished adjusting the blanket, she turned around and he looked at the rest of her outfit. The top hugged tight to her skin and his mouth dried up. Her arms were bare, and a small portion of her waist too, the rest of the material outlined her form beneath it. She looked so fragile and lovely; it made his chest tighten. When he realized he was ogling her, he jerked his gaze up to look at her face but was distracted along the way by the very clear bite mark on her throat. His bite mark. Mine. His cat interjected into his thoughts. Clearing his throat, he finally took a step toward her. “You look lovely.” His voice cracked with the strain of forcing the words to leave his mouth.
Her cheeks flushed and she lowered her eyes for a moment. “You make me feel that way when you look at me.” She smoothed her hand over her stomach and took a shaky breath. “Do you mind if I sleep next to the wall?” She lifted her lashes and looked back at him, “it’s-it’s I always put my back to the wall.”
Noah nodded, he had no problem with that, he needed to be near the edge in case he had to get up fast. He frowned, what if the dreams were bad and he started flinging his arms around? He could hit her. This was such a bad idea.
“I can see you working on talking yourself right out of it.” She gave him a patient look.
“I-I don’t want to accidentally hit you in my…”
“I sleep with a four-year-old, Noah, trust me, no one can compete with how much they flip around.” She leaned over the bed and pulled the bedding back. “I get elbowed, kicked, head-butted,” she glanced over her shoulder at him, “we’ll be fine.”
He blew out a shaky breath and nodded again. “Okay.” He took a step toward the bed, then stopped and motioned to it.
Her smile was slow, but it was breathtaking once she did. Her eyes flicked to the bed then back to him, “this is so silly.”
Noah was thinking more terrifying than silly.
“How hard can it be, right? Couples do it every day.”
She was talking softly, and he wasn’t sure if it was to him or herself, so he kept his mouth closed. He watched her crawl across the bed and for the first time he was glad they hadn’t listened to him and had gotten him a full-size bed. If they’d gotten the single, he suggested they would have had to sleep so close—he shook his head, he couldn’t take that further or this would be over before it began.
“Noah?”
Blinking, he looked to see her on the other side of the bed, her legs under the cover, sitting there looking at him.
“Are you going to get in the bed or stand there all night?” She smirked.
He lunged for the bed and got in it fast before he changed his mind. He sat there, his legs under the covers, and looked down. He should have put a shirt on, but when he started sweating, it clung to him, and his unconscious mind thought of bloodied material sticking to him. “I can’t sleep with a shirt on.” He mumbled, keeping his eyes on the blanket.
Emersyn reached over and touched his shoulder; her hand was warm. “That’s fine.” She lay down, pulling on his arm lightly as she did it.
Noah coughed out a deep breath and lay back until his head was on the pillow. He held his body stiff and looked up at the ceiling. That’s when he realized the light was on. Flipping the covers back, he got up and flipped the switch off.
Getting back in the bed, he yanked the covers and lay there, breathing shallowly.
He heard Emersyn laugh quietly. “I’m thinking, now what?”
“Yeah.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “The others are so lucky they know how to do this together stuff.”
“Maybe.”
The bed shifted as she moved around, and he wanted to turn to see what she was doing but didn’t want to know at the same time.
“Why don’t we start with something simple and easy?”
He did turn to see her lying on her side looking at him.
Her hand moved down his arm to his hand. “Just hold hands.”
Noah forced his clenched fist to open, so she could thread her fingers through his. He could do this, hold her hand. He’d kissed her and put his mark on her, holding her hand was easy. He continued to talk to himself, to keep his thoughts focused on simple things so he wouldn’t do something to make her regret putting her trust in him.
He had no idea how long he’d done that, but he’d covered quite a few moments in his head that he’d had with her, when her hand relaxed in his, he turned and saw that she was relaxed. She was sleeping. He shifted carefully, almost in slow motion, so he wouldn’t disturb her and could still hold her hand.
When he finally managed to get completely on his side, he lay there and look at her. He had a mate, and she was right here in front of him, prettier than any woman he’d ever seen. His cat rolled through him and for once it wasn’t in panic or survival mode, it was just because they were here with her.
He was still afraid to fall asleep, in case he hit her when he was flailing around. That happened every night, so why he had thought this would be the exception, he didn’t know. This was fine, he could stay up all night and then just nap on the ride tomorrow.
Noah’s eyes popped open. Disoriented, he tried to remember if the nightmare had awakened him. When he went to roll over, he couldn’t move his arm. Lifting his head, he saw the reason was about five foot five with her back pressed against his front. She was on his arm, but what made him tense was the fact that he had his wrapped around her and she was hugging it to her chest. He was afraid to breathe and didn’t want to move and disturb her. Lowering his head, he tried to figure out when he had fallen asleep. He couldn’t remember. His cat nudged him, telling him to stop thinking and go back to sleep. Taking a deep breath to try to relax again, he closed his eyes, her scent was everywhere. Moving his head closer, he pushed his nose into her hair and inhaled again. Her scent was different now, still hers, but not at the same time. He wondered if he carried hers like that too.
She sighed in her sleep and moved to press back into him. Noah lay there, waiting to see if she was awake. He needed to focus and stop the brain banter before tension and other bad things started pouring from him and disturbing her. Inhaling through his nose, he breathed it out slowly, forcing his body to relax. Never in all of his life had he ever thought he could lay and hold a woman like this. He smirked and pushed his nose into her hair again, not a woman, Emersyn. Only her.