\[Denali’s POV\]
Searing white light presses against my closed lids, urging me awake when all I want to do is stay asleep. My head pounds and my stomach rolls, not to mention that every part of me feels heavy and sore.
Groaning, I attempt to turn away from the intruding light, only to find that I’m being held in place by a strong arm.
Gasping, my eyes fly open as I crane my neck to see Rosco fast asleep behind me. Our bodies are meshed together, and he holds me protectively against him, but that isn’t the thing that leaves me most shocked; instead, it is the fact that my bare back is pressed against his exposed chest.
Feeling my heart begin to race, I turn away from the sleeping man and slowly begin to look down to take in my naked body.
“No,” I hiss as my fear spikes.We didn’t. He wouldn’t. Right
No, no, no. There was no way that we had slept together, and if we did, why couldn’t I remember it? Had I really drunk that much? After the first two drinks, I was feeling so light and at ease that I just continued until I was drunk. I made an idiot of myself.
Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the pounding in my head while attempting to recap what happened until this point. I remembered opening up a bit to Rosco and then throwing up. After that, I allowed him to lead me back here, where I could get a shower and clean up.
However, anything else after that is fuzzy, and I just can't seem to recall, and that left me terrified.
“Goddess,” I rasp, my eyes opening again. “Did I really do something so intimate?”
Unable to continue remaining in place, I begin to wriggle until the arm that is wrapped around me tightens in an attempt to hold me still.
"Careful!" Rosco grunts. “Otherwise, I’m going to jump you.”
“Don’t you dare!”
Wanting nothing more than to get away from this man and this situation, I do the only thing I could think of. I jab my elbow into his side, and when a huff of shock escapes him and his arm moves, I scurry from beneath it and then topple onto the floor.
Jumping up, I look down again and am reminded that I’m butt-ass naked. Shrieking, I drop down and wrap my arms around myself while Rosco watches in amusement, completely unbothered by all of this.
“Y-you!” I hiss, pointing a finger. “WHAT DID YOU DO?”
“Me?” He asks, giving me a look of innocence. “Why are you assuming that I was the one that did anything?”
Why? Was he really asking me why?
Of course, it would be him! He was the one who was being too familiar with me and doing whatever the hell he wanted! He even… Eyes widening, memories of us kissing the night before flash in my mind, and my cheeks flush a ferocious pink due to my own reaction.
“We… “ I whisper, lifting my fingers and touching my lips.
“Kissed?” Rosco offers. “We did, among other things.”
Other things… Dammit, what other things?
I need to calm down and get my wits about me. There is just no way that we would actually sleep together when we barely know each other, whether I was under the influence of alcohol or not. But by the way my body feels, was it really that unrealistic? I didn’t know what it felt like to lose your virginity and have sex for the first time, but from everything I read, it was supposed to hurt.
‘No,” I whimper, tightening my hold on myself as if it would make reality stay away from me. “We didn’t. I wouldn’t do something like that.”
“You wouldn’t?” Rosco counters, raising a brow. “You were actually quite bold last night. Curling up against me in nothing but a towel after checking out my body. You’re quite the pervert when you’re drunk, you know?”
“P-pervert!” I gasp. “I’m not!” As I speak, I look down at my body and find that there is something dark red and splotchy on my collarbone. And when I realize exactly what it is, I lift my gaze to Rosco’s again. “Did we really?”
“You jumped me,” he confesses, looking wronged. “And now you’ve got to take responsibility.”
Responsibility. Why in the world was he acting like some innocent maiden right now? He was the experienced one, and I was the innocent one.
“You’re quite aggressive when alcohol is involved, you know. I would hope that you won’t dare to drink that much again unless I’m around.”
“No,” I whimper, feeling tears spring to my eyes. “How could we? We don’t even know each other!”
“Don’t know each other?” He repeats, slowly sitting up so the blanket around him falls and allows me to see his chest perfectly. There are a few claw marks on it, and that alone confirms his words further. “We’re married,” he continues. “What we did is what a married couple is supposed to do.”
“But we don’t love each other!” I wail. “I swore that I would save myself for the one I love and marry!”
Goddess, why is everything so ass backwards right now? Sure, Rosco and I were married, therefore I wasn’t sleeping with another out of wedlock, but we didn’t love each other; we didn’t know each other, and that made this that much worse.
Letting a sob escape me, I bury my face in my knees and let the tears fall freely as I mourn the loss of my innocence and the inability to ever truly do the love thing correctly.
“Why?” I continue. “Why didn’t you stop me? How could you?”
Growing quiet, I continue to cry until Rosco gets up and presses a hand against my back, but before he can say anything, I’m scurrying away from his touch and fixing a warning gaze on him.
“Don’t touch me!” I growl. “You’ve already done enough!”
For a moment, Rosco doesn’t speak as he examines my tear-stained face, and when a look of apology crosses his features, I brace myself.
“We didn’t do anything,” he huffs, plopping down on the floor in front of me. “I mean, we kissed, but that was as far as it went.”
Remaining silent, I consider what he is saying while being deathly aware of the fact that I was completely bare and there was a hickey on my collarbone. How could he try to lie his way out of it now?
“If you don’t believe me, you’re more than welcome to test for yourself,” he continues. “Not too hard to shove a few fingers up into yourself and feel.”
At his words, my eyes grow wide with disbelief. Was he really telling me to all but finger myself? Was this some kind of trick on his part? What is next? Is he going to watch me?
“But I’m naked,” I counter. “And I feel like I’ve been hit by a Mac truck.”
“Because you fell asleep in a towel after falling and busting your ass in the shower.” He sighs. “If you don’t believe me, go check the bed for blood. If we’d had sex and it was your first time, you would have bled.”
“But why would you laugh about it, and how did I get the hickey?”
“Punishment,” he shrugs. “Even if I have control and would never take advantage of a drunk woman, that doesn’t mean that I’m blind and don’t have desires. You climbed into bed with me in nothing but a fucking towel and then curled up against me after adorably apologizing for trying to murder me with a bar of soap in the bathroom. I was annoyed that you did such things, so I decided to teach you a lesson in being more cautious.”
“M-more cautious,” I squeak.
“At least around other men,” Rosco continues. "Honestly, at this point, I’m truly considering locking you away so that you don’t show others all these adorable sides of you.”
Adorable. He kept calling me that, and honestly, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure how I felt about it, but in a way, it made us seem a little closer.
“Did we really not?” I ask, sniffling and swiping at the wetness on my face. “You aren’t just trying to make me feel better, are you?”
“I am a man of my word,” he assures me. “Out of everyone on this goddess-forsaken earth, I am the one that you can trust the most. We are allies, remember?”
“Right, allies.”
I didn’t know why, but in this moment while we were together like this, I didn’t like being referred to as that with him. Did that mean that I wanted to be more? Honestly, I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to think too hard about it.