Page 53 of A Fighting Chance

I don’t want to press forward, don’t want to let her go. So, we stay just like this for a long time. We alternate between kissing and talking, then kissing some more, talking some more.

Lyla’s eyelids eventually grow heavy, but she doesn’t want to go.

We fall asleep in only our underwear, folded into each other, bare chests pressed together.

It’s the best sleep I’ve had all week.

Eighteen

Lyla

I wakeup in Gentry’s arms, which is quickly becoming my favorite way to wake up. A thought which makes me smile but also worries me. I look at his face, just inches from mine, wondering how we managed to sleep like this all night. When I close my eyes again, I focus on how I feel right now. When I close my eyes again, I feel his warmth radiating from his body. The exact placement of his hands on my skin. The way his legs are tangled perfectly with mine.

It sounds awful in my head, but what happened with Paw is going to stretch out my time here…and I can get behind that silver lining.

My eyes shoot open again, remembering Chuck the lame duck will be by this morning and I don’t know what time it is. I shift just slightly, and Gentry shifts in response. I know once I start to move, he’ll wake up. Though I hate to do it, I know I have to. I stretch my arms out, and Gentry nuzzles his face into my neck.

“Not yet,” he whispers.

It’s so hard to resist a request like that, so hard to focus on anything when all I want to do is curl back up into him and stay here all day.

“Charles, the royal asshole, will be here soon. I think soon, anyway. And I have to get ready,” I say.

“Is that his official title?” Gentry asks through smiling lips.

“I have a lot of nicknames for him, actually,” I say, laughing at my own joke.

“Why don’t you stay here and tell me all of them?” he asks, making any attempt to keep me here; but two can play this game.

“How about we take a shower together?” I whisper close to his ear.

Gentry’s eyes shoot open and he untangles from me at record speed, sitting up in bed and stretching. “I’m up. Let’s get this show on the road. Come on, slowpoke.” He says this all as he stands from his bed, and I roll my eyes at him.

After retrieving what I need from my room, I meet him in the bathroom.

Gentry has already stripped down, his last remaining items of clothing in a pile on the floor, his body on full display as he adjusts the water. And what a glorious birthday suit it is.

I peel my panties down, flicking them away with my foot. Now, I’m undressed to match.

He looks at me, eyes hooded, then up to the ceiling as if praying to someone.

“What are you doing?” I ask, laughing.

“Thanking all the gods,” he says.

“For what?”

“For you,” he says, moving to me, pressing his thumbs into the soft spots above my hips.

A smile plays across my lips. He’s smooth. Smooth as a baby pig.(What do you want from me? We’re on a farm.)

We step into the shower and let the hot water run over us as we hold each other. The water pools between us before falling to the tub and Gentry reaches down again, kissing my jaw.

“Hey, Lyla?” he says.

“Yes?”

“You remember that thing you did in the shower?”