Mirrored 1 : In Spades (11 page)

He looked shocked by my revelation but wasted no time in response.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to push you babe. You can have as much time as you like. I’m here. “ His voice wavered. But mine didn’t.

“Yes. I really need you to stay. If you want to?” I stated confidently. I was ready to take us to the next level. There was no better time than the present and I felt like everything between us was going so well.

He lightly kissed my lips, leaving me wanting more.

“Yes, I want to stay. “ He smiled at me and my heart warmed over. I gave him a tiny kiss back. I turned away from him and placed my feet on the floor, willing myself to move.

“I’m going to get put my pjs on. Make yourself comfortable” I winked at him and walked over to my dresser to grab my pjs. I looked in my top drawer several times, looking at the contents. I had no sexy pajamas. I was all about the comfort most of the time. I was old for my age and was sure I was going to become a cat lady. I would definitely need to remedy this situation at some point but for now, I grabbed my silk nightgown and headed into the connected bathroom. I brushed my teeth, washed my face and slipped into the light pink silk nightgown. I looked into the mirror quickly and didn’t mind what I saw. I felt beautiful. Daxton’s presence always made me feel that way. It was incredible how comfortable I felt around him in such a short time. Surprisingly, I felt okay after looking into the mirror, but I would have to still take it one step at a time. I had enough break downs in front of this man to last me a lifetime and they never got less embarrassing. At some point, I needed to tell him about my past and maybe make him understand but tonight was not that night. I wanted to enjoy the comfort that he brought me. His touch, his warmth and his ever present calm.

I shyly exited the bathroom, facing Daxton head on. He was now lying under the covers with his top half exposed. He had taken his shirt off and thrown it onto the floor next to where he lay. I also noticed his jeans lying in the same spot. His teeth were so white they were almost blinding, he was grinning from ear to ear. Hands tucked placed behind his head. He was giving me his best come hither look and my heart was pounding out of my chest. He had the yummiest tummy ever and I wanted to lick each section of his six pack. I was not paying attention to where I was going, not even realizing that my legs were moving towards the bed until I slammed my toe into the side. I yelped loudly, pain shooting up my leg.

“Mother Fuck----” I gasped out and grabbed my foot, hopping on only one leg. Daxton jumped up from where he currently lay and picked me up, placing me gently on the bed. I internally swooned at how sweet he was and temporarily forgot about the pain. It was a short lived feeling however when I noticed his shoulders shaking and realized he was trying to keep from laughing. He couldn’t stop it any longer and began laughing hysterically at me. I’m sure at this point my face had turned a bright fire engine red. I smacked him in the shoulder hard and gave him my best scowl.

“It’s all your fault! I was distracted by your damn god-like abs and here you are laughing at me.” I rolled over to face the wall, extremely embarrassed by my clumsiness. After a good five more minutes of Daxton laughing as hard as he possibly could, he finally calmed himself.

“I’m sorry babe. Are you ok?” He grabbed my shoulders and rolled me back towards him, looking at me with his best puppy dog expression.

“Not that you care but I think my toe may be broken.” I knew I was being a drama queen but I didn’t care. I pouted to myself.

“You want me to kiss it babe?” He lightly trailed his fingertip down my leg.

“Ewe, hell no. I won’t be able to kiss your lips ever again if you touch my foot with them. Feet are so gross.” I batted his hand away, instantly missing the feel. I was still mad though. Damn him and being constantly distracted.

“Fine, how about I make it all better in other ways then?” He whispered. His voice was entirely too sexy. I glanced over at him, eyebrows drawn in tight. He waggled his eyebrows at me and I lost any semblance of mad I was feeling. I cracked a smile but tried to cover it up with my hand. He pulled my hand away from my mouth, pinning it up above my head and swiftly rolled himself on top of me.

“I love your smile. Don’t ever hide it from me. “ He looked down at me seriously and my smile only grew.

“Now that’s more like it.” He told me and winked. His grin widened and I felt the butterflies flying around my stomach.

“You’re lucky I love you.” I stated confidently and stuck my tongue out at him.

“You…love me?” He gulped, a look of distress showing on his face.

“I was just kidding Dax. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. “ I assured him effortlessly, but on the inside my mind was trembling.

I wasn’t sure if I was joking. Honestly, I didn’t even think about my words before they jumbled out. Did I love Dax? Could I possibly? My mind was all jumbled up and finally I came to the conclusion that it had to be too soon. There was no way I could have fallen so quickly. He rolled over to gaze at the ceiling and we lay in an uncomfortable silence. It appeared as if he was angry now. I was having a hard time reading him. He had mood swings worse than mine sometimes. Must be the whole split persona thing he had going on. Most of the time it had its advantages, this not being one of those times. I cleared my throat loudly, hoping to diminish the silence. He rolled over onto his side and I could feel his eyes burning a hole into the side of my head.

“What?!” I whispered.

“You’re beautiful.” He scooted closer to me on the bed and grabbed my chin, lightly turning my head to face him. He kissed my lips softly and then my forehead.

“Go turn off the lights, brat.” He whispered against my forehead.

I pinched him hard and fast and then escaped his grasp, giggling the entire way to the light switch. I stood still for a moment to allow my eyes to adjust to the darkness, not wanting another accident to take place. I quickly strode to the bed and climbed in. Daxton pulled me against his hard body. I expected him to make a move on me but he didn’t. I couldn’t say I wasn’t a tad bit disappointed but he made up for it. We cuddled. Yes, just cuddled and it was perfect.

“Night Dax.” I murmured against his chest where my cheek was firmly planted, his strong arms wrapped around me where they belonged.

“Sweet dreams babe.” He replied softly.

Chapter 9: Good Morning, Beautiful

             
I woke up with a smile on my face. That was the best rest I had in a while, completely nightmare free. Before even opening my eyes, I stretched my deliciously aching body out, reaching for the sexy man I had fallen asleep with. Only feeling air and nothingness, I groaned out loud with loss. I was unused to cuddling with anyone, it had been so long. My body wasn’t used to sharing the space in my queen sized bed and I usually took up half of it, sleeping at a perfect angle diagonally across it. Wrapped in his arms felt entirely too right but in the same sense, I was all tangled up most of the night. Daxton tossed and turned quite a bit. I had never been a perfectly still sleeper myself so I’m sure it was a funny sight to see.

Damnit, I was getting distracted again. Where in the heck had Daxton disappeared to? I finally willed myself to sit up in bed and place my feet on the ground. I walked slowly to the bathroom, sleepily glancing in the mirror. I was a hot mess this morning. I guess I never realized how terrible I actually looked, hair with a close likeness to where a rat’s welcome mat would be. I quickly brushed out the tangles and took a washcloth to my eyes, wiping away all of the sleep. I slept so hard last night that gunk had formed. That was a fair trade for how well I felt this morning though.

I walked to my closet, grabbing my robe, throwing it around my shoulders and pulling it tightly around my body, tying a knot around my waist. This robe was the farthest thing from sexy. Terry cloth and comfortable. It hung all the way to the floor but I just couldn’t part with it. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a piece of loose-leaf paper lying on the pillow that Daxton’s head had taken residence on the previous night. I quickly rushed over to it, snatching it roughly. I was like a kid in a candy store.

The note read in a scrawl hardly readable,
“Good Morning, Beautiful.”

It was simple and to the point but my smile widened instantly. I was so giddy. I tucked the note safely in my night stand. I all but ran from my room, taking the steps two at a time. I wasn’t the most graceful person ever but surprisingly I stayed on my own two feet. The heavenly smell of bacon invaded my senses. I rounded the kitchen and looked in, loving the sight of Daxton’s cute butt. His back was to me so he couldn’t see me ogling his behind. My eyes slowly sauntered up his body, taking in his muscular and all man form. I could hear morning cartoon noise coming from the living room and was sure I would find Abby curled up on the couch with her blankie. I loved lazy weekends. The noise of bacon popping brought me back to the beautiful man standing in front of me. Daxton had a spatula in his hand and bowls of food already on the countertop. I heard another loud pop and watched Daxton leap backwards.

“Shit..Fuck..Damn.” He cursed under his breath. It was sexy. He brought the tip of his finger up to his mouth and sucked on it. The bacon grease must have burnt him.

“Need some help there stud? I can kiss it all better.” I stated, breathlessly.

He whipped his body around to look at me and I could not help but laugh out loud at the vision before my eyes. He had a plain black V-neck shirt that drooped low enough to reveal a handsome portion of his tightly strung chest. But that wasn’t what made me laugh, obviously. His chest and yummy tummy were two of my favorite parts of his anatomy. It was the frilly, pink apron he had tied around his waist. It read “Kisses for the head kitchen bitch.” that had me in hysterics. Faith had purchased it for me as a gag gift, shortly after I met her. I had never used it. To be honest, I don’t even remember where I stored it. He looked me up and down, biting his lower lip. I stopped laughing immediately. I wanted to jump in.

“Sure babe, come on over here and help me. Your kisses are all the medicine I need.” He crooked his finger at me in a come hither motion.

My body drifted towards his, connected at our cores. He set the spatula on the stove and turned the heat off. The bacon now burnt to a crisp, just how I liked it. I couldn’t stand fatty bacon, it made me gag.

He turned around to face me, arms outstretched to embrace me. I lifted my arms up and around him, my lips as close to his face as possible. I snuck a piece of bacon behind his bacon and slowly brought it up to my lips, licking them right before I took a bite. I had begun to love teasing this man. I had begun loving most things to do with this man.

The bacon was delicious. My stomach growled out loud. Apparently I was teasing it also. Daxton laughed and kissed my ear.

“You look absolutely stunning in the morning baby. I could stare at you all day.” He placed feather-light kisses down from my ear to the crook of my neck.

“Please don’t. Believe it or not, permanent red face isn’t a good look for me.” I gave him a quirky smile and grabbed a strand of hair to twirl around my fingertip.

“Stop being a nervous Nelly. You need to get used to this, to us, because I’m not going anywhere.” Placing a final kiss on the tip of my nose, he turned around to gather the food he had set out. I helped him and loaded my arms with plates, silverware and glasses. I was starving at this point. In more ways than one.

I went to the living room to collect Abby from the couch where she lay, just like I knew she would be. It was Saturday morning routine. She loved to cuddle up and watch cartoons. I went over to where she lay, focus completely attentive to the television. I bent down to encompass her body into my arms and kiss her little cheeks.

“Morning sweetheart. Breakfast is ready.” I untangled her little legs from the blanket and lifted her into my arms.

“I know thattt Mommy. Mr. James came over this morning errrrrwy just to make us bwreakfast.” She looked at me like I was lost.

“Well that was very nice of him Ab. You should give him a high five for all that hard work.” We were almost to the table so I set her down and she scurried over to sit next to Daxton, who still sported his apron.

Breakfast went smoothly, Abby scarfed down everything on her plate which really surprised me because she was normally a finicky eater when it came to most breakfast foods. She lived off of cereal and pop tarts. Maybe it was just my cooking though. I had never been the housewife type--cleaning, cooking, etc. Never been my thing admittedly.  When we were all finished with our amazing breakfast, we thanked Daxton and I cleaned up the table while Daxton took Abby into the living room to continue watching Saturday morning cartoons. It was early still. I felt like I needed a cat nap already. I had never been much of a morning person and when opportunity arose to sleep in, I took it full force. This wasn’t one of those times though. I wanted to be awake. I wanted to spend time with Daxton and Abby.

After cleaning up the breakfast mess, I curled up on the couch with two of my favorite people and shortly after fell asleep with my head resting on Daxton’s lap as he tangled the strands of my hair in his fingers. We all lounged around for most of the morning until around 1 p.m. I had to get dressed and ready for the day and take Abby to a sleepover party that she was having over at Christina’s house. Christina had to baby-sit her younger cousins overnight and instead of trying to find a different last minute sitter, she invited Abby to come and stay the night as well. I worked my normal shift at the bar tonight and really didn’t want to have to call of or try to find a different sitter. I was so thankful for all the help that Christina gave to me. Abby was super excited as well. It was her first sleepover party away from home and as worried as I was, I knew that she was safe at the Anderson’s and would have an amazing time. Anytime spent away from her still continued to make me nervous but I was also looking forward to some adult time with Daxton. I was lucky that I had people in my life I was beginning to trust and love. Made life run a lot more smoothly.