Page 24 of 500 First Editions (The Romantics #3)

RYAN

THE ONE BED CLICHé

AlphaGainz: Dude could do so much better.

BookGirlieXO: Total book boyfriend material. (Ryan. Not the wannabes in the comments.)

LillysLibrary: It’s a publicity stunt. She never posts about him.

MrGonnaMakeYouFall: Have you guys seen the kind of books she writes? You know she’s gotta be a freak in the sheets.

DownBadCryingAtTheBookstore: He’s a womanizer. She can do so much better.

BigBucksNLiftedTrucks: Fucking simp. Women-folk need a man in charge. Not some weak-ass city boy.

I rolled my eyes as the comments flooded in, one after the other. I had posted a photo of Willow and me that I had snapped last night while we sat beneath the willow tree. Her hair caught the sunset, sending prisms of light dancing across the lens.

I had cropped the photo to comply with the terms of our agreement. In all honesty, I wasn’t posting it to feed the online algorithms or play into what had happened on stage at Rom-Con.

I just wanted to show her off. Why wouldn’t I?

Morning light slowly lifted the shadows in the bedroom. As soon as Willow had asked me to switch sleeping arrangements, and we lay together, I was out.

I hadn’t slept this well in years. Which was why I had woken up at the crack of dawn and started scrolling the internet.

Willow was still sound asleep, peacefully cocooned in the blankets. I deleted the troll comments and left the nice ones, just in case she decided to take a peek at my feed. GymBro302 wasn’t wrong. Willow was hot. And she was mine.

Like she knew I had been thinking of her, Willow rolled over and nestled in beside me. I set my phone on the nightstand as she curled around my side and laid her head on my chest.

God, that felt so fucking good.

I wrapped my arm around her and held her close. Willow’s soft breaths danced across my chest. I could have scored another hour or two of sleep, but I didn’t want to.

She was the perfect sunrise; warm and full of possibilities. Something in her dreams must have startled her because she jerked awake, gasping for breath.

“Hey,” I whispered. “What’s the matter?”

Willow’s eyes popped open, soft greens glowing in the dawn light. She looked around in a panic as her chest heaved, then looked at me as realization set in. “You’re here.”

“You asked me to come in. Remember?”

Slowly, she nodded. Still, I couldn’t tell if she actually remembered or not.

“I’ll go back to the couch,” I whispered as I pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Willow’s hand wrapped around my wrist. “No.” Her grip softened. “I mean . . . Will you stay?” Her eyes lifted and met mine. “Just a little longer?”

There wasn’t a moment of hesitation. “Of course,” I murmured as I ran my fingers up and down her side. Whether it was because she was cold or ticklish, she curled into me, burrowing deeper.

“You can sleep,” I soothed as I buried my nose in the top of her hair. Whatever she sprayed on her hair before bed smelled so fucking good.

“Promise you won’t tell?” Willow mumbled.

“Your secrets are always safe with me.”

And with that promise, she drifted back to sleep.

My arm was asleep. I hadn’t been able to feel my hand for the better part of an hour, and circulation to my calf was slowly being cut off. But Willow was still tucked into my side with her head on my chest and had her thigh slung across mine.

Her waist was velvet-soft. Even though it made incessant pins prick at my fingers, I held her closer.

“You awake?” she murmured into my chest.

“Yeah.”

“We should probably get up.”

“We shouldn’t.” I rolled her over so that I was at her back and we were facing the same way, and grimaced as skittering knives danced up my arm as the blood returned to my hand. I smoothed my palm up and down her hip as she relaxed into the bed. “We should stay right here.”

“The day’s already started,” she argued with a yawn as she settled on the pillow I had brought from home.

“You have the words, but you don’t have the music.”

Willow lifted a lazy middle finger, and I laughed.

“Just a few more minutes.”

She huffed. “Fine.”

“Nah,” I said with a chuckle as I tucked her head beneath my chin. “You don’t get to act inconvenienced. Not when you were cuddling me like I was your personal teddy bear for the last twelve hours.”

Her body tensed. “Sorry.” The single word was clipped and curt.

“I didn’t mind in the slightest. I’m just surprised. You didn’t strike me as the cuddly type.”

“I’m usually not. It’s . . . it’s been years since I’ve shared a bed with someone. I don’t do sleepovers.”

“Then thank you for letting me sleep over.” I dropped a rogue kiss on the back of her neck. “How’d you sleep?”

“Surprisingly well,” Willow admitted.

“Why surprisingly?”

“I don’t usually sleep well with other people. I can’t relax. I worry about snoring, or having morning breath, or taking up too much space. If I have sex with someone, they never spend the night.”

I did not want to hear about her having sex with other men. Logically, I knew it had happened. I wasn’t a virgin either. Still, the idea of anyone having touched her in ways that...in ways that I wanted to.

Shit.

“Let me put your worries to rest, then. You don’t snore. Who cares if you have morning breath? I have it too. But that’s what spooning is for. You can take up all the space you want. I’m perfectly happy being your pillow.”

“Your pillow is nice. It’s not too fluffy. I hate fluffy pillows.” She sighed contentedly. “And it smells good.”

“Do I smell good?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Willow huffed.

I chuckled against her neck. "Why, ‘unfortunately?’”

“Because it would be easier to keep you at a distance if you didn’t. But I like your cologne.”

I wrapped my arm around her waist, my fingers grazing her soft stomach. “Noted.”

Willow let out a whispered sigh. “Ryan . . .”

“Hmm?”

“You’re pretending that this is real.”

“I’m not pretending anything.” I found her hand and intertwined our fingers and held them against her stomach. “Why do you think I am?”

I could feel each inhale and exhale as she thought about her answer. “Because I can’t tell if you’re playing me because you think this is a game, or if you’re going to be the one who gets hurt at the end of this.”

“You can’t hurt me, Wills.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

“How about you give me the three months you agreed to and stop skipping to the end? You aren’t one of those people who reads the end of a book first, are you? Because that might be a dealbreaker for me.”

That made her lips curl up in a smile. “Absolutely not. You have to get all the details. The middle is the best part.”

“This is the middle,” I said as I skimmed my fingers up and down her hip. “Enjoy it.”

“It’s only been a week . . .”

“Fine, then. We’re still in the beginning. And I’m fine with that, because if this is the beginning, then the middle is gonna be really fucking good. Just don’t skip to the end. Or else I’ll start reading all the endings of your books before I start the first chapter.”

Willow looked over her shoulder. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

“Please don’t read my books,” she muttered as she settled back on the pillow.

“Too late. I started listening to them while you were asleep on the drive here.”

Willow groaned. “Great.”

“Yeah. They are.” I eased up onto my elbow and brushed her hair away from her face. “I like your brain. I like how you see the world.”

“Ryan.”

I dotted her shoulder with a kiss. “Hmm?”

“I can feel your dick against my ass.”

Fucking morning wood.

“Sorry,” I said as I eased away from her and rolled to my back. “I thought you were beautiful when we met in New York, but the way you look when you first wake up might be the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Willow groaned and flopped onto her stomach, burying her face in my pillow. “That’s such a line.”

I adjusted the front of my shorts. "It doesn't make it any less true. And if you need proof?—”

Willow whipped the pillow out from under her head and smacked me with it. “Oh my God. If you pull out your dick and?—”

I caught the pillow and gently bopped her on the head with it. “You know, I like the way it sounds when you talk about my dick.”

She grabbed the pillow and whacked me in the gut. “I’ll chop it off and shove it down your throat.”

I slid across the mattress and had her pinned to the bed in two seconds flat.

I shackled her wrists above her head and trapped her hips to the bed with my shins on her thighs.

“Ah. See, but then you’d have to put your hand on my dick.

And I’m pretty sure I said you’d have to beg to do that. I’m all about consent.”

Willow’s green eyes glowed like some kind of lethal magic. Slowly, her irises lowered, down my face to my chest, then my abs, then my shorts. Bubblegum lips parted as she sucked in a sharp breath.

“You say that like you’re some kind of a good guy.”

I grinned and tightened my grip on her wrists as I leaned forward and grazed the shell of her ear with my teeth. “I think you want a good guy,” I said as a low growl danced through the words. “But you’d rather be fucked by a bad one.”

Willow’s breath caught in her throat, and she swallowed. I watched as the languid tendons constricted.

I held on to her wrists with one hand and pushed her thighs apart with my knees. She gasped, then bit her lip to keep quiet.

I ghosted my fingers up and down her inner thigh. “It’s much more fun anyway.” I stopped before the dip along the inside of her thigh that led to where I wanted to explore the most. “But since you think I’m a good guy, I won’t make you beg long. ‘Please’ will suffice.”

The doorbell rang before she could say a word, and I swore under my breath. I released my grip on her wrists, but she didn’t lower her arms. Not immediately, anyway.

The ding-dong echoed through the house again.

“I’ll see who it is,” I said as I headed for the door so she could get dressed privately.

I skidded into the bathroom to quickly brush my teeth, then worked through a handful of breathing exercises between there and the door so my dick would chill the fuck out.

When I opened the door, a woman with glossy brown hair stood on the other side. Sparse strands of silver glinted in the morning sun. Her eyes were weary, but full of curiosity.

“You must be Ryan.”

I had no idea who she was. But apparently she knew who I was.

A soft smile lifted the creased corners of her mouth. “I’m Lisa.”

A door opened and closed behind me, and Willow appeared in a pair of denim shorts and a tank top. Her eyes immediately filled with tears as Lisa’s did the same.

“Hi,” Willow whispered as she pulled Lisa into a hug.

I felt like I was intruding as tears slipped down Lisa’s cheek. While they caught up in the doorway, I slipped into the kitchen and started the coffee maker. Thankfully, Bev had left the basics.

I did a quick inventory and jotted down a grocery list on my phone.

After two days of eating on the road, I was certain neither of us wanted to consume any more fast food, which meant a grocery run was necessary.

I moved my bags into the room, since I was fairly certain we would be sharing the bed from here on out, and changed clothes.

I came out when Willow and Lisa had moved into the living room.

“Hey,” I said softly as I filled a coffee cup and handed it to Willow. “You good if I steal your car and run out?”

“Yeah. That’s fine.” She stared at the mug. “Thank you, by the way.”

“For what?”

“Staying with me last night.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

I pressed a kiss to her forehead and lingered. “Anytime.”

Willow stepped back and straightened when she realized Lisa was watching. “My keys are on the table.”

“I won’t be long,” I promised before grabbing them and heading out.

My phone rang as I slipped behind the wheel. “Hey, Mom."

My mom let out a flustered sigh. “Goodness. I get back from Vegas and find a note that you’re driving to Kansas. I’ve been worried sick.”

I pulled out of the driveway. “It was last minute. Willow’s stepdad passed away, and I didn’t want her making that drive alone.”

She hummed under her breath. “Tell me something. Is this some kind of marketing stunt? You usually tell me when you’re up to something.”

I chuckled. “It’s not a marketing stunt.”

“Then what the hell are you doing in Kansas?”

I glanced at the house in the rearview mirror. “Getting to know my future wife.”