Page 7 of Midnight (Chasing the Sun #3)

Harper

O nce again, I wake up and find myself alone in bed.

This time I can smell the coffee, the scent of bacon, and breakfast from the kitchen.

Tempting me to get up, I shake off the covers and get dressed.

Then, coming around the corner and stepping into the kitchen, the sight that greets my eyes makes me smile.

The table is set with all sorts of bright colors. There's a Mason jar filled with flowers that looked like they were picked from the front yard, an envelope the size of a card with my name on it next to my plate, and two balloons tied to the back of my chair.

"Good morning! Breakfast is just about done," Nate says as he messes with a pan on the stove. "Sit down, and have some orange juice."

Sitting on the chair with the balloons that he nods to, I find a glass of orange juice next to my plate and a cup of coffee next to his. He may have been trying to ignore me yesterday, but he still paid attention to the fact that I don't drink coffee.

As I sit down, he reaches over and takes my plate and starts filling it with food. I barely get a sip of orange juice and set my cup back on the table when he sliding my plate in front of me again and kissing the top of my head.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart. Eat up," he says with a huge smile on his face. Then he takes his plate to fill it up as well.

It almost looks like he cooked everything that he has in the kitchen. There's a small omelet, buttered toast, bacon, sausage, two small pancakes, and a slice of French toast.

"There is no way I'm going to be able to eat all this and I will be shocked if you're able to."

"Well, I didn't know what you liked so I wanted to make sure I had all the bases covered. You eat whatever you want. Don't worry about me, because trust me I'll eat," he says, sitting down in his seat across from me.

He picks up the card on the table and hands it to me.

"Next year we'll do it up right, but this year I had to work with what I already had in the apartment."

Opening the card, I start laughing. Obviously, it’s a card he bought for his sister and crossed out all the places sister is mentioned and wrote either my name, or the word woman.

When I look at him, he just shrugs.

"I forgot to give it to my sister for her birthday," he says and shovels a big bite of eggs into his mouth.

Something about this moment causes me to burst into a fit of laughter. He sits up straight, and his eyes soften as he smiles too.

"No one has ever gone through this much trouble for my birthday since my grandmother died. Thank you," I say.

"Well, it's not over. Also I made you a cake for later. But to start, I thought we'd take a lazy morning and watch a movie."

As it turns out, he's right. Watching a movie is the perfect way to have a lazy birthday morning. We cuddled on the couch, nothing more than me resting my head on his shoulder.

After lunch he brings out the cake fitted with candles and everything and even sings me happy birthday.

"So I wasn't able to do much as a present, but I thought maybe we could go online and order some books that you like since I don't have any." He tells me this when I join him in the kitchen to watch him cut the cake.

It's a homemade cake probably from a box mix and frosting from a container from the store, but it's perfect because he made it.

"You didn’t need to do all this, but I appreciate it. But really, all I want for my birthday is my first kiss." As I tell him this, I can feel my face turning bright red.

Pure shock crosses his face.

"After last night, I can't believe I haven't kissed you." He says, shaking his head then looking at me again.

"You haven't had your first kiss yet?" he asks softly.

My face gets even more red if that's even possible, but I just shake my head no.

"Well, your eighteenth birthday seems like the perfect time to fix that."

He walks over to me and places a hand on my waist, pulling me toward him and closing the space between us. His other hand goes behind my neck, supporting my head as I look up at him.

His eyes search my face like he's expecting me to tell him to stop, or that I'm not ready. I am beyond ready for this kiss and have been from the moment I got into his police car the other night.

It seems like forever before he finally leans forward and his lips land on mine.

I close my eyes so I can feel every sensation, but even this part of the kiss is intoxicating.

Gripping onto the front of his shirt to hold me steady, I feel like the world has started to spin faster and I need to hold on to him.

I heard a few girls at school once say that their first kiss wasn't a good one, and then it seemed to go on forever. But here with Nate? I feel like the kiss is going by way too fast.

He traces my lips with his tongue, almost like he's trying to taste me, before he slides his tongue in to play slowly with mine. As he pulls me even closer to him, not that there was any spare room to begin with, he lets out a small groan.

It's painfully obvious that he's turned on because his cock is hard and pressing into my belly. Though, it’s a relief to know that I'm not the only one turned on by this kiss.

But I so wish we could stay like this forever and I know I'm going to remember every detail of this first kiss.

But all too soon, he's pulling back and we're both out of breath.

If I tried, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. He has a small smile on his face as well, but I can see in his eyes that the kiss was just as good for him as it was for me.

"Come on, let's have some cake," he says.

Then I sit down at the table while he goes over and slices some cake and sets it down in front of me.

Before I’m even able to get my fork, he picks me up and sits down in my place. After pulling me into his lap, he wraps one arm around my waist before picking up my fork and feeding me my first bite of cake.

I don't think I've ever sat on anyone's lap other then his. I'm sure I did as a baby, but nothing that I can remember since. Nate is very comfortable and even though he feeds me my cake, it’s a little awkward at first but quickly I find it very comforting.

When I finally sink into him and relax, he kisses the side of my head and I don't think I have felt any safer in my whole life. But like always, when I start to feel safe, that little voice reminds me of all the danger that is right behind me.