Page 13 of Storm in a Teacup (Love in Edinburgh #3)

Ben

“I’m going to shower the club off of me,” Linny says once we’re in our hotel room. She sits down on the bed to yank off those boots. God, I love those boots.

“Okay,” I say. “I’ll shower too when you’re done.”

Once the bathroom door is closed, I sit down weightily on the bed, falling to my back with my feet still planted on the ground.

Linny said Atti was an arsehole, but I’m not sure I understood the full extent of it until tonight.

The way he speaks to her, that bastard. If he speaks to her like that now, he certainly spoke to her that way when they were together.

How her cousin let him in the wedding party, I’ll never know.

Soon enough, Linny steps out of the bathroom in pajama pants and a little tank clinging tightly to her breasts. It’s an effort not to stare, but I am a gentleman.

We switch places so I can shower off the sweat of the night.

I was planning on using the hotel-provided body wash, but I spy Linny’s sitting on the tub’s edge.

She smells so good. I pour a little bit of it in my palm and rub it up and down my arms, the scent of her filling my nostrils.

It was all I could smell as she spent so much of the evening sitting on my lap.

I finally let loose on something I have been resisting so strongly the entire night, growing hard at the thought of her.

I shouldn’t be having these thoughts. She said very clearly that she does not want to date me, and it would be incredibly unfair of me to pursue something with her while my heart is stuck on someone else.

Yet, the memory of her soft lips comes back to me.

Her breast under my hand. Her ass pressing into my lap, her full body reclined on mine.

I get a whiff again of her body wash and can’t help it when my hand closes around my cock.

She’s just right outside the door, so I work myself as quietly as possible, mind on that fiery red hair and bright blue eyes the entire time.

I finish up in the shower soon after, getting out and toweling off. I dress and reenter the now lamp-lit hotel room to find Linny in bed, sitting up on her phone, gold-rimmed glasses on her face instead of contacts.

“You look cute in glasses,” I comment as I drop my dirty clothes in my suitcase and pretend I didn’t just wank off to her in the shower.

“Thanks,” she says, hardly glancing up.

I pull my own glasses out of my bag and put them on. “‘You look cute in glasses too, Ben,’ is what you’re supposed to say.” I astutely push the tortoiseshell frames up my nose.

She finally looks up at me for real and says in a monotone voice, “You look cute in glasses too.”

“I don’t believe you,” I say with a sigh, climbing in the bed beside her. “I only need to wear them when reading, or driving, or watching TV. Even so, I don’t wear them as often as I should. Contacts and I don’t agree, and these slip down my nose too much.”

“Oh yeah, that’s annoying. I hate when mine do that, which is why I prefer contacts if I’m leaving my house.”

I turn on my side toward her, glasses askew under my palm. “So, how shall we do this? Put a barrier of pillows between us?”

“We’re adults. I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Oh, so you do want to cuddle. Got it.”

“Literally not even close to what I said. I’m not a cuddler.”

“That’s shocking. You cuddled pretty well on my lap tonight.”

“Well, that was an extenuating circumstance.” She puts her phone down on the nightstand. “Tomorrow morning we’re doing the spa thing, and then afterward I should go see my dad since I’m in town. You can head back to Edinburgh whenever you feel like it.”

“Okay,” I say, flipping to my back. “I’m gonna go to the stag thing. It’s been forever since I’ve played football. I mean, Andy’s a prat, but the rest of the blokes were nice. Especially Paul.”

She ignores my snub of her ex and raises her eyebrows. “Paul, huh? You mean Paul was nice or Paul was nice ?”

I narrow my eyes at her. “A bit of both, to be fair. Not that I’m going to do anything about it since he thinks you and I are dating.”

“Sorry to hold you back,” she says, looking away.

“That is not what I meant,” I protest, hearing what I said too late. “I just mean he’s fit. And seems like a good guy.”

She sucks her teeth. “Well, if you’re really interested, we can break up in a week or so, and then you can pursue him. I mean, we’d have to break up before the wedding anyway so people don’t ask where you are.”

I’m not going to pursue Paul. I intend to tell Linny that, but instead I ask, “You don’t want me with you at the wedding?”

“No? I just needed moral support tonight. I’ll be fine at the wedding. ”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

I switch off the lamp on my side. She follows suit, and I hear her set her glasses on the nightstand. I do the same with mine.

In the dark, I ask, “You sure you’re not a cuddler?” I suggestively brush my foot against hers.

She kicks me back. “Bennett Pyeon, I swear to god if I wake up to you spooning me…”

I chuckle. “I swear I won’t be!” I turn on my side, facing her. She shifts to face me as well.

I’m about to say goodnight, but she asks, “So, are you ever going to tell me about David?”

My breath catches in my throat. “I did tell you about David.”

“Not really.”

I grumble, “He’s been my best mate since uni. I gave him a grand confession, and he turned me down.” I squeeze my eyes shut as I say, “The night you and I met was the night I told him how I felt.”

She sucks in a small gasp. “Oh, fuck. Really?”

“Aye. I can’t tell you enough how grateful I am to you for that night.” I silently groan before pressing my face into the pillow, muffling my voice. “I have a confession.”

“What?”

“The last time you asked me if Andy was still watching us, he had gone, but I said he hadn’t. I lied because I wanted to keep kissing you.”

Linny doesn’t hesitate as she washes away my guilt. “Well, I’m a good kisser, so no shame in that.”

I huff out a laugh.

Gently, she says, “I’m sorry David doesn’t love you, Ben. I honestly can say I don’t understand how he couldn’t. ”

I shift, shoving my arm under my pillow. “The problem is, he does love me. I know he does—it’s just purely platonic. There’s an invisible line that he is unable to cross. I find it highly unfair that I crossed that line alone.”

She makes a sympathetic sound. “I’m not sure if this will make you feel better, but don’t discount the blessing of platonic love.

I am so sorry he doesn’t love you the way you want him to, but platonic love is so important.

It’s so special, and it’s something you should try to hold onto if you can. ”

Her words settle with me. She’s right. That’s the thing of it.

That’s why my head is all over the place when it comes to David, because even if all we are is friends, I want him as a friend.

I need him as a friend. He is one of my favorite parts of life, and not having him at all is worse than not having him in the way I want.

“I know,” I settle on saying. “Goodnight, frisky whisky.”

“’Night, Ben.”

…

I blink awake as a crack of sunlight breaks through the gap in the blackout curtains and hits my face.

I feel breath on the back of my neck and a body pressed against mine in the bed.

After blinking a few more times to start my eyes, I peer down to see Linny’s arm around me and my hand gripping hers.

I laugh silently. Oh, I get to tease her so hard about this. I’m about to flip over to wake her up when I realize… shite . I’m hard as a rock. Lord smite me. I stay as still as I can, pumping my thoughts full of egg salad and brown snow and other unsexy things to get him to calm the hell down.

Once I manage that, I turn in the bed, careful to keep Linny’s arm around me.

I brush the hair out of her face gently, and she blinks awake, taking a moment to focus on me. I fully intend to tease her about spooning me in the night, but what comes out of my mouth instead is, “You’re beautiful in the morning.”

Because, goddamn, she is. The light that woke me is making her hair glimmer and burn. Those eyes are soft and sleepy and pure magic.

I expect her to remove her arm from me, or comment about how we are sharing a pillow and are chest to chest, but she mumbles, “You’re a bit blurry in the morning.”

“You’re a liar,” I say quietly.

She blinks, confused and not fully awake. “What?”

“You said you’re not a cuddler, but I woke up to you cuddling the bloody hell out of me.”

Her eyes widen, and I think she’s finally awake. “Shit.”

She rockets away, making me cackle.

“Don’t be a dick,” she scolds, throwing a pillow at me.

I brush the pillow off so it falls to the ground. “I’m not. It was nice! I slept great in your arms last night,” I can’t help but taunt.

She shoves me hard, almost pushing me off the bed as I continue to snicker. She sits up, grumbling. Then she twists back, “Did you use my body wash last night?”

I roll onto my back. “Yes.”

“That explains why you smell good.”

“Well, that and my natural pheromones. They say I have better pheromones than the rest.”

“ Who says that?”

I gesture widely. “They. All of them. Every them, along with everyone in the world. I swear, go to anyone I’ve ever even brushed past and they’ll be like ‘Oh, Ben Pyeon? The guy with the best pheromones on the market?’ Try it. I dare you. ”

“You are such an odd person.” She makes that sound like a compliment. She retrieves her glasses from the nightstand and sets them on her face. “So, when do you leave for the soccer thing?”

I check the time on my phone. “About an hour. Have to head to Stratford. It’s where the pitch is, I guess. When do you leave?”

“About half an hour, so I’d better start getting ready.”