I woke the next morning to the aroma of fresh coffee. It smelled stronger than usual from the espresso machine in the kitchen. I stretched and looked out of the sash windows. The day was beautiful: rain. I loved the rain. I stretched again, rolled over the other way and almost jumped out of my skin.
Ben was sitting on the floor with a gentle smile.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked, my voice rising higher at the end of my question than I wanted it to.
‘I’ve made coffee,’ he said, smiling shyly. He frowned.
‘Thanks, but you didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here in my bedroom?’ I asked again.
‘You don’t remember?’ he said and raised his eyebrows.
I shook my head. ‘All I remember is you making some food and we ate together—oh—and I remember a kiss…’ I said and heat rushed to my cheeks. ‘Or was that a really nice dream?‘
He lowered his eyes from mine and smiled crookedly. ‘No, that was real! After that I cleaned up. I came back to you at the sofa and you were asleep. So I carried you upstairs to bed. You asked me to stay with you earlier last night—remember?’
I frowned, and the memory came back to me. ‘Thank-you,’ I whispered, as I tried to reconstruct more details of the previous night in my mind.
He sat on the bed next to me while I sipped my coffee. ‘I love watching you stretch when you wake up.’ He trailed a finger down the length of my arm and closed his eyes.
Fire spread through me and my red rose heart opened to its sun. I wondered if Ben knew how much his touch affected me. I wanted to reach out to him and run my finger along his bottom lip. But then I would have to throw myself at him.