Page 26 of Only Ever You

“I miss feeling like I have all of the time in the world,” he rasped.

There was a rustle of Faye’s pillow beside him. “You still do.”

Bash shook his head without knowing if she could see him or not in this darkness, exhaling a long drag of air. “I go to work, I make my money, and I keep on wondering who exactly I’m doing it for when it’s just myself in my big, empty house at the end of the day.”

There was something justmissing,and he knew exactly what it was. A feminine shaped hole with a few smaller ones beside her. Maybe even one with four legs. He’d always wanted a dog. He’d have to rip up all of the carpet in his house first, mind you, and replace them with wood and low-pile rugs, but that was doable enough.

Something that felt rather like the sleeve of his hoodie whispered against his elbow, before Faye’s fingers curled around his bicep. The chill he’d felt before just for wearing a t-shirt no longer applied.

“You work so hard, Bash. It’ll all pay off one day, I promise.” Faye’s voice began to slur with her slip towards dreamland. “You’ll be jetting off like my parents do with the person you love soon enough,” she said, causing Bash’s heart to clench. “You have to keep thinking of that.”

His cheek fell towards his pillow to look at her, though he could barely see her at all. It was good enough tofeelher there beside him.

“I know you’re right, Peanut. I’m trying to be more optimistic about things.” The pressure of her fingers on his arm began to slip. “You’re tired. Get some sleep.”

Bash’s heart did some sort of somersault when he heard the first soft, even breath that meant he was alone in his awakeness. Knowing that after the night she’d had, Faye felt safe enough to sleep with him so close did strange things to that organ tethered to her with invisible string. He had to resist reaching across and brushing the hair from out of her face just in case he woke her when he did.

Instead, he rolled onto his side and waited out the tumbling of his brain until the last thing Bash remembered was Faye rolling too, and her head tucking down to rest right by his chest.

8

FAYE

The alarm screaming rightby Faye’s ear was the devil’s own personal banshee.

Six a.m on a Tuesday morning in December and she’d had a total of five hours of undisturbed, and strangely deep, sleep. Any ordinary person who ran their own business might’ve been kind to themselves and closed their eyes for an extra hour before deciding they absolutely had to leave.

But not her.

Faye tortured herself with these pre-dawn starts every day, seven days a week, because if she didn’t then who was going to finish decorating the day’s doughnuts? Or prepare online orders for shipping? Chandra usually handled the packaging and courier side of the latter conundrum, and as far as bakery assistants went she was damn good at her job.

But Fayeneededto be there.Baked By The Dozenwasherbakery;herbusiness. If something went wrong or a customer was unhappy then it was her who forked the responsibility.

Groaning into her pillow, she slapped her phone on the nightstand and made the god awful alarm shut up. It’d done its job – she was awake. It didn’t need to scream on and on.

Pale pre-dawn light gave an eerie, fog-like haze around the edges of her curtains as Faye peeled her eyes open. She didn’t know when exactly she’d rolled over in the night, but she woke staring at the small crooked bookshelf tucked against her wall and?—

A weight pressing down around her middle shifted, pulling her in tighter. Rough skin against her softness.

Whether she was awake now wasn’t a question. Every fibre and sinew in her body screamed ‘good morning’ as the pieces of only a few hours ago slotted together in her mind.

Slotted. Together …

Bash.

He was behind her, wasn’t he?

Awareness creeped in and Faye strangled her yelp at the rock solidsomethingpushing between her bum cheeks. Some part of her best friend shifted the tiniest inch, but with his entire length curled warmly around her, Faye felt that tiny shift like he’d taken a rolling pin and rammed her with it.

This hadn’t ever happened before. Not with Bash.

All of her nerve endings sent off currents and sparks. Her body had clenched and she realised she squeezed the length of his?—

“Oh god.”Faye’s entire circulation rushed to her face.

She forced her muscles to relax, and in the most mortifying thing to have happened to her in this last year, she let the hard length of Bash nestled between her buttocksgo. Though her pent up frustrations put up a protest. Any form of sexual release with a man had beenzerofor too many months in what Sienna considered to be a crime.

It’s a perfectly natural thing.Faye tried to calm her mind down next.His body is functioning as it should.Like a mantra, repeating over and over again. She’d never believed in meditation, but fuck it, she was desperate. Then she scolded herself for basking in the thought –knowledge –of how Bash’s morning glory felt against her.

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