Page 21 of You've Got The Love
“Are you hungry?”
“No, I’m still full from dinner. Thank you, though.”
“Fancy a movie? I’ve got English ones.”
“Yeah, I could watch a movie. What have you got?” She asks as she sits up and leans back into her corner of thecouch, and I definitely don’t notice that she’s once again without a fucking bra. She’s trying to kill me, I’m sure of it.
I move over to the corner of the room and pull off the dust sheet I use to cover the TV. I throw her the remote as I make my way to the door.
“I’ll go get us some snacks. Any requests?”
“Chocolate! Please,” she grins at me.
I point at the TV, “Look for something for us to watch.”
I make my way down to the kitchen and gather all the chocolate I can find—which isn’t a lot—and take a few deep breaths. It’s getting harder and harder to be around her as the hours tick by. She makes me want things I have no right to want. Waking up and feeling her pressed against me was a bliss I want to revisit. Still as usual, the guilt is there, lurking in the background like the‘death’character in the ‘Deathly Hallows’story Hermione reads aloud in‘Harry Potter’, waiting for me to slip up and claim me as his own. The thought makes me smile. Abel loves‘Harry Potter’. He is too young for some of it, but he loves the magic, saying he wants to go to‘Hogwarts’himself.
Amber shrieking makes me drop everything, race up the stairs and burst into the room to find her holding her chest and heaving in huge breaths.
“Oh my God! I had no idea you had a cat. He leapt onto the arm of the chair and almost gave me a heart attack,” she pants.
“Fuck. Sorry! I forgot to mention Yuki. She’s harmless, but does like to scare unsuspecting British women,” I smirk ather as best I can while taking in gulps of air, sure she was being attacked, and get a cushion thrown at my head for my trouble.
“Yuki, hello. I’m Amber,” she introduces herself to the cat like she understands her.Fucking adorable.
“She speaks Dutch, sorry, Bell. Anyway, before you almost died from a cat jumping onto the couch, did you pick out a movie?” She pokes out her tongue at me.
“Yes, can we watch ‘Die Hard’? I loooveJohn McClane,” she swoons, which makes me feel irrationally jealous.
“Start it up, and I’ll go get our stuff for real this time, as long as you don’t screech the place down again. Half ofAlphen Aan Den Rijnheard you.”
“Sure, you can manage it on your own? I mean it’s a tough job… walking down the stairs, grabbing stuff and coming back up again,” she raises her eyebrows and smiles, looking insanely pleased with herself, but not realising it makes her ample tits jostle around as she moves.
“Not sure, I’ll give it my best shot.”
Chapter 11
Amber
Iwake up suddenly, my heart pounding as I take in lungs full of air. Rolling onto my back, I stare up at the ceiling, trying to get my breathing under control. It’s so quiet here, so still, I have no idea what woke me up; must have been a dream. Yuki is still where she was when I fell asleep last night. She’s pressed right up against my hip, so I push my hand into her thick fur, taking comfort in her being here with me.
“Fancy some milk?” I whisper to her as if she can answer. Even if she could, she’s a Dutch cat.
I huff out a laugh at myself, shaking my head as I pull back the covers, slide out of bed and reach over to grab Yuki. I make my way down the long hallway to the kitchen as I hold my Dutch feline friend close and coo to her quietly. She’s a beautiful cat, and even though she tried to kill me via heart attack last night, I’m glad I’m not aloneright now.
It’s cold at night here inHolland. I should have grabbed a pair of Bas’ socks, but I spy the hoodie he was wearing today, which he left on one of the stools at the island and pull it on. I’m still blown away by how beautiful this country is. It’s so green, like everywhere you look could be a postcard or grace the cover of a magazine. As I take a deep breath of crisp night air, I can smell Bas. I mean,yes, this is his home, and I am wearing his hoodie, but I don’t need to be smelling him constantly right now. Being here in his home with him makes me long for him even more than I already do, and that already feels like every minute of every day. He is the reason I haven’t been on a date in the last few years. I just can’t. Well,no, I don’t want to, is more like it. I know I’m half in love with him, and seeing him here in his home, getting to know him even more, is torture.Beautiful torture.
I pour milk into Yuki’s bowl and fill a glass for myself. Why does milk help calm us at night? It’s so odd if you think about it. I turn and look out the window, unable to help the smile that stretches across my face as I gaze at the lake, illuminated by the moonlight, and recall Bas tickling me there. God, he’s gorgeous when he laughs. I need to get my mind off that stunning Dutchman, so I head to his den, where I’ve spotted some books. Reading always distracts me. I mean, he doesn’t have the usual spicy romance that I favour, but I can get into a good thriller from time to time, and there were someJames PattersonandMartina Coleon his shelves.
As I turn the corner into the den, I stop dead in my tracks. Bas is fast asleep in a chair… wearing a pair of black-framed glasses. I didn’t even know he wore glasses. I usually hate them on men, but on him. Beyond delicious. His chest is rising and falling, taking slow, deep breaths, and I feel like I’ve forgotten how to breathe; I could watch him sleep for hours. His square jaw is covered in a little more than his usual sexy stubble that I absolutely have not fantasised about feeling against my inner thighs… I nearly jump out of my skin and slap a hand over my mouth to muffle the noise I make, as Yuki brushes up against my shin and brings me back to the now. I squint down at her, I just know she’s trying to off me.
Bas’ hair has fallen out of its usual man-bun, making him look wilder than his usual put-together manliness.Swoon. I don’t want him to catch me looking—gawkingmore like—but my god, I can’t not look. The man embodies everything I find attractive in a guy–not just his physical appearance, but also his personality and who he is as a person.I would love nothing more than to snuggle up next to him… but I don’t think he’d react too well to that. After he told me about Marieke, my heart breaks for him more than it already did. Now that I know what happened, I don’t understand how he’s still here today. It just shows the depth of his character to have carried on, and how supportive his family is.
Well, I can’t just stand here drooling over him all night, so I grab a few books from his shelves and hightail it outof there, but as I’m halfway out the door I turn back for one last look. As I’m gazing at him like a lovesick teenager, I wonder if it’s comfortable to sleep in glasses.It can’t be. So I sneak over to him, tiptoeing like the ‘Grinch’—jeez, I’m ridiculous—and place my books on the coffee table. As gently as possible, I hold my breath and slide his glasses off. Being this close is dangerous. My heart is reaching out to his, trying to find a way in, to find a way to embed itself there.Me too, heart, me too.
I place his glasses next to his cup, grab my books and make a run for it, before I do something crazy like climb on his lap and go to sleep.Ha!Like I could sleep like that.
Bas is quiet this morning. I’m not sure if he’s regretting telling me about Marieke yesterday, as I know that must have hurt to relive. I’m sure he does that often, but saying things aloud is a much different experience than reliving it in your mind. He hasn’t mentioned that I removed his glasses last night yet; maybe he thinks he took them off himself. That’s safer, as I don’t want him to think I was skulking around his house in the middle of the night, staring at him like a weirdo, and removing his glasses uninvited. I mean, Iwasdoing those things, but I don’t want him to know that.
