Page 83 of Break the Rule
“Only if you cuddle me.”
Eden huffs, but the way his body relaxes into Charlie’s embrace says more than his words ever could. “If it’s the only way to shut you up.”
“It’s definitely the only way.”
“Fine, get your ass in bed.”
“Now who’s bossy?”
Eden smacks Charlie’s ass, and while it’s playful, he has to remind his dick not to get excited. This is not the time. Getting into bed, he flops onto the right side, leaving Eden the left, closer to the bathroom and the door so he doesn’t feel trapped. Eden says nothing, crawling onto the bed before shimmying under the covers.
“Ugh, even your stupid sheets are fancy.”
“They’re just plain sheets,” Charlie protests. “Andrew picked them out.”
“Whatever they are, they’re not plain. They’resoft.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“Good,” Eden huffs. “Fuck you for having a comfortable bed.”
Charlie laughs. At this point, he’s pretty sure a well placed ‘fuck you’might just be Eden’s love language.
He climbs out of bed in order to turn off the bedroom light then crawls back in, half-expecting Eden to change his mind, but all that happens is that Eden carefully curls himself around Charlie, burrowing himself into Charlie’s side. With one leg slipped between Charlie’s, an arm around his waist and Eden’s face shoved into his neck, he breathes a sigh of relief.
There’s something perfect about the way it feels to have Eden attached to his side, his smaller body managing to utterly surround Charlie. It occurs to Charlie: for all the countless partners he’s had and the nights he’s spent sharing his bed, this is the first time he’s done so without sex first.
“Hey, Eden?”
“What?”
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“Fuck you.”
Charlie smiles despite how close to crying he feels. Soft lips press against the side of his neck, and Charlie tightens his grip, holding Eden close. It’s not long before Eden falls asleep, hisrhythmic breathing settling some of that fear in Charlie. Some, but not enough.
Charlie lays awake most of the night, terrified to fall asleep and have this disappear. The sun peeks through the crack in the blinds by the time he finally succumbs to exhaustion, dragged under by sleep and whisked away into dreamland.
Hours or minutes later, Charlie can’t tell, he jolts awake with a frown unsure what woke him. His frown grows when he flings an arm out and finds his bed empty. Sitting up, he rubs sleep from his eyes, gaze darting around the empty bedroom as a pitiful feeling settles in his stomach.
Eden is gone.
15EDEN
Sleep comes easy for Eden.It’s a sentence he’s not used to saying. Then again, years of sleeping on other people’s beds in other people’s homes, on floors and couches and anywhere he could safely catch a few hours left Eden with the ability to sleep anywhere. But sleeping and sleeping well are not the same thing. There’s no mistaking what kind of sleep Eden got last night.
Pulling out of the warm embrace, he stares down at Charlie who looks a bit like a dead Victorian sleeping flat on his back with his mouth open. It’s deeply unattractive, and Eden likes him all the more for it. He’s pretty sure he would’ve hated Charlie if he was beautiful while he slept. Then again, he hates him a little bit for not giving Eden the satisfaction of hating him.
Tracking Charlie’s features, he takes a moment to appreciate how stupidly handsome Charlie is. Even when he’s breathing so deeply it’s close to snoring and with a bit of drool dried on the corner of his mouth. Eden has half a mind to try and go back to sleep to soak up a little more comfort before Charlie wakes up, and he has to acknowledge how much he liked sleeping here when he hears something in the kitchen.
Given what Charlie told him yesterday, there’s a good chance it’s one of the cats or his dog, but if there’s one thing Eden’s notstupid enough to do it’s relax when someone or something else is awake. Slowly extricating himself from the bed so as not to wake Charlie, Eden quietly makes his way out of the bedroom and down the hallway.
If this were a horror movie he’d probably be dead, his self-preservation instincts apparently dulled into submission by a good night's sleep in a pretty boy’s bed. Hoping it is in fact one of the animals and not a fucking robber, he continues down the hallway and into the kitchen, surprised when it’s neither.
“What are you doing here?”
Andrew jumps like he’s been burned. His expression is a comical mix of abject horror and embarrassment, a carton of eggs in one hand and a bottle of orange juice in the other. He shoves them in the fridge before standing, managing to look smaller than Charlie despite their being completely identical. It’s strange how they can look so alike and yet so different. Much like the last time Eden saw him, Andrew is wearing a pair of perfectly pressed khaki pants and loafers with a pastel pink polo shirt. His hair is clearly tamed, unlike Charlie’s, but it’s still thick and wavy, his features equally handsome yet arousing nothing but the urge to wrap Andrew in a hug.
