Lily

The bed dipped under Will’s weight. He slid up behind me and pressed his naked length against my body, his arm circling my waist as he pulled me closer.

I didn’t know how to react and for long seconds I held myself stiff.

Will was having none of that. He urged me over until I faced him. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

I stared up at him with my eyes wide. He was still here, and he looked like he had no intention to leave anytime soon. A ray of hope cracked through the layer of ice that had formed.

“I don’t do one-night stands,” I blurted.

Shit. There I went again.

He grinned. “Lily, you need to get this through your head right now. This isn’t a one-night stand.”

The ice thawed a little more and the fear started to recede. “It’s not?”

He rubbed his nose down along mine and I couldn’t help but giggle as he cuddled me close. But then his words brought me up short.

“It’s the beginning.”

My gaze flew to his. “The beginning? Beginning of what?”

“The beginning of us, sweet girl.”

“What?” If he wasn’t so close, there’s no way he’d have heard me.

“Jared told me how it was with him and Paige. The first time he saw her, he knew she was the one. Same with Nate Wilder and his woman. And another of their friends was there tonight. I met her this summer, and I’ll be honest, we almost hooked up.”

My chest squeezed at the thought of him hooking up with another woman. I opened my mouth, but he raised a hand and placed his fingers gently against my lips.

“I have a point,” he promised.

I nodded and he removed his fingers from my lips and caressed my cheek with the back of his hand. “We didn’t hook up because that was the night she saw her friend’s brother in a new light. And tonight she introduced him to me as her husband.”

“O-okay.” How nice for all of the rich and beautiful people at the party that in addition to all the other wonders fate rained upon them, they got soulmates, too. Not that I was bitter or anything.

Will’s lips tipped up and the corners of his eyes crinkled. Great. I get the rock star who was hot, sweet, spectacular in bed and a mind reader. I rolled my eyes at him and he outright grinned.

I huffed out a breath. “I believe you promised there was a point to all this?”

He laughed and gave me a quick hug, the gesture making my heart turn somersaults in my chest.

“The point, sweet girl, is that the second I saw you tonight, I knew exactly what Jared meant.”

Oh, my God. All I could do was blink up at him. Was he saying what I thought he was saying?

“I took one look at you and I was a goner.”

I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to pull air into my lungs again. His words echoed over and over again in my mind. I was a goner. I was a goner.

“Lily? Are you going to say anything?”

I locked my gaze on his and searched for answers. Was this a line he was feeding me?

But why feed me lines now? He must be pretty confident I was a sure thing at this point.

Not to mention, he was Will Canter. The boy wasn’t exactly hard up for female attention. What purpose would it serve for him to tell me he had feelings for me less than six hours after we first met?

“Lily?” He prompted again, this time with a hint of anxiety in his voice.

Whoa. Was it possible he’d just laid himself bare for me and I was just the bitch who left him hanging? How was that even possible?

I finally managed to get enough air into my lungs to take a breath. I reached up and stroked his cheek and watched in wonder as he leaned into my hand, his eyes closing for just a few seconds before drifting open again, as if he relished the touch.

As I stared at him, it hit me. I was a goner, too.

I opened my mouth to tell him exactly that but that’s not what came out. “I have trust issues.”

He froze for an instant before wrapping me tightly in his arms and holding me cradled against his chest. “Tell me.”

I snuggled into him and wound an arm over his waist, not so deep inside my head and worried about shielding my heart that I couldn’t enjoy the feeling of his warm skin against mine.

I shrugged under his arm. “Not much to tell. I just haven’t had a lot of people in my life I could count on. And the few times I put myself out there, I’ve learned my lesson.”

He smoothed a hand down my back and pressed a sweet kiss to my temple, but he didn’t say anything.

I shifted my legs, tangling them with his. “I’m afraid you’re feeding me a line. Or telling me what you think I want to hear. Or maybe you’re a guy who falls in love every five minutes.”

I peeked up at him and the warmth shining from his eyes almost rendered me speechless. Almost. But he’d put himself out there, and while my usual impulse would be to toss him out and avoid him like the plague for the next year, with Will, I didn’t want to put up my defenses.

“Something about you makes me want to believe you.”

He gave me a squeeze. “You can believe me.”

“I’m going to try.” And I knew I had to give him at least a little of what he gave me. “Because I have this feeling if I didn’t at least give you a chance to convince me, I’d regret it for a long, long time.”

“I’ll convince you.”

“I hope so,” I whispered.

* * *

Two weeks later, I didn’t know if I was totally convinced, but if Will was faking it, I was okay with having the wool pulled over my eyes. ‘Cause the last two weeks were nothing short of magical.

I didn’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the way, I think he moved in with me. We’d been spending every moment I wasn’t working together. Even sometimes when I was doing some of my freelance work Will would sit on the couch with the television on low or reading a book.

And then there were times he took out his guitar and played while I worked. Those were the only moments I let my inner fangirl out. Because holy hell. How on earth had I gotten lucky enough to get my own private concerts from the lead guitarist of Sliding Violet?

With all the time we’d spent together, I also got to see the real Will Canter. Not the rock star, but the sweet man who loved music and meat lovers’ pizza and coffee drinks with pretentious names from the coffee place down the street.

I took him to a few small art galleries and he unearthed my dream house scrapbook. We watched a marathon of The Walking Dead and fought over who kicked more ass, Rick or Daryl.

We wandered the city together and I got to play tourist during my favorite time of year. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d explored the city at Christmas. We went to see the tree in Rockefeller Center, the windows at Macy’s, and Will surprised me one afternoon with tickets to see the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall.

But my very favorite thing, outside of the time we spent in bed exploring each other until I thought he might know my body better than I knew it myself, was the time we spent cocooned together in my apartment.

We cooked dinner together, talked for hours, and this evening Will helped me put up the Christmas decorations I kept stored under my bed all year.

“What about a tree?” Will asked.

I shrugged. “I’d love a real tree, but it’s tough lugging one up these stairs. Plus, I don’t have a whole lot of extra space for one,” I said wistfully.

I cheered up fast when I reminded myself that I was about two weeks away from having my down payment saved up. Giddy excitement rose up inside me at the idea that next year at this time I’d have a Christmas tree in the living room of the cottage I owned.

“What’s going on in that head?” Will asked.

I shook my head. For some reason, my dream house was the one thing I hadn’t shared with Will. Yes, he’d found my scrapbook, but I think he believed it was just an interest in interior design that was an extension of my art.

I wasn’t sure exactly why I kept it from him. My dream house was as much a part of me as my art, so it seemed odd that I couldn’t bring myself to tell him about it.

But even as I thought that, one bit of my mind scolded me for lying to myself. The truth was, as good as the last two weeks had been, there was still that little niggle of doubt. There was still that six-year-old girl inside me who got moved to her third foster home in less than two years with hopes that this would be the family that stuck.

Keeping the dream house from him meant I’d have one small part of myself that he didn’t share with me if he decided this wasn’t working for him anymore.

“Lil?”

I smiled at him. “Sorry, daydreaming about how I could fit a Christmas tree in here. But really, I think it’s impossible.”

He shot me a speculative look, but then his face eased into a smile. “It might make things a little tight in here.”

I pursed my lips and crossed my arms over my chest. He’d just given me the opening I’d been waiting for. “Speaking of things getting tight in here, is it me or has a lot of your stuff made its way over here?”

I allowed my eyes to skip from his guitar propped in the corner to two pairs of his shoes by the door to a stack of books on the coffee table. You’d think I’d have figured it out sooner, but it wasn’t until this morning when I opened the medicine cabinet and found his deodorant, lip balm, razor and shaving cream that I’d started to clue in.

His shampoo in my shower, his over-priced freshly ground coffee in my cabinet, and a carton of whole milk in my refrigerator clinched it. “Did you forget to tell me you were moving in?”

He grinned and walked over to loop his arms around me. “I figured with your trust issues, it might be easier if I just slowly moved my stuff over here instead of making you do something crazy, like, you know, talk about our feelings.”

Damn. My man totally got me.

But that didn’t mean I was going to let him get away with moving in without a discussion. Even if that little girl inside me was currently jumping up and down and clapping her hands in glee.

“You didn’t think you should at least ask me if I was in the market for a roommate?”

“Nope.” He tugged my arms until I unfolded them and he pulled them around his waist. He pulled me close to his hard body and leaned down to nuzzle against my temple.

I waited, but he didn’t say more.

I poked him in the ribs. “You’re not getting off that easy, Bub.”

“Would you rather I got a hotel room in the city for the rest of the month?”

“No,” I said petulantly.

He chuckled. “Right. So would you rather I was sleeping at Jared and Paige’s place every night?”

Uh, not no, but hell no. “No.” I made sure my tone was even more ornery with that no.

“So you’re saying it’s okay if I stay here with you?”

Well, when he put it like that, it was tough to argue. It wasn’t like he asked to move in for good. At some point he’d go back to work, and most likely get his own place. I didn’t allow myself to think too much about that. But until it happened, I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could. I wanted to store up every moment, every memory.

“Fine,” I said with not a hint of graciousness. “But I’m doing it under protest. I’m not convinced this is a good idea.”

He buried his face in my neck and I could feel his body shaking with laughter. I held back a sigh. So nice to know I could be so amusing.

“I’ll convince you,” he said when he’d settled down a little.

My heart melted at his words. He’d done a pretty good job of convincing me so far. Maybe I could trust him just a little. Maybe I’d even share my house plans soon.