I slept like a goddamn rock. With Anna in my arms, I don’t think I moved an inch. When I opened my eyes, she had curled up into me, her head cradled in the crook of my arm. From the sound of her deep, even breaths, she was still asleep.

I’d only been half-joking when I said this all felt like a dream. Part of me expected to wake up this morning and find none of it had been real. But this, having Anna in my arms, felt more real than anything in my entire life.

And last night, when we’d kissed—for so long that her taste still lingered on my lips—my world had tilted on its axis, righting itself for the first time in ten years.

I pulled her closer, and she murmured, then sighed. She was so soft in my arms, the shell she wore almost constantly—though it had grown thinner over time—had completely fallen away. In our years of friendship, we’d never slept together, so I’d never gotten to see her face like this. Vulnerable. Open. Bare.

Leaning in, I pressed a kiss to her forehead, then wound a thick strand of her honey-blonde hair loosely around my fingers and let it go. She whispered my name and slung her arm over my waist, scooting even closer, leaving only a narrow slice of air between us.

“You awake, sleepy?” I whispered.

“Definitely not.” She burrowed her head under my arm. “It’s so dark and cozy in here. I’m not coming out.”

I chuckled and ran my hand up and down her back. “Sorry if I woke you up. My body’s so trained to be up early, I can’t sleep past seven.”

She groaned. “It’s seven? What a horrible time to be awake!”

“Then I hate to tell you what time I’m normally up.”

She shook her head from her hiding spot. “Don’t tell me. Seven is painful enough.”

“Five,” I whispered.

Anna lifted her head and kissed the center of my chest. “Poor, poor you.”

“I guess you don’t have to be at the salon early.”

“Nope. Not until ten or eleven. I haven’t seen seven in the morning since the last time I stayed up all night.” I tipped her chin and she slowly opened her eyes.

“This is what seven looks like,” I said softly.

She shot a small, sleepy smile straight to my heart. “Not too bad.”

“Are you going to work today?”

“Yeah, I have a few clients. But I don’t have to go in until ten, so we can be lazy.”

She rolled over on her back with her hands over her head and stretched. Her black tank top had ridden up and her pink underwear had ridden down, so a long plane of her creamy stomach was exposed. And as her back arched as she stretched, I pictured what she’d look like with my head between her legs.

She relaxed and smiled up at me. “You’re still here.”

I shook my head slowly, not able to take my eyes off of her. “Do you have any idea what you look like right now?”

She rubbed a finger under her eye, then examined it. “Do I have last night’s makeup smeared all over my face?”

Before I could stop myself, I traced a line from the hem of her shirt to the lacy band of her underwear. “Your face is beautiful. You look all sleepy-sexy. And you have no pants on.”

She giggled and rolled onto her side to face me again. “Pants are my enemy. I try to wear them as little as possible.”

“So, no pants, no dresses?”

“Don’t forget no bras!”

I pushed a piece of hair off her face. “Don’t think I could forget that, even if I tried. Your lack of bra was staring me in the face last night.”

She crossed her arm over her chest. “Oh, sorry. These tits have a mind of their own.”

I pulled her arm down and held her hand. “Never apologize for your tits, Annie.”

She laughed and threw her arm around me, hugging me tight. “I’m so glad you’re still here,” she whispered.

We lay like that, holding each other quietly for a long time. There was no past, no time apart, no outside world. Just this bed, this girl, her arms around me and my arms around her.

“Oh, Will. I want to kiss you so bad, but I have total morning breath. I’m gonna need to brush my teeth now,” she said.

I chuckled and gently pushed her away. “Get outta here, stinky.” She rolled away from me and sat up on the edge of the bed. “Hey, Annie?”

She looked over her shoulder with a raised brow. “Yeah?”

“Do you happen to have a spare toothbrush? ’Cause I really want to kiss you too.”

She grinned. “I think I can manage to find one.”

And then she stood and I fucking swallowed my tongue. Her tiny pink underwear were basically nonexistent and her ass bounced with every step she took toward the bathroom.

“You’re killing me!” I called.

She peeked her head around the door. “Oops! I still don’t have any pants on, do I?”

I tossed a pillow in her direction. “Toothbrush, stat!”

When I made my way into the bathroom, she’d wrapped a silky floral kimono around herself, sadly.

She held out a packaged toothbrush. “Here ya go. Sorry it’s pink.”

“Pink is my very favorite color,” I said.

She smiled and watched me as I brushed my teeth. There was something really intimate about it, maybe even more intimate than sleeping in the same bed together. And just the sight of Anna standing there, her long legs crossed at the ankle as she leaned her hip against the Formica counter, had me scrubbing my teeth at light speed so I could get my mouth on hers.

I spit out the toothpaste and swished water around my mouth, then straightened.

“Ahhhh...fresh as a daisy.” I wiped my face with a towel, then yanked her against me and kissed her minty-fresh mouth. Her entire body melted into mine and she sighed as she opened for me.

The Annie I knew as a teenager had been hard and bristly, sometimes even with me, but now she felt so damn soft in my arms and on my lips.

I slid my hands around her waist and down over her ass, lifting her onto the counter. She spread her legs, welcoming me between them. I broke from her lips and kissed down the column of her neck while she gripped my shoulders. She tipped her head to the side, letting me know that she liked what I did to her and she wanted more of it.

Her skin looked like cream and smelled like vanilla. I trailed my lips along the angle where her jaw met her neck and she whimpered, wrapping her legs around my waist.

She made me painfully hard. Just looking at her made me throb, but having her legs around me brought it to the point of the ridiculous.

I pulled back.

I didn’t want to. I wanted to sink inside her and lose myself in this woman, my beautiful Annie. But either I enjoyed torturing myself or I was actually wising up and taking my time with her.

“Where’d you go?” she asked.

I cupped her jaw, my thumbs rubbing over her velvety cheeks. “I need a minute. You’re driving me crazy.”

She smoothed her hands over my arms. “I thought that was a good thing.”

“It’s both.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “Is there somewhere in town a guy can get a strong cup of coffee and something to eat?”

She hopped off the counter and pressed herself against me. “I have those things here.”

“I know you do, baby. But I wanna talk to you, and we’re not gonna get much talking done in this apartment, are we?”

“Not if I have my way.” She sighed. “I want to talk to you too, Will.”

I kissed her one more time—because I couldn’t help myself around her—and then we got ready and headed out.