Chapter 39

Iwoke up with Serenity lying on my chest and the glow of early morning sunshine already warming the room.

Fuck. I fell asleep.

I couldn't say I minded waking to her, but I hadn't planned on it. Sneaking out of her building in the daytime was going to be difficult, considering that there was no back entrance, but despite it not having been my intention, I couldn't find any shred of real worry inside about having to deal with the press when I left.

Her golden hair was splayed out over my arm, her body soft and warm against my side. Instead of feeling trapped by her leg draped over my knees, I felt strangely comforted. I didn't want to move, which was unusual for me when waking with a woman.

Smiling as I glanced down at the top of her head, I pressed a kiss to her hair and reached for my phone, unlocking it and scrolling through the breaking news headlines until I felt her stirring. I lowered the phone to my side, watching as her eyes blinked open and her brow furrowed when she must've realized she was lying on a person.

Without a moment of hesitation, her gaze jumped up and met mine, and a moment later, she smiled lazily. "You're still here."

Her voice was husky with sleep, the expression in her eyes still soft. I nodded, bending slightly to brush a kiss against her shoulder. "Yeah, I'm still here. I'm sorry. I meant to sneak out after you fell asleep, but I dozed off too and only woke up a few minutes ago."

"That's okay," she murmured, rolling away from me and spreading her arms above her head in a mighty stretch. "I'm kind of glad you fell asleep too. At least it means you had a good time last night, right?"

"I had a great time last night," I corrected gently. "That doesn't mean no one is going to see me leaving your place, though."

Relaxing out of her stretch, she stuffed a pillow under her head and lay down again, facing me. "We'll deal with it when it happens. Besides, didn't we say we're not hiding anymore?"

"Sure, but saying it and coming out as a couple in public are two very different things. It should be alright, though. I'll just ignore them."

She chuckled, arching a teasing eyebrow at me. "Oh, so you're going to do something entirely different to how you usually act with them, then. Good to know."

Settling in on my side and facing her, I realized neither of us was in any hurry to leave this bed. Eventually, we were going to have to, but for now, I was enjoying just lazing around with her.

"Do you really think last night was great?" she asked curiously. "I thought you didn't like dancing."

"That's not the part of the night I was referring to." I smirked, laughing when she reached out to land a playful punch to my shoulder. "Kidding! I'm kidding. The dancing was fun too. Not as fun, but fun. I'm just a little surprised that you managed to bring out that side of me."

"The dance-like-a-sexy-god side?" she teased. "I'm surprised that side of you exists at all."

I chuckled. "Mom made us all take lessons when we were younger. Although I don't remember a style of dance called sexy-god, but I'll take it."

"Okay, and now I'm surprised that your mom made you take lessons and you actually paid any attention."

I shrugged. "According to her, a gentleman should know how to dance. The alternative, apparently, is men simply hopping around a dance floor or standing completely still while watching others dance like some kind of creeper, and she didn't want that for us. She got our attention by putting it that way."

Serenity laughed softly, the sleep melting away from her eyes. I had to admit I really fucking liked being here to see it. "If I ever have a son, I'm coming to your mother for lessons on how to raise him. She seems to have some tricks up her sleeve about how to make boys listen."

"Well, she's had some practice," I joked. "She only had five of us. By the time she got to Corbin, I think she'd learned every trick in the book. I'm sure she'll be happy to share her wisdom."

"He's the youngest, right?" she asked. "Corbin."

"Yep." I told her more about my brothers as we finally got out of bed and got dressed. Then we headed downstairs to make breakfast together.

Just like a real couple.

We spent as much of the morning together as we could, but I had to go meet my mom, and Serenity had to get to the office for a couple hours.

She walked me to her door, leaning into me as she looped her arms around my neck. "Are you sure you can't stay? I could always go in a little bit later. I just have to check on a few things. It's nothing major."

"I'd love to, but I can't." I planted my hands on her hips, bending my head closer to hers. "I need to go home, shower, and change before I meet my mom and Richard. I'll text you later though, okay?"

"You better." She pushed up on her toes as I bent down a little more.

Our mouths met in a kiss that started slow and lazy but quickly heated up. As I caught myself spinning her around to push her up against the door, I groaned and pried my mouth off hers.

"I have to go. We'll talk later?"

"Later," she said, her breathing on the heavier side. She released me and slid out the way of the door.

If I stayed just one more minute, I was going to cancel with my mom, so I left fast, mentally kicking myself for having made these plans with Mom and her fiancé at all. The wedding was coming up too soon to postpone today's meeting, though. And I probably needed to hydrate before I went for another round with Serenity.

When it came to the impending nuptials, we needed to go over everything we'd already finalized and settle a few outstanding details. The sooner we got it done, the better. I knew that, but this was one Saturday I would have liked to have free.

Either way, I took the elevator down to the lobby and braced myself to face the paparazzi. I knew they would be waiting. Sure enough, on my way out, a reporter came running at me as he took pictures and hurled questions my way.

"Dash! Did you stay at Serenity's last night? Are you two together now? What does Ethan say about it? Are you?—"

"We're just good friends," I said curtly. "Nothing more."

Striding to the curb, I got into the car waiting for me and slammed the door, happy to have escaped relatively unscathed. On my way home, I thought about letting her know that I hadn't fully ignored the press after all, but ultimately, we hadn't really decided what we were or how we should present ourselves publicly.

I didn't want to announce our relationship to the world before I'd discussed it with her. We'd told them before that we were friends, so I figured the safest course was simply to stick to that statement. They were going to speculate anyway. There was no getting away from it, but at least now, I hadn't given them anything to twist into a scandal.

After I got home, I put it out of my head, choosing to think about last night instead. I showered, getting hard as I remembered dancing with her in that club and everything that had happened after, but I didn't do anything about it. My hand had nothing on Serenity. She was worth the wait, no matter how much it drove me crazy.

I wanted to get this meeting over with so that I could check in with her and possibly see her again later. She still was on my mind though, and I only managed to stop mentally replaying images of last night once I walked into my mother's house.

She and Richard were waiting in the kitchen, sipping coffees. A mug for me was already on the counter when I walked in. "Good morning, Mom. Richard."

"Good morning, darling," she said, letting go of his hand to get up and give me a hug. I squeezed her tight before shaking Richard's hand and finally sitting down and picking up my mug. Mom settled back in next to her fiancé, glancing at him before she smiled at me. "How was your night last night? What did you do?"

"I, uh, I went out with Serenity," I said honestly. "We went dancing, believe it or not."

Richard laughed. "Somehow, I don't find it difficult to imagine her convincing you to go dancing. You don't look like the sort who'd do it for just anyone, but she's not just anyone, is she?"

"Mom told you, then?" I asked, but I wasn't pissed at her for it. They were getting married soon and I supposed it was to be expected that she would share with him.

He nodded. "She did, but she didn't have to. Anyone with eyes can see there's something between you two."

"How was it?" Mom asked eagerly, leaning forward with her gaze pinned on mine. "Please tell me you actually danced when the girl asked you to."

"Of course, I did." I scoffed down a laugh, shaking my head at her. "I'm not that bad."

Both of her eyebrows swept up, barely restrained laughter sparkling in her dark eyes. "Well, to be honest, honey, you are that bad. I'm just glad you made the effort for her. How are things going between you?"

"Better than you'd expect," I admitted. "I think things are getting more serious, but at the moment, we're just seeing where it goes."

She sighed. "Don't be too cool to tell her how you feel, Dash. If you want it to be serious, tell her. This whole seeing how it goes business that you kids do can cause too many misunderstandings. What happened to good old fashioned open lines of communication?"

I chuckled. "Our lines of communication are wide open, Mom. I'll tell her. We're just taking it slow, is all."

Well, not that slow, but still.

"In that case, I'm really happy for you, baby," she said, grinning from ear to ear. "Who knows? The next St. Clair wedding might just be yours."

I groaned. "Don't go getting ahead of yourself. It's still very new. No rings will be exchanged soon. Not by us, anyway. How about we talk about the wedding that's actually happening soon instead?"

Richard smiled and nodded. "It's shaping up to be perfect."

Mom started talking about the plans that still needed to be finalized and he listened intently. I couldn't believe it was almost time, but as they spoke, going back and forth about those final details, I really was okay with it all.

He made her happy and he seemed to genuinely care about her.

By the time I left her house, night was coming on and I finally texted Serenity, wondering if it was too soon to ask to see her again. Sitting in my car, I decided to go for it. She could always say no. I was going to at least try.

Me: Hey, you. Finally done here. Do you want to come over tonight?

She read the message a minute later, replying just a few seconds after that.

Serenity: I'll meet you at your place.

I grinned and pressed my foot down on the gas in an effort to get home just as soon as the speed limit would allow me to. Thankfully, traffic was light, and by some miracle, most of the traffic lights I hit were green.

Taking it as a sign that even the universe wanted me to see her as soon as possible, I was still grinning when I walked into my apartment. It felt like things were falling into place for me, with everything going right both personally and professionally.

I changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt, only just done when she knocked on my door. Striding over to open it for her, I took a deep breath, excited that she'd wanted to see me again tonight as well. Logic told me that meant she thought this was going well too, and that was a good sign.

A great sign.

Because as far as I was concerned, she was it for me. I knew it was fast and I wouldn't spring something like that on her, but eventually, I would tell her and then I would simply have to hope that she was ready and that she felt the same way.