20. Cord

Chapter 20

Cord

I refuse to sleep with her. Not tonight. Not when I'm finally getting what I've been dreaming of forever. I want her to get used to the idea of us dating before we fall into bed together. I don't need her thinking I'm taking advantage of the situation, because I'm not. I'm in this for the long haul, not for a few quickies.

We've spent the majority of the night kissing, tasting, and enjoying each other, but I haven't let it go further. I'd love to see her scream my name as pleasure rolls through her body, but not tonight. I need to have patience and show her I care more about her than to jump right back into how things used to be.

I haven't dated anyone since Macy. No one-night stands or hookups. Nothing. I haven't even kissed anyone. I know the same isn't true for her, but I can't get mad about that. I made my choices and she made hers. I'm sure her decisions were fueled with anger and hurt, but mine were made with love and loyalty.

I'll happily spend the next month showing her how much she means to me if it means I get to keep her in my life forever.

"Are you getting tired?" I murmur before kissing her head. She's been curled up at my side while we watch a movie for the last thirty minutes. I know she's getting tired. She's only ever quiet when things are bothering her or when she's sleepy.

"Yeah. I guess I need you to drive me back to the stadium so I can get my car." She leans back so she can meet my gaze.

"Or… you could just stay over and I can drive you home to change in the morning, before we go back to work." I place a soft kiss on the tip of her nose.

"Are we really going to go from zero to sixty in one night?" She arches a brow.

"I just want to hold you. I miss having you in my arms every night, baby."

Without another word, Macy climbs to her feet, standing on the cushion next to me. She stares down at me and arches a brow.

"Well, let's go, handsome. Get up!"

I chuckle as I slowly stand to my full height and face her. Before I can ask what I'm supposed to do next, she jumps into the air, launching herself towards me. Instinct kicks in and I catch her before she can fall.

"Jeez, Mace. You're going to hurt yourself one day." I cling to her, sucking in a deep breath and squeezing my eyes shut. I'd never forgive myself if I let her fall .

"Nah, you'll always catch me. I have no doubt about that."

Lifting her a little higher, I climb the stairs to my bedroom with her still in my arms. I carry her straight to the bathroom and lower her onto the counter.

Macy won't go to bed without brushing her teeth. It doesn't matter where she is or how drunk she might be, she needs to brush them or she won't go to sleep.

I open the bottom drawer and grab a new toothbrush, handing it over to her. She frowns at the object, lifting her angry gaze to mine.

"Stop it. I don't have a drawer full of toothbrushes for female guests." I roll my eyes. "I bought it when I was at the grocery store because I needed a new one, but I haven't opened it yet. You can use it and I can get another one the next time I go shopping."

She eyes me for a second before she shrugs and squirts some toothpaste on the brush. She jumps off the counter so she can lean over the sink, just like she always does.

I follow her lead and begin brushing my own teeth. The whole time we make faces at each other, like we did while we were dating. I make a really funny face at her and make her burst out laughing. She sprays toothpaste all over the mirror, making me laugh hard enough to do the same.

"What the hell was that?" I mumble around my toothbrush, staring at what used to be my mirror .

"It's your fault!" She spits a small amount of white foam out of her mouth and into the sink. The rest is covering the glass in front of us.

"Nope. That was all you, sweetheart. You made me laugh."

"You made me laugh first!" She places her hands on her hips and narrows her gaze on me.

"Which I don't regret. I love your laugh." I sweep her into my arms and give her a chaste kiss.

Pulling a washcloth out of the little cubby next to the sink, I quickly wipe down the mirror. I know it isn't going to be enough and I'll have to clean it better tomorrow, but it's enough for now.

When I'm done, I leave Macy to finish getting ready for bed. I strip off my jeans and climb into bed with only my boxers on. I'm lying in the middle of the bed when Macy appears at my feet. She flings something at me and it lands on my stomach. I glance down to find her lacy bra.

"Damn, I missed finding these all over my place." I smirk. "Do I get to keep this one?"

"Sure. Are you going to hang it in our bathroom?" She grins.

She's talking about my parent's bathroom. Dad bought Mom's dream house before they started dating. He asked Mom to help decorate and paint. When they painted the master bedroom, it somehow turned into a disaster. They both got covered in paint and she had to borrow some clothes. He took her paint-soaked bra and hung it like an art piece in his bathroom. To this day it's still there and I don't think that will ever change.

"I'd love nothing more than to hang your lacy bras all over my house," I growl.

I move quickly and lunge for her. Macy lets out a shriek as I loop my arms around her waist and drag her onto the bed with me.

She giggles as I lay on my side and pull her back against my chest. She reaches for the blanket, but she can't get out of my grasp. She has to use her feet to pull it up high enough to grab it with her hands.

I take pity on her and help her spread it across us. I know she likes to be warm when she's sleeping and I want her to be as comfortable as possible. If she is, maybe I can make this a normal occurrence over the next month.

"I love you," I whisper as I slip my hand under the hem of her shirt and rest my palm on her stomach.

"I love you too." She kisses my forearm she's laying on and snuggles a little closer.

I swear, if I get to keep her like this all night, I'll sleep better than I have in a long time. Nothing's better than being wrapped up with the woman you love.

When my alarm goes off in the morning, we're no longer laying on our sides. Macy has her head on my chest with her arm thrown over my stomach and her leg draped over my thigh. She's as close to me as she can possibly be without laying on top of me.

"No," she groans, burying her head in my armpit.

"You can sleep a little longer if you want to. I can wake you up when we have ten minutes to go."

"No, you're so warm and comfy. I don't want you to get up." She tries to hold onto me with her leg and arm, but we both know she won't be able to hold me down if I really want to get up.

"I know, but if we're both late for work, we'll never hear the end of it." I press a kiss to her head before slipping out from under her. She groans the entire time and at one point it sounds more like an angry growl.

I chuckle and ignore her. She's never been a morning person, I don't expect her to change any time soon.

She'll wake up ten minutes before we need to leave and look more amazing than any woman I know. She'll look like she spent hours getting ready instead of minutes. I'm not sure how she does it, but she's always pulled it off in the past.

I move around as quietly as I can as I get ready. The last thing I want to do is wake her up again. I want to get the coffee started and make some breakfast before I wake her up.

As soon as I'm dressed with coffee made, I scoop some yogurt into a bowl and top it with a bunch of fresh fruit. She loves to eat this for breakfast. I never ate yogurt until after we broke up and sometimes, I swear I do it because it destroyed me going grocery shopping and not buying her favorite yogurt. It's why I have fresh fruit all the time too.

It takes me almost five minutes to get her out of bed. She glared at me the entire time and called me a few choice words, but I didn't care one bit. I had a smile on my face the whole time. I missed this more than I'm willing to admit.

When she finally stumbles into the kitchen, she sees the coffee and yogurt. She freezes, lifting her gaze to meet mine and her eyes soften.

"Cord… You remembered." She closes the distance between us and wraps her arms around my waist.

"Of course I remembered. Eat fast. We only have a few minutes before we need to head to your place." I nudge her to take a seat. I'm happy to stand here and watch her as I sip my coffee. I already had my breakfast and I'm ready to get to work.

Once Macy's finished, we climb into my car and she gives me directions to get to her place. She still lived with her brother and sister-in-law when we dated, so I'm completely clueless on where she lives now. I'm happy to get a glimpse at grown up Macy's life.

I follow her into her apartment building and grimace at the awful smell. She can't be happy here. Macy's always been very particular about the way my house smelled. I can't imagine she likes this.

She unlocks her door and steps inside. The smell gets slightly better, but I'm not sure you can cover that stench from the hallway no matter what you do.

Her apartment is tiny. There's a small living room and an even smaller kitchen. She has a table that can't fit more than two people at it pushed against the wall in what I assume is supposed to be her dining room. She heads down the short hallway and I follow her, curious about what the rest of the place looks like.

There's a bathroom the size of a closet and her bedroom is barely big enough to fit her bed. How the hell does she live like this?

Sometimes I forget Macy doesn't come from money. The entire time I've dated her, she lived with her brother and sister-in-law. Miranda came from a wealthy family. They weren't skilled at showing love to their children, but they'd throw enough money at them to keep them from complaining. I guess Miranda had enough to lead a comfortable life and give that to Liam and Macy too.

Liam and Miranda ended up becoming doctors and they're living a very comfortable life now. But I didn't think about how Macy would be living.

"Mace, what the hell are you doing living here?" I glance around at the water damage to her ceiling and the rusted baseboard heaters. It's definitely not the worst apartment ever, but it isn't nice by any means.

"Not everyone is rich, Cord. I couldn't afford anything else if I wanted to have any sort of savings in the bank." She lifts her shoulder in a shrug and climbs on top of her bed so she can sort through the clothes in her closet. She must've removed the doors to her closet and pushed her bed right up to it.

She snags two hangers off the rod and tosses them on her bed. She doesn't wait for me to leave the room for her to get changed. Instead, she grabs a new bra and panties out of her drawers and quickly strips everything off.

Her back is to me, but that doesn't stop me from letting my gaze trail over every inch of her naked back side. If we didn't need to get to work, I think we'd spend the entire morning in bed.

Within a few minutes she's dressed in another sexy pencil skirt and blouse. She has her makeup done and is twisting her hair into some fancy updo.

"Can you grab those black heels off my dresser?" She mumbles around the bobby pins she has sticking out of her mouth.

I lift the red soled black heels into the air and arch a brow at her. If she can't afford a nicer apartment, how can she afford these shoes?

"Don't give me that look, Cord. You bought me them." She rolls her eyes.

"I forgot about that." I chuckle at the memory of her opening the box. "You threw yourself into my arms and cried for thirty minutes. Then you yelled at me for spending too much money on you."

"Well, they were expensive. Why do you think they live on my dresser and not on the floor of my closet?"

She holds onto my forearm as she slips the heels onto her feet, then she's taking my hand and dragging me back towards the door.

"Wait. Grab a bag and pack some clothes."

"For what?" Her brows draw together as she stares at me.

"Because I'm not staying here, but I want to sleep in bed with you every night for our month."

"You're such a spoiled princess." She rolls her eyes again.

"You're telling me if you got to choose between my house and your apartment, you'd rather stay here?"

"Absolutely not. This place is a hell hole and it smells like shit. I spend as little time as possible here."

She tosses a bunch of clothing into a duffle bag and tosses it at my chest before filling another one.

"Are you packing for the whole month?" I tease her.

"If you're offering, I'd happily not stay here for a whole month." She grimaces as she glances around her apartment. "Hell, even if we decide not to date each other at the end of the month, I still might beg you to let me live with you and I'll pay you rent. I hate this place… You have a spare bedroom, right?"

"You're a mess. C'mon, we're going to be late if we don't leave now. "

I ignore her question and tug her towards the door. I know if I don't get out of here fast, I'm going to volunteer to buy her a house, just so she doesn't have to live here anymore.