Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(78)

“Nap,” Will murmured as he rolled to his side, removing the condom. He got rid of it and folded Melody into his arms. “Nap.”

“Nap,” she repeated, snuggling into him. After all, they’d won the competition. This was the prize they deserved.



Melody had absolutely zero clue what time it was when she woke up, still curled around Will’s naked, sleeping form. Her hair was still damp, but Will’s had dried. Dried in all directions. Her giggles as she propped herself on one arm to stare down at him were what eventually woke him.

“How long did we sleep?” he asked, stretching and rubbing his eyes.

“Not nearly long enough,” Melody replied.

He seemed to share her feelings on the subject. A lazy grin spread across his face and he reached for her. She tumbled happily into his arms, letting him roll her to her back and kiss her soundly.

As far as Melody was concerned, she was still dreaming. And what a dream it was! She wrapped her arms and legs around Will, meeting his mouth’s exploration of hers with enthusiasm. Will was everything she’d ever wanted and then some.

She was fully ready to lose herself in him again, and would have, but for the soft knock at her door. It took a minute to figure out what the sound was.

“Uh, Melody?” Calliope asked from the other side of the closed door.

Melody pressed her hands against Will’s chest to put him on pause, then tilted her head to the side to listen. Come to think of it, when had she closed her bedroom door?

The knock came again. “Since the two of you are finally awake,” Calliope’s voice followed, “you might want to know that William A. Darling, Sr. is currently having tea with Mom and Dad in the main room.”

Melody blinked, letting that information sink in. Images of Will’s dad and hers attempting to have a conversation with the infamous sex mobile hanging above them jumped to her mind. Will must have had the same general idea of what was going on. He hissed a curse and rolled off Melody, searching the floor for something. Melody sat up, laughing.

“My clothes are in the bathroom,” Will said, slipping off the bed to stand.

Melody took in the sight of his lean, strong, excited body with a happy sigh. “I thought we had agreed we were going to be nudists.”

Much to her surprise, Will grinned. He moved to where she had just swung her legs over the side of the bed in preparation to stand and towered over her. She leaned away from him, flopping to her back as he planted his hands on the bed on either side of her. He dipped down for a long, sloppy, very un-old-Will-like kiss.

“We were going to be naked in the forest,” he said when he let her up for air. “It might be a little more awkward walking out into your parent’s part of the house in this state.”

“Good point.” Melody snuck a peek at his package. “Are you sure your dad can’t wait a few minutes?”

Calliope’s more insistent knock answered her question. “Um, guys, I would totally leave you alone to make the beast with two backs all afternoon, but I have a bad feeling Will’s dad is planning to barge over here and break things up himself if you don’t put in an appearance.”

“We’re coming,” Melody called to the door.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Calliope replied, laughing. “I’ll tell them you’re on your way.”

They listened to the sound of Calliope’s retreating footsteps before dragging themselves out of bed.

“Round two, as soon as we deal with your dad,” Melody told Will as she crossed to her bureau to take out clean clothes. It would feel divine to wear a skirt again.

Will stood, walking over to Melody. He swept her into his arms as she was taking a shirt out of one of her drawers. “I like the way you say ‘we’.” He kissed her, far lighter than the world-shaking kisses he’d given her all morning, but with twice as much sweetness.

“I like the whole idea of ‘we’,” she replied, hugging him. “Don’t you?”

He grinned and kissed the tip of her nose. It was sweet, frivolous, and absolutely wonderful. “I love it.”

He moved to slip out of her arms, but Melody stopped him. She clung tightly to him, her whole world suddenly clicking into place. “I love you, Will,” she said, no idea how true it was until the words left her lips. “I actually, really love you.”

She would have expected a smile, a laugh, something light and heartfelt. Instead, he met her eyes with absolute seriousness, Old Will to a T. “I love you, Melody,” he said.

He didn’t need to say more. A thousand words wouldn’t have made it any truer or made the words hit home more perfectly. He loved her. She could doubt everything else in the universe, but that fact was irrefutable.

Happier than she’d been in maybe her whole life, she leaned in for one more, soul-deep kiss. Will returned that kiss with just as much enthusiasm. For a second, Melody was sure they’d end up back in bed, parents or no parents. But all too soon, Will stepped back with a sharp intake of breath.

“He really will come down here and burst in on us in the middle of doing it,” he said.

“I know.” She didn’t need a demonstration to prove it. “Go get dressed. Sorry you only have dirty clothes to put on.”

“And here I thought I’d look cute in one of your skirts.”