Falling Down(92)

"Come here," I pull her to me and she snuggles into me.
"What should I tell them, Jesse, when they ask about us?"
"What do you want to tell them?"
"Don't do that. Please. I'm asking you. We need to be on the same page with this."
I blow out a breath."As far as I'm concerned, you can tell them everything. If you want to tell them you're living with me and you're sleeping in my bed, I'm all for it. I don't have anything to hide and I don't plan on hiding you."
She nods. "Then if they ask if we're involved, I'll tell them yes."
"Good."
"If they probe too much, I will evade. They don't need to know the depth of our relationship, just that there is one."
"Right. They don't need to know that we have toe-curling, spine-tingling sex where you scream my name at the top of my lungs and our band members cheer," I say with a grin and she giggles. Again, besides her moans and now her screams, her giggles: Best. Sound. Ever.
I kiss the top of her head. "I'm okay with whatever you want to tell them."
She sighs. "Thing is, I'm comfortable telling them we're involved. What I'm dreading is when the time comes that you go your way and I go mine and they start in about that."
If my earlier thought pans out, that may not even be an issue, but I'm not telling her that until I know if it's even possible.
"Why don't we worry about what's going on now, now; and deal with later, later. I won't leave you to deal with that alone if that's what happens."
She nods.
We lay there in silence for a few minutes before she lifts her head and pushes my hair out of my face.
"I really like you, Jesse."
I smile and damn if I don't feel like a big * because my heart jumped in my chest when she said that.
"I really like you too, Lucy."
She smiles and snuggles back into my chest.
"So…" I say
"Hmm?"
"You found my nipple rings."
She laughs. "Oh, I found them before but you had me positioned in a way where I couldn't play with them."
I grunt. "That's true. That was one hell of a weekend."
"Mhmm. I want to get a tattoo," she says.
"Do you know what you want? Where you want it?"
"I do." She laughs. "I thought for sure you were going to try to talk me out of it."
"That'd be pretty f*cking hypocritical of me, don't you think seeing as a large portion of my body is inked."
"Mhmm, but that doesn't stop some people."
I shrug. "You've got amazingly soft and flawless skin. It's beautiful as it is and it'll be beautiful if you choose to get ink."
She nods. "Thank you."
"I can set you up with my guy, the one that does all our ink."
"Really?"
"Sure. He's a f*cking talented artist."
"I noticed, looking over your tattoos, and the guys'."
"Huh."
"What?"
"You should only look at mine," I say as jealousy rears its ugly head at the thought of her looking at another guy.
She giggles again. "You're so dumb. I just looked at their tattoos, I didn't stare at them like I do yours. I look at yours in a totally different way."
Well, that's better. Caveman, beating chest.
"Good. I like it when you only look at me," I tell her, rolling her to her back and brushing my lips over hers.
"Jesse," she says put her hand on my cheek. "There's no one else I want to look at."
I look down at her and my heart does that flip-flop thing again. I swallow hard and nod. I gaze into her eyes, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear then running my knuckles down her cheek.