Chapter 159: Comfy Bed
** Harper **
They stayed in the tub for a long time, reminiscing about stargazing and camping and many other things from back in the day. A few more shooting stars lit up the sky as they chatted, tempting Harper to make more wishes. Though every time when she closed her eyes and uttered the words silently, she kept them the same.
It was hard to think of anything else she wanted at this moment anyway, when the man of her dreams was right here and cradling her so intimately while they were both still naked.
As the hour drew late, the night breeze slowly grew cooler, making her lean further into Eli’s warm embrace. The heat of his body cocooned her so comfortably that before long, her eyelids started getting heavy, and she yawned as she nestled her head into the crook of his neck like it was a cozy pillow.
"Should we go back in?" Eli squeezed her shoulder, slightly shifting the arm that was looped behind her. "You look ready for bed."
"Mmm." Harper made a half sleepy, half but-I’m-not-ready-to-end-this-perfect-evening sound. "I just want to sleep right here on your shoulders ... you make such a comfy bed."
She felt him smile. Then a short moment of silence followed as he seemed to hesitate over his words. "Can you ... Do you ... want to stay for the night?"
Harper blinked. "I was assuming I would," she blurted the first thought on her mind. He wasn’t seriously expecting her to go back to her own room after ... all this? How would she even be able to fall asleep on her own like it was just another normal day?
The confirmation seemed to have made Eli palpably relax. "Of course." He kissed her on the temple again, as if that was the new favorite activity he had just found in life. "Come, let’s get you dried up."
And for the second time tonight, Harper felt like she had become a princess, utterly spoiled by every careful touch of her knight in shining armor.
The said knight apparently didn’t want her to put any effort at all into grooming herself, so she let him carry her out of the tub, place her on a mat draped over the rim, and wipe her down from head to toe with a bath towel. She let his eyes linger on whichever part of her body that he liked. Then she let him carry her back inside, still naked, because he insisted that the bathrobe she used earlier got dirty from falling onto the ground.
"I’m starting to think that I don’t need legs anymore," she remarked as they entered the bedroom, "since you’re going to carry me everywhere we go from now on. Not that I’m complaining."