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One thing that everyone knows about Arthur is that he always wakes up with the sun. When the sun rises, no doubt Arthur Morgan would rise too. This becomes unfortunate for Emmaline when he invites her to share his bedroom at Shady Belle. Emmaline was a light sleeper, and has been since she was a little girl. The littlest movement or sound could wake her up. It was worse when she was getting used to sleeping outdoors, but eventually she got used to it. This was not the case when she moved into Arthur’s bedroom.
His cot was already very small and it was cramped to fit the two of them, but they were able to do it with Emmaline basically draped over Arthur. But he didn’t mind the pressure and just would pull her closer to him instead. Emmaline was pretty sure even if they got a bigger cot to fit them both, they would still cuddle up together like this.
Like every morning, she feels Arthur try and move out from under her as stealthy as he could. But the minute he moves her head off his chest is when her consciousness awakens. She opened her eyes groggily, it takes a second for her to register everything around her. She lifts her eyes to where Arthur was sitting on the cot, stretching his arms above his head as he tries to suppress a large yawn. He reaches for his boots but pauses as he feels a hand lazily grasp his wrist.
“Stay.”
Arthur turned his gaze to the half-asleep woman on his bed, a slight pout on her lips that was too adorable. “Darling, I got to get up. Got some jobs from Dutch.”
“Damn Dutch, stay with me.” Emmaline whines, pulling on his hand to join her back in bed. “It’s too early to do anything.”
“Don’t let Miss Grimshaw hear you say that.” The cowboy laughs, letting the woman tug on his arm.
“Don’t care what that old crone says.” Emmaline mumbles sleepily, but both knew that wasn’t true. Miss Grimshaw wasn’t a woman to cross or argue with. “Now c’mon, it’s barely early enough to do anything. Come back to bed.”
Arthur stared down at the woman, a glint in his eyes that Emmaline’s mind couldn’t place. But her eyelids were heavy and it was hard to keep them open long enough to focus on it. He smiled at her gently and toed off his boots again.
“I’d be a fool to deny the woman.”
The sleepy grin on her face brightened the old cowboy’s whole day. Emmaline adjusted herself so Arthur could slide back into bed next to her, facing her this time instead of laying on his bed. Emmaline immediately wrapped her arm around his waist and pressed close to her cowboy, humming in delight at his warmth enveloping around her.
“Good choice.”
Arthur let out a soft laugh and pressed a kiss to her forehead, placing his hand on her hip to pull her closer to him that every inch of their bodies were pressed up against each other. The scratch of his beard against her skin was a nice sting, she realized it was getting a bit long now. Maybe she’ll offer to shave it sometime.
Her thoughts drifted off as she felt him begin to press kisses down her face. From her forehead, eyebrows, under her eyes, and the tip of her nose. Her eyelids fell closed as she felt his breath brush against her lips, waiting for him to kiss her where she wanted it most. Frowning as he pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth instead.
He laughed once more as he felt her frown. “You are too easy.”
“Kiss me, you idiot.”
He didn’t deny her and pressed his lips lazily against her own. The two share a kiss and many more in the privacy in his bedroom without any watching eyes that could interrupt the tranquil moment they have created together, other than the rising sun peeking in through the windows.
Every morning Arthur wakes Emmaline up, but if it always ended up like this, Emmaline doesn’t mind rising with the sun anymore.