“Was there something wrong with it? Was it uncomfortable, so you just left it?”
She looks down at her bare feet. “No.”
I bring my eyebrows together. “Then what?”
“I don’t have one,” she admits.
Silence settles over us. My thoughts circle. What does she mean she doesn’t have one? Where did she sleep before?
Finally, I break the quiet. “What?”
Reese hurriedly goes over to her ‘bed’ and bends to fluff the blankets. Her movements are jerky, her eyes never finding mine. “I don’t have a bed,” she explains. “When I moved into theapartment, I used all my money for the deposit and first month's rent. I told myself I’d get one eventually, but…” She shrugs. “I had other things to pay for. Sleeping on the floor isn’t that big of a deal. I have plenty of blankets.”
It takes effort to keep my jaw tight so it doesn’t fall with shock. Reese gestures to her blankets with a half-smile, like she’s trying to convince me that her rigged bed is a California king.
I walk closer to her spot on the floor and stare at the mismatched blankets. Is this woman out of her mind?
I’m almost afraid to ask but, “Does Zoe have a bed?”
“Yes…”
I raise an eyebrow at her skeptical tone and point to the floor. “This doesn’t count.”
She huffs and crosses her arms. “She is using an air mattress.”
I sigh and aggressively put my hands through my hair. “I’m buying you both a bed.”
Reese jumps up from kneeling. “No!”
My jaw aches. “Yes,” I say through clenched teeth.
“I don’t want you to buy us anything,” she pleads.
Zoe will gladly accept a new bed. I don’t have to worry about that one.
Reese, though. She’s different. The more I’m around her, the more I notice how independent she is. It’s part of why I was so intrigued by her to begin with. Hell, she even threw a fit when I tipped her for the Uber ride.
“Okay,” I finally say.
Reese’s shoulders sag. A breath of relief leaves her, and I can’t help but smile. Her eyebrows fold inward when I advance. I scoop her up, her legs dangling over my arm.
“What are you doing?!” she exclaims.
Her arms find my neck, and the way her soft skin feels against my bare chest is just enough to get me toying with thosedirty thoughts again. I walk us over to the door and open it before flipping the light off.
“If you won’t let me buy you a bed, then you can sleep in mine.”
Reese tenses in my arms. “I cannot sleep in your bed.”
I quietly walk over to Charleigh’s room and crack the door. That way, she can hear her better if she stirs.
“Malaki!” she hisses my name on the way toourroom.
I glance at her. “What?”
“I can’t sleep in your bed!” she argues.
I shrug with her in my arms. “Then let me buy you one.”
