Usually, when a girl is in bed in front of me, they very rarely wear anything so covered up. And yet, J—fully clothed—makes a spark of heat race straight to my pants.
Her hair bounces around her face. Her cheeks are flushed from annoyance.
My fingers coil into fists.
The urge to kiss her, touch her, lick her to the cadence of her screaming watch springs out of nowhere, like a Jack-in-the-box that had been slowly, patiently winding up in the dark. It’s the same sensation that overcame me when I watched her in the nurse’s office, covered in my blood.
I turn away, tapping into my practiced self-restraint.
“You’re just going to leave?” J yells at my back.
“Go to sleep, J.”
“At least tell me what happened in there!” She yells.
I push the door open.
A moment later, the bed creaks, and I sense something flying at me. I shift my head to the side just as a pillow crashes into the door.
Smiling, I slip out of J’s room and take the stairwell to the lobby. I could take the elevator, but I’m not wearing a shirt, and I’ll draw a huge amount of attention walking through the hospital half-naked.
Ren and Hayato are in the parking lot. Their still figures straighten when I draw near.
Hayato hands me my shirt. It’s damp, but I still put it on.
“I’m assuming you’re Kurosaki’s men.” They carry themselves like Kurosaki’s lieutenants.
“Hai,” Hayato says.
“We’ve been following you in secret for a long time,” Ren says.
“Why show yourself now?”
Ren and Hayato exchange serious looks.
Ren steps forward. “Your father wants you to come home.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
J
Dawn creeps past the blinds, stealing into the room like a thief. I watch the darkness crawl away in fear.
It’s morning already.
According to my watch, I managed to sleep for two hours and twenty minutes after Finn left. It’s shocking to me. The last thing I remember is tossing and turning. I was overheating from both Finn basically grounding me to my room last night and Finn being shirtless.
His body wasglorious. Every inch of him, sculpted to perfection. From his shoulders to his biceps, Finn is the definition of power. When he picked me up with one hand, I knew he could crack my skull like a toothpick.
And yet, when he held me, it felt… almost… gentle.
My watch beeps, warning me not to think about a half-naked Finn. At least not this early in the morning.
My jaw cracks with a yawn and I rub my bleary eyes. A pressing discomfort grates against my chest. It feels like someone’s squeezing my heart with a vice.
I reach for the pills and swallow.
Sleep, my eyes are begging me.
