The rigidness of his posture slackens. “Good. You can stay in my bed. No arguing.”
My lips part then shut. I eye him over. “How did you know I was going to argue?”
“I’m catching on to your tricks.” This time, his smile is easy.
It makes me feel better about staying.
Maybe we can do this.
Maybe we can go back to being friends, even after making out and him giving me an orgasm.
He walks me back to his room like a true gentleman.
“Goodnight, Maddy,” he tells me as he starts to close the door. “Sweet dreams.”
I smile, and my lips stay tipped upward even when I climb underneath the covers of his bed. The comforter smells like him, and I attempt to fight the urge to breathe in his scent, but as I begin to doze off, River is what’s on my mind.
CHAPTER 14
RIVER
I can’t sleep.The sofa is comfortable enough, but I’m stuck in a cycle of tossing and turning, thoughts of Maddy haunting my mind like the relentless bastard of a ghost. The thing needs to fizzle away into nothing, return to its grave and never come out again. But no matter what I do, I can’t stop thinking about her.
It starts with me attempting to solve the mysteries that surround her, but once I’ve exhausted that, it drifts to forbidden places, ones where she’s underneath me again. Only, this time, I’ll take her clothes off, strip her bare …
“Stop,” I mumble aloud as I roll onto my back.
The blanket is now balled at my feet, thanks to how overly hot I am. I’d swear I have a fever, but I know the real reason. It’s not like I haven’t been turned on before, but I’ve never messed around with someone, so those feelings I can usually keep a rein on have slipped away from me. It doesn’t help that she’s sleeping in my room, in my bed, her long legs tucked underneath my blanket?—
“Goddammit.” I’m rock-hard as I sit up and lower my feet to the floor.
It’s barely five o’clock, but knowing I’m not going to fall asleep again, I decide to borrow some clothes from Finn and go for a run. I’m not about to go into my room and wake Maddy up.
When I arrive at Finn’s shut bedroom door, light flows from underneath it, indicating he’s already awake. I lightly knock, and he opens the door shortly after. He’s dressed in workout shorts and a Royal Academy Football T-shirt.
“Why are you awake?” he wonders as he wanders to his bed.
“I couldn’t sleep.” I enter his room, watching as he stuffs a pair of socks into a bag. “Do you have practice?”
“Yeah, and I won’t have time to come back here and change before class starts.” He adds a shirt to the bag then zips it up. Then he slings it over his shoulder as he faces me. “Why can’t you sleep? Because Maddy’s sleeping in your bed and it’s getting you all hot and bothered?” he teases, but apparently, my expression confirms his joke. “You like her.”
Shaking my head, I cross his room and open his dresser. “Obviously, considering what happened between the two of us last night.” I rummage around through his clothes. “You know I don’t mess around with women.”
He snorts a laugh. “Yeah, brother, I know.” A short pause follows that statement. “What’re you doing?”
“I want to go for a run, but I don’t want to wake Maddy up, so I’m borrowing some of your clothes.” I grab a pair of shorts, shut the drawer, then face him. “What are your ideas for getting the society to stop targeting her? I know you briefly mentioned that if she dated someone from the society, they can’t touch her, but …” I trail off as a revelation smacks me in the gut. “Wait—are you going to date her?” I’ve speculated that Finn likes Maddy, but he’s never been one for commitment. I guess there’s a first for everything.
His gaze dissects me in a way that I loathe because I know he can see what I’m feeling written all over my face. “You’d be upset if I did.”
I want to lie, but I can’t get the words to leave my mouth, so I stand there idiotically.
“Your silence says it all,” he states, adjusting his bag. “If you want her, just say so. Fuck this betrothed shit. Fuck our dad. Just fucking do what you want for once.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” I mumble. He doesn’t understand, and he never will. Part of me is grateful for that, but part of me wishes I could be him. “Besides, I’m not in the society, so dating her wouldn’t protect her.”
“Join it then,” he states, something we’ve discussed a ton of times and I always decline. But after what I learned last night, about how the society is targeting Maddy, maybe I need to.
“If I joined,” I start, the words thick in my mouth, like glue, “I wouldn’t really be into it. I’d be doing it to protect her until we can find another solution. And get to the bottom of why she has that necklace.”
