His money won’t ever run out, but mine will if I’m not smart about it.
“Morning,” Jenny singsongs, padding out of her room in a fluffy pink robe. “Oh fuck.” She stops in her tracks, eyes widening and eyebrows rocketing to her hairline. She glances from my open shirt to where Sylas is on the floor, still sporting a tent in his pants. He’s not as hard as before, but he’s so big it doesn’t even matter.Jesus.
He snatches the blanket, laying it over his legs to cover himself up.
“Morning,” he supplies, sounding more awake than he did a few seconds ago.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I blurt just as she’s about to spin around. I stand, my head spinning a little before it steadies. “We got matching tattoos.”
“No way.” Her eyes shift from his arm to mine. “Holy fuck.” She’s in front of me in a flash, grabbing my arm gingerly and inspecting the art. “And they’re matching? You guys are insane…wait, you didn’t elope last night, did you?”
Sylas and I look at each other. We don’t say it out loud, but we’re thinking it.No, that couldn’t have happened. It definitely didn’t happen.
“No…” He’s the first to speak up. “We just got these and were kind of drunk.”
“Kind of?” She makes apfftsound. “You guys were drunk as shit, all over the place, and loud as fuck, but I appreciate neither of you throwing up or breaking anything.”
Sylas grins. “Sorry about that. I had no intention of staying, butsomeonejust couldn’t let go of me.”
“You’re not saying I asked you to stay?”
He nods and so does Jenny.
“You basically begged him,” she says under her breath.
I frown, feeling more than embarrassed now.So I threw myself at him, got matching tattoos, and begged him to stay. Great.
I shrug it off, pretending I’m not upset and annoyed at myself. While he’s nice, I can’t pretend that after today or even after the break, we’ll become friends and hang out.
Plastering on a smile, I look at him. “I’m going to brush my teeth and change to give you your shirt back.” I don’t wait for him to say something. I slip out of the living room, Jenny on my heels.
“You okay?” she asks as we step into my room.
“Yes—no.” I undo the rest of the buttons, remove the shirt, and change into something else. “I’m embarrassed. Find me in the dictionary next todesperate,” I grumble. “You should’ve kicked him out and slapped some sense into me.”
Her lips twitch. “Stop being dramatic. He wasn’t rushing to leave. Matter of fact, I’m certain he wanted to stay. Once you gave him the green light, he was quick to make himself comfortable, helping you out of your dress and giving you his shirt. It was honestly really sweet.”
“So you saw all of this happening and didn’t do anything?” I glare at her.
She laughs. “Don’t look at me like that. You wantedhimto help you, but I did watch from a distance, making sure he didn’t do something stupid, and he didn’t. I also tried to get you both to your bed, but once you hit that floor, it was game over. I didn’t have it in me to fight with you, and I knew he wasn’t going to budge. Whatever you said, he did.”
“Really?” There’s a tiny flutter in my stomach, but I force it to stop as I step into our bathroom to brush my teeth. “Still screams desperate.”
“Not desperate when he happily did as you said.” She smirks, lifting a shoulder in a half shrug.
I stare at my reflection, face pinched in a grimace. My makeup is smudged under my eyes, my hair is barely hanging on to the bun I put it in last night, and bobby pins stick out.
But how I look flies out of my mind as I stare at the tattoo. I still can’t believe I got it and that it matches his.
Blinking last night away, I finish making myself presentable. Then I look for the extra toothbrushes I know we have and head back to the living room.
Jenny goes to her room, but not before winking at me and wagging her eyebrows suggestively, which I ignore.
Sylas is looking down at the table where my journal is at. “Hey! You know that’s an invasion of privacy.”
He jolts, standing up straighter. I should’ve thought it through because he stands in all of his six-foot-four glory, shirtless, abs rippling, and despite the tired look on his face, the ruggedness makes him even more attractive.
“I wasn’t trying to snoop. It was left open, and you wrote in bright red. It was hard not to look. Sorry.”
