"Because that's what sugar daddies do, and you're not my sugar daddy."
"What am I then?"
The question hangs between us, and I trace patterns on his chest while I think.
What is Lukas Sterling, exactly?
The man I tricked into coming here?My business partner?The person who's somehow become essential to my daily happiness?
"I don't know," I admit."But I'd like to find out."
"Me too."
We lie there, wrapped in one another, the inn settling around us with familiar creaks.Somewhere below, Buttercup bleats, probably terrorizing the night staff.
"Luke?"
"Mmm?"
"Thank you.For telling me.About her.About everything."
"Thank you for listening."
"Anytime."I yawn, exhaustion hitting me all at once."Stay?"
"If you want me to."
"I want you to.But fair warning—I'm a cover hog."
"I'll risk it."
"And I sometimes talk in my sleep."
"About what?"
“Inn repair receipts, mostly.Very sexy stuff."
"I'll try to contain myself."
As I drift off, wrapped around him like a particularly clingy vine, I let myself have this moment.Tomorrow I'll have to face what I've done, the lies I've told.
But tonight?
Tonight, I'm just a woman falling asleep in the arms of a man who sees her messes, every disastrous moment, and thinks they’re magnificent anyway.
Even if I don't deserve it.
Especially because I don't.
16
CONNECTION ESTABLISHED
LUKE
Monday morning arrives with the kind of jarring insistence that makes me want to commit violence against whoever invented alarm clocks.
Except my phone isn't making noise, and the soft light filtering through unfamiliar curtains suggests it's barely past dawn.
