My chest thumps, the pulsing feeding all the way to my fingertips.
Bringing my arm back, I rest it along Hatley’s back where I’m pretty sure my hand ends up on my best friend’s ass. Yet, it does nothing to take away from the fact that I’m trapped beneathEmmett’s fucking thigh.Over mine. His ankle hooked over my calf. The thin limb heavier in his sleep than I ever expected.
And it’shot.
The lungful burns until I release it, and when I drag in a fresh one, it’s filled with a confusing mix of the scent of Hatley’s room and Emmett.
I turn my nose toward him. Drag in another breath. Hold it.
It’s clean and … sweet.
Like his eyes.
Letting it out, I curl an arm beneath my head and stare at the ceiling.
What the fuck am I doing with him?
But just as easily as I question that, my mind also wanders straight to the reason we’re all in this bed together to begin with.
What the fuck am I going to do with Hatley?
I didn’t bother to ask him what had happened last night. With the state he was in, fuck, with the stateIwas in, it didn’t evencross my mind to find out what led him right back to the place he fought hard to stay out of. How, in the thick of crashing, he didn’t call me until it was too late.
Rule six.
I’m starting to worry about him.
And that’s not a good thing.
Of all the things I’ve ever had to worry about, Hatley managed to almost never be one of them—
“How’s he?”
I startle at the sound of Emmett’s rasped question and flip my head to look at him.
“He’s—” I have to clear my throat when it cracks, “—he’s okay. Hasn’t woken up yet.”
Emmett nods, his face tipped low enough that I can’t see his eyes, and I don’t know why, couldn’t explain it if I wanted to, but that bothers me.
“How’re you?”
He’s quiet so long that I think he may have fallen back to sleep.
He hasn’t moved his leg yet.
But then he surprises the shit out of me by cinching his hold on me and whispering a ‘thank you’.
What for?I want to ask.
I don’t.
Instead, I nod.
Turn my head slowly, stopping just short of touching him, and inhale the scent coming from his hair.
“I’ve never slept with anyone before.”
His words dig deep into my chest and my heart aches.
