The sound of her flat’s front door opening startles me.
Bloody hell.
I shove the book back inside the nightstand and dash into the bathroom. There’s no damn window in here I can crawl out of. She’s a Wallenda with her balance. I’d fall to my death with one step onto the ledge.
Heart pounding, I have to let her know I’m in here. But I also have to get that damn tattoo this afternoon, and I was hoping she’d be out longer.
Shite. Shite. Shite.
“Hey, Fallon,” I call out, flushing the bowl then waltzing out like nothing is wrong.
“What are you doing?” Her star-shaped earrings swing as she turns and stares.
I actually fucking flinch with embarrassment, and I hate myself for what I’m about to do. Lie to her.
“I thought I heard something over here.” I pick up one of the plants. “This guy fell over. Must have been thewind.”
“Oh.” She turns to the closed window.
“I shut it.”
“Oh.” Then she lights up and bounces toward me. “What a surprise. I thought you were busy today.”
“I am,” I mutter, aiming for vague and uninteresting.
She narrows those hazel eyes on me. “Doing what?”
I bite the inside of my cheek and exhale slowly through my nose. “An errand.”
She’s all sunshine and glitter. She’s wearing an ugly Christmas sweater covered in stitched poinsettias, and of course, a bloody short skirt. She’s beautiful and funny and sexy, and she makes me smile the minute I open my eyes, knowing I’ll see her later that day.
She’s too fucking good for me.
This is only temporary.
That’s what I told myself the day she caught me with a dead body on my floor. I’m hers just until the Christmas chaos is over.
I will keep the promise, and then cut her loose. She’ll tell herself I just got too busy for her again.
So why are my fucking eyes tearing up at the look I know I’ll get when I blow her off in January?
I watch her clutch the basil plant, almost expecting me to say those cruel words now. It hits me like a sucker punch.
For one flicker of a dangerous second, I wonder… Why not just keep her?
She already knows what I do. She saw enough to shatter anyone else, and all she wanted was to spend more damn time with me. Not less.
“I’ll go with you!” she chirps and spins, her red curls bouncing. “This can be ourcouple’serrand day.”
“It wasn’t on the schedule, but I can quickly jot down:Rhys Surprise.”
I sigh. I don’t have a choice, do I?
“Come on, then,” I mutter and take her hand.
Her fingers fit between mine too easily.
Now I’m in my own spiral because I was not prepared for this. I’m silent in the elevator and then on the sidewalk while I wait for the porter to bring around my Audi from the garage.
