And we both knew it.
A kiss with Swift wasn’t going to be some casual little thing we laughed off after.
It wasn’t going to be light or meaningless.
Or easy to step back from.
It would change the whole shape of whatever this was between us.
How he touched me.
How I looked at him.
How either of us pretended this was just a temporary arrangement while someone tried to kill us.
It would make everything real in a way I wasn’t sure I was ready for yet.Which was frustrating as hell because every part of me was already leaning into him.
I let out a shaky breath.“Maybe,” I said softly, “I’m not ready for things to change.”
His thumb brushed once against my cheek.Not disappointed or pushing.
Just there.
“Yet,” I added.
That made his mouth twitch.There it was again, that little bit of heat underneath all the seriousness.“Yet,” he repeated.
I smiled, a little breathless.“Don’t look so smug about it.”
He let out the lowest laugh.“Not smug, sugar.”
“Very smug.”
“Little hopeful, maybe.”
God.
That man was going to be the death of me in a completely different way than The Ledger was planning for all of us.
We were one almost-kiss away from changing everything, and instead of feeling embarrassed or weird, the whole thing just settled between us like a promise we hadn’t cashed in yet.
He dropped his hand from my face, slowly, like he knew exactly how much harder he was making it for me to sit there and not climb into his lap.
I stood up before I could do something unhinged.“Okay,” I said, my voice just a little too bright.“I should probably go to bed before I make another life-altering decision in my pajamas.”
Swift leaned back into the couch, looking entirely too good with his hair messy, his T-shirt stretched across his chest, and his expression somewhere between amused and hungry.“Probably a smart move.”
I pointed at him.“You stay right there.”
He raised a brow.“Where else am I gonna go?”
My bed?
No!I was not going to go back on what I had decided not even a minute ago.Things were already complicated, and me kissing Swift was just going to confuse things even more.“Try not to stay up all night staring out the window,” I said.I turned on my heel and headed toward my bedroom.
“Night, sugar,” Swift said behind me.
I paused and glanced back over my shoulder.
