No deeply affectionate things allowed.
Then, just in case she was in any doubt, he rolled off her. All the way off and to the edge of the bed. His back to her, like in the tent. And he didn’t return for the rest of the night.
Seventeen
She knew she had freaked him out. And not just because of his reaction the night before. There was also his reaction in the morning, when he woke to find what she had done in the night. Somehow, she appeared to have accidentally made him the little spoon. Her legs were practically cradling his. Her chest and most of her cheek were pressed into his enormous back. And she’d looped a whole entire arm right around his thick waist.
Tightly, too.
Like a seat belt, in a car he hadn’t intended to get into.
Though, in her defense, she hadn’t intended to be one, either.I must have unconsciously not wanted you to crash through an emotional wall, she thought of protesting. But sadly, the emotional wall crash was happening anyway. He seemed to be quivering all over, minutely. Then when she shifted a little, she could see his eyes.
And they were fully open.
And absolutelyenormous.
Really, it wasn’t a surprise that he practically burst out of the hold she had on him. Or that he did it so violently he came close to crashing through the nearest wall. Heactually stumbled back after hurling himself into it, a little dazed, then staggered directly into the bathroom.
While she watched, torn neatly between reaching out to him, aghast, and goggling at the other very noticeable thing about all of this:
He was totally and completely naked.
Just massively nude, in a way that probably shouldn’t have been shocking to her in the least. After all, she’d spent the night before trying to merge with that nude body. She’d humped parts of him his own mother had probably never seen. That cock had been in her hands and her mouth and her pussy.
Yet somehow the sight of him still struck her like a bolt of lightning.
She had to stop her mouth from dropping open. Her own eyes suddenly felt enormous. And once the door was closed she just sat there, tangled in the sheets, seeing nothing but the afterimage of his nakedness. Those long, thick thighs. The solidness of his stomach, the curve of his back. His hips, as prominent as his jeans usually suggested. But most of all: that cudgel between his legs, inexplicably hard but so heavy it could hardly get the lift.
Yeah, she’d be seeing that behind her eyes until the end of forever.
Not to mention thinking about why it was there.Morning wood, she told herself. Dreams based on the filth they’d perpetrated the night before. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was something more. Something she didn’t really understand. Something tied to his reaction when she’d run a hand through his hair and kissed him.
He wasn’t just disturbed, she found herself thinking.
But she didn’t get a chance to unpack all that. Or even really believe in it. The bathroom door opened abruptly, just as she was about to, and she could tell the man who emerged was back to all business. His face was unreasonable stone; he had somehow managed to get fully dressed. And he immediately tapped the watch he’d just finished strapping back on.
“We’re late. Takes three hours from here to get to that bookstore in Chicago and we’ve got barely four,” he said, then his gaze flicked to her. It lingered, for just a little longer than he seemed to really want it to. Skittered over her almost bared right breast, the thigh she had poking out from underneath the sheet, the messy spill of her hair. Before he muttered the rest. “And you need to… You should maybe… You haven’t got any clothes on, Emmett.”
At which point it felt pretty clear:
He was annoyed with her. And hestayedannoyed, too. She had to trot to keep up with him through the hallways of the hotel. He got himself a coffee; he didn’t get her one. The radio stayed off in the car, there was no semi-pleasant conversation, he didn’t seem in the mood to play nice with anyone at the bookstore.
Even though it was spectacular, and everyone there was very charming.
They showed them around the place while it was closed before the event, and there were so many moments when she wanted to say something to him. About the spiral staircase in the center of the store that had books beneath the steps going all the way up. And themaze of shelves on the second floor that you could genuinely get lost in.You used to love hiding out in the library,she thought, and turned to tell him.
Only to find him staring at her, stonily.
And to such a degree it made her realize something startling. She hadn’t just somehow fallen into fucking him or started tolerating his presence. She almost enjoyed it now. She had begun enjoying it. Even when she’d feigned sleep rather than have awkward conversations, or squabbled with him about something silly… she had come to rely on his presence somehow.
Fighting with him is better than anything more supposedly normal that I’ve ever had with anyone else, she realized, in so jolting a rush she stopped dead in the middle of the store. The general manager, Cate, came back to ask if she was feeling well. One of the other employees said it looked like she needed to sit down.
She did, in fact.
But she shook herself instead. Laughed, and told them everything was fine. Shehadto tell everyone it was fine, because anything else would probably be just ever so slightly disastrous.I’m starting to suspect that I may really like my mortal enemy, Caleb Miller, in a way he definitely doesn’t like me, she imagined herself adding. And then, after that, everybody screaming and crying and rending their garments.
Buildings burning.
