“Because this is my house!”
“Correction. This is Michael’s house, and he’s lending it to you. Technically, I’m his immediate family, so the house should go to me.”
What the hell sense did that make?
“My sister is married to your brother! She bought half the house, so I have just as much right to stay here as you do. Besides, you already have a fucking house!”
“I give it up! You take it!” he shouted, his voice laced with panic.
“I’m not staying somewhere your mom can walk in on me!”
“I’m injured. You can’t make me stay up there!” he argued. “I could have a major pain climbing the stairs. Then you’d have to take me to the hospital, and you’d have to call my mom. There’s no getting out of this.”
Shoving my fingers through my hair, I paced away from him, pissed as hell that the one place I should be able to go, I was restricted from using unless I was willing to subject Jeff to any more pampering from his mom.
I already knew what that was like.
When I was injured, I stayed with my old man for a few weeks. It only took one week before I was ready to kill him. If it weren’t for Michael, I would be in jail by now, facing a murder charge.
“Fine,” I hissed. “Tonight, I’ll take the upstairs, but this is the last time. Tomorrow, you find yourself somewhere else to stay.”
“I swear.” Groaning dramatically, he flopped back in the bed and was out like a light before I even climbed the stairs to the loft.
I envied his ability to sleep so easily, even after the hell he’d been through. How did he not have nightmares? He was shot. That had to leave some lasting damage, but that wasn’t something I was willing to bring up anytime soon.
I had my own demons keeping me up at night.
I rolled over,hissing as sharp, knife-like pains shot down my spine. This was definitely not a bed I would ever sleep in again. The mattress was too thin and the support was nonexistent.
Gingerly, I got out of bed, but what I really needed was a good stretch. I stood tall, forgetting about the height restrictions of the loft, and slammed my head right into the bracers in the ceiling.
“Fuck!” I shouted, grabbing the sore spot on my head. “Jeff! You’d better be up and cooking me breakfast!”
All I heard was a groan. Fuck, I was gonna kill him. That was the worst night of sleep I’d gotten in some time, and it had absolutely zero to do with the fact that I didn’t fall asleep until just a few hours before I woke up.
Hobbling over to the stairs, I carefully took the steps one at a time like an old man, terrified I was going to fall down them and break my neck. Once I was downstairs, I glanced down the hall, hoping to see the bed vacated, but Jeff still laid in there, snoring away.
Rubbing the sleep from my eyes did nothing to help how miserable I felt. “Fuck it. I need some sleep,” I muttered, making my way to the king-sized bed at the end of the hall.
Shoving Jeff over, I laid down, sighing as the pain in my back eased slightly. It wasn’t long before my eyes were drifting closed and sleep overcame me.
But it only lasted a short time before I woke up to a chuckle that most definitely didn’t sound like anyone I knew.
Peeling one eye open, I glared at the man standing at the foot of the bed with his arms crossed over his chest. Based on the smile he was sporting, I’d say he was way too damn perky for the hour.
“Who the fuck are you?” I grumbled, only half awake.
“Declan. We’ve met.” His eyes trailed over the bed, and for a moment, I thought he was checking me out. Then I felt the weight of an arm tossed over my waist, and realized what he thought was happening here.
“Get the fuck off me!” I shouted, flinging Jeff’s arm away from me.
He rolled over, muttering about needing more sleep while I hauled my ass out of bed, thankfully still in shorts and a t-shirt, which looked a lot less suspicious than what the man just saw.
“This is not what it looks like.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me, the grin on his face just a little too evil. “I didn’t say a thing.”
I scrambled for something to say. Anything that would explain why I was laying in bed with another dude, but my mind suddenly decided that functioning was not a priority.
