I nod, getting up to join her on the sofa. I don’t want distance.
“I mean, growing up with that example of what love looks like doesn’t exactly send me out there searching for it.”
“No, I suppose it wouldn’t.”
“What about you? Why aren’t you in one?”
She shrugs quickly and replies in almost a whisper.
“Everyone always leaves, and if they don’t, it’s like I don’t exist unless it’s on their terms.”
A tear slips over her cheek, so I brush it away with my thumb, take hold of her hand, and lace her fingers with mine. “That’s an absolute shame, because you’re turning out to be my favorite person in this world, and right now, I can’t imagine not having you in my life.”
Chapter
Sixteen
DUTTON
The hangover hitsbefore I’ve even opened my eyes, and the sound of an alarm going off right now only makes the pain in my head throb even more.
I reach out in search of my phone, just in case I set an alarm and don’t remember it, to put it on silent.
My shift comes with a moan that is much more feminine than the one I make when I’m miserable.
With my eyes still closed, I click the side of my phone, but the noise persists.
Another dainty moan joins the alarm, and then the weight of something warm hits my chest.
My eyes finally spring open to see Brooke’s body draped over mine, our legs tangled as we have somehow managed to make ourselves fit together on her couch.
The wine.
Four bottles.
The conversation.
The confessions.
The small touches here and there.
Brooke offering me a place to stay after we’d both drank way too much.
Slowly, her cheek lying on my bare chest nuzzles into me, and the arm she reached over to silence her phone with wraps around me and holds me tighter, her fingertips tickling the skin just above the waistband of my shorts.
My cock twitches, and I press my eyes closed.
Fuck.
As if she hasn’t realized the position we are in quite yet, she snuggles in closer. As if that were possible. Then she hikes a leg higher, her knee nudging my now-hard dick.
My hand snaps out to hold her leg in place before she can touch me again and put me deeper into misery.
“Books,” I say quietly. Her body stills, as if she had no idea she’s been crushing her body against mine for the past two minutes.
She glances up at the same time I look down.
First, I take in the way her eyes sparkle in the morning, the way her lips are just as plump and pink as they were last night, and the way a smile slowly forms on her lips as she processes our position. Second, my gaze floats to where it’s clear as fucking day that she’s wearing only my shirt and no bottoms.
