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“The good stuff,” he says, and after I glare at him skeptically, he finishes. “Ibuprofen.” With a small smirk lifting my lips, I toss them back.

His hands reach for my face, cupping my cheeks and pulling my gaze to his. “Are you okay?”

I try to nod, but he sees through it, giving me that knowing glance.

“You’re not going back there,” he whispers into my hair.

No words escape my lips because I want to believe him. For a moment, I’d like to pretend what he’s saying is true. That this place is my home, and I never have to go back.

“You need some rest,” he says, pulling my body away and cradling me in his arms. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”

I don’t even register him walking me up the stairs. Before I know it, he’s resting me on his still-warm bed, and I cling to him like a child. It might be a cheap shot, but I want him near me more than I want anything else.

“Don’t leave me,” I gasp when he tries to pull away.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

I shift my body to the side, leaving him room to crawl in next to me.

“Sunny,” he says as a warning.

“Just lie down next to me. We’re just sleeping. We did it when you were drunk.”

“Yeah, but that was different.”

When I gaze into his eyes, I think about what my mother said. And I wonder if he’s thinking about it too. I wonder if he’s letting her words go to his head.

So, I reach up and gently stroke his cheek. “I trust you,” I whisper through the darkness as I curl my body into a ball, pulling my knees to my chest. Sleep is already threatening to pull me under, my eyelids getting heavy.

It takes him a moment before he releases a long sigh. Finally, his weight settles on the bed. His soft touch along my hairline carries me under, and I drift off to the sound of his gentle breathing next to me.

CHAPTER 14

ALEXANDER

She said my name. Finally. But the sound of it still haunts me. Crying out. Screaming for help. Those four syllables falling from her lips laced with agony.

I wanted it. But not like this.

As she sleeps next to me, her face illuminated in the cool moon’s light, I try to make sense of the way I feel about this girl. The way she stormed into my life and the greedy ways I ushered her in.

What if I had never hired her to paint that wall? What if I turned down her mother’s invitation that first day?

She’d be lying in her bedroom, locked up, crying alone. Or worse.

But she’s here. Because she trusts me.

I almost wanted to tell her that everything her mother said about me was true. I am no better than a monster.

But Sunny is reteaching me everything I thought I knew about myself. I can lie here with her in my bed and not feel the tiniest urge to touch her.

Okay…more than a tiny urge.

But no desire to act on that urge.

Instead, the one to protect her and care for her is stronger.

On a sigh, she rolls toward me. Her hair falls away from her neck, and I watch the pulse point beat as she breathes silently. Ever so delicately, I brush the skin of her neck.