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I press my lips against the top of her head. “I slept like shit last night, Princess.”
“Me, too. I should have messaged you before bed, but I looked a wreck,” she mutters.
“You’re always beautiful. Fuck. I hate when I upset you,” I admit.
“I have a lot of emotions when it comes to you,” she says softly.
I take her face in my hands, studying every flutter of her lashes. “It’s the same for me, Aurora. I wish last night had gone differently. Maybe when I get back, we can have a do-over.”
“I’d like that. Except we should probably put on the safety latch, so my freaking dad doesn’t come busting in like the Kool-Aid Man. How did that go? Do you think he suspects anything?” She pulls her lip between her teeth.
I shake my head and tamp down the guilt, not wanting her to see how heavy this weighs on me. Not when I have to leave her after the clusterfuck that was last night. “He was too preoccupied. He barely even asked about my date.” Which I was grateful for. I felt like I was in one of his spirals, aware I’d hurt Aurora. If he knew the truth about how last night was supposed to end, he’d probably unalive me. And he’d have a right. “He wanted to text you, but I reminded him you have an early class this morning.”
“Crisis averted,” she murmurs.
“For now, yeah.” That’s another conversation we need to have. But it all depends on what she wants out of this. I’m terrified about what that could be and what it would mean.
She sighs and fiddles with the string on my hoodie. “I need to get going. I’m meeting with my group before class. We have a presentation this morning, and we want to go through it one more time.”
And now I feel even worse. It’s fine for me to sleep like trash. All I’m doing is sitting on a plane and a bench, but this could mess with her grades. “I’m sorry you’re going into this under-slept.”
“I’m in university, Hollis. I can function on five hours of crappy sleep.”
“It’s my fault it was shitty, though.”
“It could have been less shitty if I’d texted last night instead of worrying about puffy eyes.” She pats my chest.
I cover her hand with mine and bring it to my lips.
She taps hers with a finger. “I’d like those here, please.”
I cup her face and brush lightly over her lips.
It only takes one soft stroke of tongue before her nails are digging into the back of my neck and I’m pulling her tight against me. She breaks the kiss and covers my mouth with her palm when I try to reclaim hers. Her mouth is heaven.
“I still need to get ready, and I have to leave in less than half an hour.”
“I’ll message you tonight?”
“Yes, please.”
“And I’ll make up for the crappy date when I get back.”
“Also yes, please.”
I kiss her one last time, and she pushes me out the door.
I’m stepping off the elevator as Roman opens his door. He frowns when he sees me. “Where have you been?”
“I was dropping off my key for Aurora.” It’s not a complete lie, but I still feel like a bag of shit. Especially since I can taste her mint toothpaste on my tongue. What if he’d arrived two minutes earlier? How quickly would he put it all together? How would I explain? How could I leave Aurora with the fallout of that?
His brow furrows. “She’s up already?”
“She has a group presentation this morning. She’s heading to campus early so they can practice. I would have dropped my key off last night, but we were up late talking.”
“Right, yeah. She’s still home, though?” He pulls his phone out and starts thumb typing.
“She was getting ready when I dropped off my key a minute ago.” A bead of sweat trickles down my spine.
