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I rise up a little on one elbow, pulling the pillow on my side down to my chest. I’m cold. “You didn’t kick me out. No court would convict me.”
“You’re a very strange, sad man.”
“I’ll take pity. Hey, should I develop a limp?”
“Idiot.”
“So,” I say, “you’re the middle child, aren’t you?”
“How do you figure?”
I didn’t mean for that to come out, but thinking about it, that fits. “I’m the youngest. Spoiled, and I got away with things King and the others didn’t. That happens with the youngest. I know you come from a biggish family, too. And the Perry kids all did things to put themselves out there. Except you.”
She looks down, bright spots of color blooming on her throat and cheek. “I’m not the out there type. People don’t notice me.”
“I do.”
Her gaze slams into mine. “Only because you hired me. Come on. If I walked into a room you’d barely notice me.”
I want to say that’s not true. And now I’ve gotten a glimpse of her beneath it all, I would most definitely notice her, but she’s right. If I didn’t know her I wouldn’t. And I’d be missing out.
What the fuck does that say about me?
“Then I’m a complete moron,” I say. “You—”
“I’m tired. We should go to sleep.”
She’s got a point. Although I could talk and tease and flirt with her until the sun came up. There are other things I could do, too. But I don’t say any of that because I like living.
She switches off the television. It doesn’t take long for her to fall asleep, and I watch her as a sliver of light comes in through her arched window.
Like this, she’s soft and sweet, and innocent. And I think she might be innocent—by my standards. She’s fresh and lovely and I inch a little closer to her until we’re almost touching.
The heat of her warms me and a calmness comes down over me.
I close my eyes as the sound of New York wafts up from the streets below, and let sleep start to take me away.
And as I drift off, it comes to me that this might be the first time I’ve slept with a woman.
As in slept slept with a woman.
She’s both a difficult and easy person, and the longer I spend with her, the more I like her and I know I don’t want to give this up, this seeing her, knowing her, when the four weeks are up.
And this? Right here? Right now?
I like it.
What the hell am I becoming?
Chapter Twelve
Elliot
There’s a heavy warmth in me, on me. And it feels good. Like all is right in the world.
I suddenly go still.
I’m not alone.
