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“It’s almost six.”
She blinked too quickly as she passed it back to me, her eyes averted to the pillows and sheets beside her. Slowly, she removed herself from my lap, shifting until she sat cross legged on the comforter.
The heaviness hung in the air as I slowly slipped from the sheets, grabbed my boxers, and pulled them on. I couldn’t hide the erection, not as the sky was slowly beginning to lighten along with the room. “I can call you a cab,” I offered. “Or you’re welcome to go back to sleep and go home later.”
Her eyes met mine. “You’re not worried I’ll steal something?”
I pursed my lips. “No, I’m not. Unless you know how to sail.”
She shook her head. “I’d probably just crash and sink and drown.”
I couldn’t stop the snort that left my nose despite the tension in the air. “Then I’m definitely not worried. Take as much booze as you want.”
Her lips twitched in the corners, but a smile didn’t sprout like I thought it would.
I leaned across the bed, half out of guilt and half because I just wanted to touch her again, and cupped her cheek. “I’ll call,” I lied. But the next words were far too true. “I genuinely had an incredible time with you.”
Her teeth scraped against her lower lip, but she reached up and kissed me gently but far too quickly. I didn’t want to assume that she knew that I was lying, but it felt like it, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that as much as both of us needed this to be the end, it somehow wouldn’t be.
We couldn’t avoid each other forever.
————
The absurdity of having to sit in a cab for twenty minutes just to end up roughly where I’d started last night wasn’t lost on me. But as I stepped out of the elevator into my private entry areaand unlocked the door to my penthouse, the morning light was only just beginning to crest over the horizon, painting the main foyer and mostly gray living room in sharp oranges and pinks. Lucas would be up any minute, if he wasn’t already.
I tried to walk as quietly as I could as I crossed the expanse of the house, listening intently for any signs of stirring as I went up the stairs to the second floor. Lucas’s room was silent as I passed it, and that meant I had enough time to make it to my room, change into pajamas, and get back to him before he woke naturally or his alarm went off.
But even as I went about my motions, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ava.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d connected with someone so easily, even if it was over something so commonplace as art. I avoided finding meaningful connections when it came to dating, and walking into new relationships without trying hadn’t been an issue since I’d reentered the dating pool last year. However, it felt almost as if I hadn’t just walked into this situation but insteadrun, and as I tried to turn back, a mile-long brick wall had been erected between me and where I’d come from.
Maybe it was because I already knew her. Maybe it was because she was off-limits.
Maybe I was just going fucking insane.
No matter what it was, she was living in my brain now, filling up every empty space. I kept getting flashes of her laughing at the museum, the way her face had gone bright red when she’d nearly knocked over the cheap figurines, the way she’d looked sprawled out on my fucking bed back on the sailboat.
I hadn’t even gotten to taste her.
Idiot.
Slipping from my bedroom in an oversized shirt and plaid pajama bottoms, I walked barefoot down the hall back to Lucas’sroom. I shooed the memory from my mind of how fucking beautiful Ava looked when her eyes had gone wide as my hand had locked around her throat and gently pushed the door open.
Lucas slept peacefully in his bed, his scruffy black hair a mess on his pillows. The moment I shut the door behind me, though, he stirred, rolled over away from the door, and pulled his blankets up over his head.
“Rise and shine,” I chuckled, hitting the button beside the light switch. The black-out-blinds on his window slowly began to retreat, letting in the soft morning light and filling the space with life as he groaned. “If you get up, I’ll make bacon.”
The blankets slowly retreated as he lifted his head, just his squinted eyes poking out over the sheets. “Bacon?” Lucas asked, blinking the sleep away.
“Bacon.”
In a flash, he threw the sheets off, revealing his mismatched dinosaur pajamas and getting up off the mattress.
I chuckled as I crossed the space, tucking him into my side. “That was easier than I expected.”
He shrugged. “Maybe you should bribe me with bacon more often.”
————
