Page 37 of Cruel Demands

I don’t move.

“Actual sleep,” she says quickly. “Not sex. Not anything. Just sleep. I know how that sounded. I’m not trying to—” She stops and drags both hands down her face. The sleeves of my shirt fall over her knuckles. “Oh my God. I’m making it worse.”

“Yes.”

Her hands drop. She glares at me. “You could pretend not to notice.”

“I could.”

“But you won’t.”

“No.”

She huffs a small, embarrassed laugh and looks toward the windows. Snow moves softly beyond the glass, pale against the dark. “I just don’t want to be alone in this house.”

I can survive her pride. Her jokes. Her mouth saying my name like a test. I am less prepared for her honesty. I just don’t want to be alone.

I know that voice. I have lived with it longer than she has been alive.

I look at her standing barefoot near my bed in my shirt, trying very hard not to look as young as she is, and I see the path I should take.

No, Taylor.

That is what a better man says.

No. Loneliness is not a good enough reason to let a man like me sleep beside you.

No. I will call the car.

No. You will thank me tomorrow.

I open my mouth. “I keep my clothes on,” I say.

She blinks, like she expected a fight. “Okay.”

“There is a pillow between us.”

“That sounds like a legal distinction.”

“It is.”

Her mouth softens. A smile almost appears. “Do you make a lot of legal distinctions in bed?”

“Not usually.”

The smile vanishes.

Good. Bad. I’m no longer sure which result I want.

I remove my jacket and lay it across the chair by the window. Taylor watches as I loosen my tie, pull it free, and unbutton my cuffs. Her attention is not subtle. She thinks it is. That’s one of many things she is wrong about.

“Are you sure?” she asks.

No. “No,” I say. Her eyes snap to mine. I look back at her. “But I am staying.”

That seems to take some of the air out of her. “Okay,” she says.

I take two pillows from the head of the bed and place them lengthwise down the middle like a barricade. Taylor looks at them with clear offense. “That is excessive.”