Page 182 of I’m The Worst

“No, you didn’t. You smelled like campfire and that pine soap in the safehouse.” Her voice gets softer. “And I think about the first time you held me…like you didn’t hate touching me.”

Something twists hard beneath my ribs. “You shouldn’t think about that shit.”

“Why not?” She sighs, her eyelids growing heavier as the alcohol settles in. “It’s the only thing I like thinking about.” Her fingertip lazily traces the outline of the Sovereign branding on my chest. “It helps me fall asleep.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm-hmm. Instead of sleeping under my bed.”

“AJ. You still sleep under your bed?”

Her fingers still.

She doesn’t answer right away. “…Sometimes,” she admits quietly.

My chest tightens. “Sometimes?”

She nods against my shoulder, not meeting my eyes. “But…not when I’m next to you.” She bites her lip.

Damn. I want to kiss her.

She lets out a sleepy sigh, her head settling back against me. “David’s making me get my IUD removed.”

I go completely still. “What?”

“He wants kids. Soon.”

Rage barrels through my veins, a dark heat crawling up the back of my neck. “And you⁠—”

“I don’t want kids, Wolff. Ever.”

I don’t want kids either…

I run my hand through her hair before I can stop myself, fingers catching in the strands at the nape of her neck. I don’t say anything else, because what the fuck can I say? She’s not mine. I never wanted her to be. But the thought of her pregnant with David’s kid makes me want to put a bullet in his skull.

She shifts. “Why do you keep coming back?”

I don’t fucking know.

“Because I’m stupid.”

She shakes her head slightly. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“Wolff.”

“What do you want me to say, AJ?”

“The truth.”

The truth is, I don’t sleep when I don’t know where you are.

The truth is, I can’t stop seeing you on that fucking stage.

The truth is, every time I decide I’m done with this, I end up right back here with my cock inside you.

“That is the truth.”