Page 40 of Cold Mercy

I pause, letting the words sink in, letting her feel the weight of my body without me actually pressing into her.

“Careful. It’s embarrassing to shake like this when I haven’t even touched you yet.”

I pull back slowly, just enough to see her face.

“Oh, fuck you,” she breathes out, shoving my chest. She tries to sound dismissive, but her voice lacks its usual bite. She slides off the table, her legs unsteady.

My brain was the one screaming to stop, but my body is furious, and every instinct I have is raging against the distance she just put between us. The truth is the second part of me was praying she wouldn't let me pull away.

“Okay, you've successfully gotten me drunk. Mind if I leave the car until tomorrow? I will walk home,” I say.

“Sure. Where do you even live?”

Right, she doesn’t know anything real about me.

I shrug. “About twenty minutes. Maybe longer, considering the state I’m in.”

Her eyes widen.

“I have a guest room,” she mutters.

My brain is whispering to me, Absolutely not.

But my body is screaming, Say yes before she changes her mind.

“I’ve had too much,” I admit. “And…okay fine. Show me the room.”

She leads me down the hall.

Of course the guest room is connected to her master bedroom, just like everything else in this damn house, which is too big, too empty, too lonely.

She opens the closet.

“I don’t know your exact size, but James used to forget clothes all the time when he stayed over, so I bought backups. Don’t worry, they’re new. He always took his stuff home.”

“That sounds exactly like something James would do,” I respond.

“The T-shirts and boxers are in the drawer. They'll probably be tight. Sorry, I didn't exactly stock up on clothes for a man…like you.”

She steps toward the door.

“Make yourself comfortable. I’m going to bed. Goodnight.”

“Thanks,” I say. ‘I’ll grab my things from downstairs.”

Before I head back up, I swipe the stack of notes from the kitchen counter.

I swipe the notes, not with the intent to steal them, but simply to gain a better understanding of how her mind works when I'm not there.

CHAPTER 7

SOPHIA

I lean against the corner of my bathroom and stare at the mirror.

Fuck. What the hell did I just do?

Who is on the other side of my bathroom wall? Thomas Reed. The man I promised myself I would avoid. The man I planned to push so far away he’d forget my name. And what did I do tonight? I kissed him.