Page 22 of When Annika Met Thom

“Why not?”

“He can throw me out. He has the legal sublet and I’m here unofficially.” He drank his milk, watching her warily.

She folded her arms across her chest, her eyes glittering as she assessed him. “I won’t tell him you told me.”

“There’s nowhere else you could get that information.”

Her eyes narrowed and her lips set. Her nightgown was way too sheer and Thom was only human. “He said you were stupid.”

Thom shrugged and finished his milk. He moved to wash the glass, mostly because that meant he could turn her back on her again. “Sometimes it’s easy to let people keep their assumptions.”

“Kind of like what Leo’s doing to me now.”

Thom stopped mid-gesture to think about that. “Maybe.”

“Maybe? How can you possibly saymaybe?”

He turned around as he dried the glass. She was too mad to cry, which was just about the only thing in his favor. Her hair hung to her waist, all shiny and fiery. She was flushed, and her eyes were vividly green. That white nightgown should have made her look innocent or even childish, except that it didn’t hide as much of what was underneath as she probably thought it did. She had great curves. Damn, damn, damn. Thom wanted to reach out and touch her more than he’d wanted to do anything in a long time.

No, he wanted to do more than touch. He wanted to make her forget Leo.

He knew exactly how he would do it.

Instead, he kept his hands on the glass, polishing it until it was dry and then a little more.

She waited, which surprised him a little. She stood, lips set, holding his gaze and insisting upon an answer. Thom was good at letting silence fill a space, but he couldn’t deny Annika.

He tried.

“Leo is supposed to be really smart,” he said finally.

“Brilliant,” she agreed easily. “Near genius IQ.”

“Then he has to come back,” Thom said, reaching to put the glass on the shelf. “Because only a really stupid guy would walk away from you.”

He nodded once at her astonished expression, then retreated to the bedroom. He snapped his fingers on the way and Cerberus followed, leaping up to claim most of the bed before he’d even closed the door. He felt Annika staring after him, her gaze boring into his back. She was probably wondering if he was just dishing out a load of shit to shut her up.

But he wasn’t. Every word was true. Leo didn’t know how lucky he was to have Annika in love with him and that wasn’t smart at all.

Cerise wasn’t any kind of reasonable alternative.

* * *

Annika had been paida lot of compliments in her time, but she was sure none of them had ever been as heartfelt and simple as Thom’s words.

None of them had ever made her heart glow. She stared after him but he just shut the bedroom door without a backward glance.

She knew he’d meant it.

But he hadn’t had expectations.

And as much as she could develop some short-term expectations, his attitude was kind of nice. Protective. That was unexpected. She settled down on the couch again, debating the merit of inviting herself into the bedroom, but decided against it. She lay there in the darkness, indulging in a few fantasies, realizing a bit late that every one of them involved a bearded gentle giant with lots of tattoos, and not one of them starred Leo.

Did she really love Leo?

Or was he just a habit?

Her love—or their love—was something she’d never questioned before. It had been a fact. Not a central fact in her life. Their relationship hadn’t governed her choices, not before this one to come to New York and start their future already.

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