Page 58 of Creep

And like that last time, he waited until after three o’clock—until I was too tired to stay awake any longer and fell into a restless sleep—before he left. Then I woke up in the morning.

I looked around the room in frustration, not knowing what to think or feel about this anymore.

What the hell was happening?

18

MAEL

I should really workon her fear response.

Being stuck frozen in the face of danger because she was scared wasn’t good for her.

And with my line of work, we were bound to face some danger a time or two. Not that I would ever let anything happen to my girl. I would protect her, no matter what, but still.

I pulled back from her and took in her sleeping face.

It wasn’t peaceful.

I should probably leave her alone after this and let her relationship with me as Mael progress in the way I need it to, but like an addict who vowed to get clean, I broke my promise each and every time, coming back to her night after night.

Some good things came out of this. I now knew what her go-to fear response was.

I leaned down and kissed her cheek. She frowned slightly but didn’t wake.

I should probably leave soon, before she wakes up, and try to get at least a few hours of sleep.

I pulled her in closer to me, burying my face in her hair and taking in a deep whiff of her scent that seemed to always bring me comfort.

Finally, I forced myself to move away from her.

I didn’t go home and catch a few hours of sleep like I planned.

I went to the crematorium, where I knew Theo was. He had his own place. He didn’t have to spend so much of his time here, but he was a worse insomniac than I was.

He was still awake when I walked in, lost in thought and staring at the small ember of flame he had lit in the portable fireplace he had placed in the corner of the room. I knew he was aware of me the moment I pulled up. My brother wasn’t careless. I pulled out a chair and brought it close to him, taking a seat and staring at the flame as well.

I didn’t need to ask him what he was thinking about.

Probably more about our messed-up past. Probably about the fire that killed his mom and left him homeless and with no one to lean on until he met me. I had been the same way. Perhaps that was why we were so close and why our relationship could border on being codependent.

I didn’t say anything when he took out his phone, pulled up something, and showed it to me. It took a moment for me to realize what I was looking at.

“Lia’s friend and Leo Briggs?” I asked. That was a surprise. One I didn’t even know, and I knew almost everything there was to know about the fucker.

“They’re careful. They don’t want anyone to know.”

“Huh.”

So the friend had been sleeping with Briggs, even when she spent most of her time flitting from one man to the next. And I knew I hadn’t imagined it when she flirted with me back at the coffee shop.

But this?

So were they just in a fucking relationship, having fun, or was it something more?

“It’s been going on since the girl was a freshman in college,” Theo said before I could ask.

So something more.

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