Page 65 of While She Sleeps

His light footsteps grow closer, and I force my body to remain relaxed until his hands grasp my hips. He steps up behind me, tugging me against him, reminding me I’m wearing nothing but an old, oversized shirt and no panties.

Maybe I should have gotten dressed before I came out here. It would have been a lot easier to have this conversation if my pussy wasn’t bare and aching from his rough treatment.

“How about we go out for breakfast?” he offers.

“I can’t. I have some work to do.” Not a lie. The file on the Hunter is sitting untouched in the bottom drawer to my left, and I’m no closer to finding the asshole than I was when Lucas gave me the damn file.

“Hmm.” He presses a kiss to my neck, and a shiver of need rolls through my body. Goddamn it. Why does he have to know my body so well? “You know what I think you’re doing?”

“Do tell.” I try to distract myself by pouring coffee into my mug, but the way he’s holding me is too alluring, and I struggle not to splash myself with the boiling hot liquid.

“I think you’re doing exactly what you promised you wouldn’t do.”

I sigh and turn in his arms, looking up at him through disinterested eyes. “Not everything is that deep, Orion. I have shit to do today. There’s nothing more to it.”

He stares down at me with his brow quirked up, but there’s amusement on his lips, as if he’s finding me amusing. “How about you come to my place tonight, then?”

“I might still have to work.”

“Okay, tomorrow?”

I shake my head. “I have a job I need to do.”

He shakes his head, his smile growing with each lie I tell, and it’s unnerving me, something that’s pretty hard to do in my experience. “It’s really cute that you think you can lie to me, Ember.”

Without warning, he wraps his hands around my waist and lifts me, quickly depositing me on the counter beside my coffee and steps between my thighs, trapping me in place.

“I know your default setting is to run from things that are unfamiliar, but I need you to understand that I’m not going to let you go. You can run as much as you want, as far as you want, but I will find you, and I will drag you back to me.”

“Is that a threat?” I ask, my voice breathier than I would like.

He chuckles. “No, Ember. Men like me don’t make threats.”

I swallow and stare into his dark eyes, trying to get a read on him. I don’t normally struggle to understand people, but Orion is as much of an enigma as he was the first time we met.

“How about you go have a shower, and I’ll cook us some breakfast?”

The change in pace of the conversation gives me whiplash, but he just steps away from me and starts rummaging around the fridge like it’s the most natural segue he’s ever made.

If he keeps this up, I have no hope of understanding this man at all.

Without pausing, he pulls out the carton of eggs I’ve been saving for my weekend breakfasts, as well as the milk and cheese, before dumping them all on the limited remaining counter space.

He doesn’t pay me any mind as he starts looking through the cupboards until he finds what he’s looking for and pulls out a bowl and a frying pan.

What the actual fuck is happening right now?

“I’ll have breakfast ready in about ten if you want to shower,” he reminds me, not bothering to look up at my confusion.

I sigh and slip off the counter. I may as well take the out he’s offering me to gather myself, because I have a feeling Orion was serious about keeping me, and unfortunately for the both of us, that’s not an option.

When you owe your soul to the devil, it’s not worth clinging to things you know you can’t have. That’s a reality I accepted a long time ago, and now I just have to find a way to make Orion see we can never be anything more than a one-night stand.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

ORION

The shower flicks on, and I drop the pretense of cooking breakfast.

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