Page 62 of One More Shot
‘Come on. You should get some rest.’ I stand up abruptly and stick out my hand.
She hesitates for a fraction of a second before she grabs it and lets me pull her up. Her hand is clammy, yet another reminder of just how unwell she is right now.
‘Do you need any help getting upstairs?’
She rolls her eyes. ‘I told you, it’s just a cold. I can make it—’ Her knees give out and she stumbles forwards, collapsing into my chest.
She’s weaker than she wants to admit right now. I can feel her shaking slightly beneath my touch, and her eyes look dangerously unfocused. I slip an arm around her waist and start leading her up the stairs. ‘I’ve got you, baby.’
‘This really isn’t necessary,’ she protests half-heartedly.
‘Humour me.’
‘You’ll catch my cold.’
I don’t know why she’s still trying to deter me. We’re halfway up the stairs.
‘At this point, I think it’s more than a cold.’ We reach the upstairs landing and she points me to a room at the end of the hall. ‘If you’re still feeling like this tomorrow, you should really make an appointment with your doctor.’
‘I will,’ she promises. ‘I am feeling better already, though.’
‘Gonna tell Gloria it was her remedy.’
Eliott pulls a face. ‘God, please don’t. I’ll never hear the end of it.’
She pushes open her bedroom door and coughs out adry laugh. ‘This wasn’t how I imagined I’d be bringing you back up here again.’
‘Imagining me in your bed?’ I ask, a teasing brow raised as she crawls under her sheets and immediately wraps her blanket around herself. ‘That doesn’t feel veryfriendlyof you.’ I mean it as a joke, but I think she’s too sick to pick up on it, because she shrugs and extends a hand towards me.
‘Maybe I’m tired of being friendly.’
I’m pretty certain my heart misses a beat or two. ‘Eliott.’
‘Please.’ Her eyes are wide as she wiggles her fingers at me. Even the tissues stuffed up her nose and the thin layer of sweat coated to her forehead can’t do anything to distract from the fact that Eliott is so goddamn beautiful. ‘Can you just lay with me? Just for a little bit.’ She drops her gaze and her hand at the same time. ‘I don’t really want to be alone right now.’
And what am I supposed to say to that? No?
‘Five minutes,’ I say as I slide under the blankets with her. She immediately curls around me, slinging an arm over my waist and intertwining her legs with mine. My body reacts almost on instinct, snaking an arm around and pulling her in as close as I can get. The vanilla and cocoa scent in her hair invades all my senses, and it takes every inch of willpower I have not to bury my face in her hair and take a deep inhale.
‘You’re so warm,’ Eliott mumbles, burrowing further underthe blankets and into my side. She yawns loudly and her breathing peters out into something shallow and measured.
I’m not sure how long I lie there with her, listening to the soft sounds of her breathing and paying attention to the steady rise and fall of her chest on mine, but eventually I realise that it’s dark outside and the street lamps are on.
I start to extract myself from underneath her, sure she’s fast asleep, but she stirs suddenly and looks up at me with bleary eyes.
‘Dane?’ she mumbles.
‘Yeah, baby?’
Her brows furrow and she leans in before I can stop her and presses a quick, chaste kiss just to the right of my lips. I freeze as her head lolls downwards again and she nuzzles into the crook of my neck. ‘You’re more than enough for me.’
And then she’s softly snoring again like she hasn’t just turned my whole world upside down with one delirious, sleep-deprived sentence.
You’re more than enough for me.
Chapter Twenty-OneELIOTT
This can’t be happening. This absolutely, one hundred per centcannotbe happening. I bite my bottom lip and push the START button again, praying that this time I’ll get a different result.
