Page 112 of Sinful Like Us
Before I pull up the covers, she rolls over and clutches my leg. “Stay.” Her body shakes as a chill ripples through the room.
“Okay.” I crouch down, unlacing my boots, slipping them off, and then I stand and unbutton my slacks. Surprisingly, she’s able to keep eye contact, but I can tell she’s still under the influence of whiskey.
She shifts her legs more than usual and her arms hang lifelessly on her hips.
“Is that all you thought about me?” she asks softly.
“No.” I shake my head.
There is a great chance she’ll never remember what I say now, but the truth isn’t hard to share with Jane drunk or sober.
“I thought you were young.”
Too young for me.
Too rich for me.
Too much of a Cobalt for me.
I was starting a career that would include protectingherand the people she loved, and I didn’t want to fuck it. I wanted to respect the fact that she was underage and the only thing that mattered was her safety.
Jane actually smiles. “I’m not that much younger than you…yourealize.” She slurs again.
“Five years?” I climb onto the small bed, and she rolls onto her back, spreading open her thighs.Fuck.My hands press on either side of her head on the mattress, and I keep my body weight off Jane. “You were only seventeen.”
Our eyes latch tightly as she whispers, “You were only twenty-two.”
I nod a few times.
I was only twenty-two. I was younger than she is now, and I hadn’t been out of the military for long. “Now I’m twenty-eight,” I say strongly, “and I’m doing what I should’ve done on day one.”
“What’s that?” She blinks hard, fighting a heavy sleep.
I dip my head and whisper against her ear, “Let myself love you.”
Jane grips my hair, as though to say,stay.Her breath comes out in a sharp wave, swelling my chest, and I slip under the covers, my legs hanging off the bed. I tuck her trembling body against my chest.
She burrows into me for warmth and security.
Moments pass, her eyes closed, and right before she drifts off, she murmurs, “Thatcher?”
“Yeah?”
She seems to hold tighter.
I cup her cheek. “I have you. You’re safe, honey.” I repeat the sentiments, and her body loosens.
And into the silence, she breathes, “I love you.”
It jolts me, and I hang onto those words, my veins pulsing. She’s only ever saidI’m falling in love with you.It could just be a drunken slip, but it’s like a drug.
And I fall to sleep with in an indescribable high.
22
JANE COBALT
My heart is racing.“About the other night…” I speak quietly to Thatcher, as though my voice will carry across the endless rolling mountains.
