Page 126 of Facing Off
But if she wants to take a chance on me? If she can imagine being with me? I’ll do everything in my power to keep her happy.
Because I’m in love with her.
I think I’ve loved her for a while, but I didn’t put a name to these feelings, thinking they would go away or fade. That I’ve never stopped thinking of her, always and without reason.
How I can imagine a million evenings exactly like this one, and if this is how our life is, the three of us on a couch together, I’m the luckiest man in this world.
49
SONYA
As soon asI’d caught early signs of him waking up, I jolted off the couch. Then I puttered around in the kitchen while he yawned and stretched.
Now, I’m back sitting on my couch, turned so the armrest supports my lower back. Adrian is facing me.
“Are you ready?” he asks. His voice is raspy.
I’m nodding but also—no big deal—masking a minor hyperventilation episode. Some of it’s leftover adrenaline from when I had to yank my fingers out of his hair before he caught me. Part of it is Diana’s screeching hiss that almost made me jump out of my skin as she fled the scene.
But most of it is this other problem.
That—
This man is much harder to resist when he’s coming off a nap.
It’s the soft, sleepy look in those blue eyes, and his hair that’s a touch too messy (my fault) and how he smells like he normally does, but alsomore.Along with his usual sandalwood, soap, and mint, there’s my apartment’s underlying earl grey tea notes clinging to his skin.
“You sure you don’t want to eat first?” I’ve gone cross-legged on the minuscule bit of cushion I claimed for myself. He takes up so much room, and that’s without his legs getting in the way as they stretch off the couch. “We can work on my report later.”
“Progress first. Reward later, darling.”
“Spoken like a true type-A athlete. Also, calling my food a reward is wildly optimistic.”
He laughs. It’s huskier than it has any right to be. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“If you survive to tell the tale.”
“Shh.”
He’s gotten comfortable around me. I mean, he’s always been confidently cocky, very loud and asking for too much, but there’s an intimate easiness in how his finger presses against my mouth. Only for a few seconds.
Because he’s a smart man.
I bite.
Not that I would mind biting him?—
What the hell, Sonya?
Focus!
A few minutes ago, he’d taken his phone out of his pocket and pulled out my report. It reminded me that’s why I called him over here in the first place. To talk about it. Actually, more likely to yell about it. Because that report? Those phrases inside it?
…emotional nature of performance block…
…reflecting on an adopted past as it’s linked…
…fear of loss of identity…
