Page 40 of With This Kiss
Reign was standing silently beside me.
My eyes moved over to him, taking in his strong shoulder. And I had the strangest urge to just lie my head there and rest for a bit.
I quickly shook away the thought. I didn’t want to touch him. I didn’t want him to touch me, and I was sure that doing something as stupid as that would only invite him to act boldly.
Bolderthan he had been.
I moved my eyes to his face.
He was looking around my place curiously. I wondered what he thought about it. I tried to see it from his perspective, but the truth was, I hadn’t really put much effort into decorating this place. Someone had done it for me.
The design mainly consisted of neutral colors, with a pop of red and dark blue here and there. It was functional and clean.
I hadn’t minded it much.
Now, for some inexplicable reason, I found myself wishing I had put a little more of my personality into the place.
I didn’t like that Reign was so good at hiding his emotions. I hated even more that he was so convincing in showing me only the emotions hewantedme to see—nothing more, nothing less.
His phone vibrated, and he took a break from perusing my place and pulled it out, typing something on the screen.
“Should we go?” I asked awkwardly.
He nodded, then bent down and picked up my overnight bag with one hand and held out the other to me. I stared at it for three long seconds. Did he seriously think I was going to touch him, let alone hold his hand?
I moved past the hand and out the door. As usual, he let out a small, amused chuckle, as if everything I did amused him, and followed closely behind.
I avoided looking at him through the reflection on the elevator door as it went down.
While the silence in the car just hours before had been nice and comfortable, this was tense and awkward. At least, it was for me.
Reign was a picture of ease. He leaned back against the wall and had no problem watching me through the reflection.
I quickly looked down when our eyes met.
I felt him come closer to me, but thankfully, we didn’t touch. “Don’t tell me you’re getting all shy on me now, are you?”
I glared at him.
I wasn’t shy.
At least, I hadn’t been.
Why was I feeling so goddamn reserved now?
The doors opened, saving me from having to reply to him. I quickly moved out of there without responding.
It took about five minutes on the road for me to realize Reign wasn’t taking me back to his apartment.
I frowned when he turned onto a strange street, sitting up a little and taking in my surroundings. And for the first time all night, I felt a small inkling of fear trickling down my spine.
“Where… where are we going?”
“To the Emerald Crown Hotel.”
I blinked.A hotel.
“Why? I’m not fucking you.”
