Page 8 of Half-Hearted
NOPE.
I shut the fridge door and stormed toward my room. “Night, Lex.”
She could do whatever she wanted for the rest of the night, but I wasn’t going to have any part in it. I was going to get into bed and sleep this whole waking nightmare off.
I all but kicked my bedroom door open and stomped inside, only to freeze immediately at the sight of the black dress and very dainty,verylacey black bra lying on top of my bed.
The thing was practicallysee-through.
My brain stalled for all of five seconds, but that was all it took for the little minx of my wet nightmares to glide through the semi-open door I hadn’t had a chance to lock yet.
This was it. I’d entered an entirely new, never before seen level of hell, and it had an escape room theme.
“Oops,” Alexis mewed lightly before gathering the fabric and placing it on a nearby chair instead. “There you go.”
I inhaled, trying to calm myself. The air had started to smell like her. All soft and clean and…lickable. I wanted to stick out my tongue and lick the fuckingair.
You need so much therapy.
“Okay, Lex, I’m giving you two options: I can either take you home right now, or you can go to sleep here, or on the couch, I don’t care. Take your pick.”
She swayed just a tiny bit, hands clasped behind her back. “If I sleep here, d’you wanna sleep here, too? With me?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “I’ll sleep wherever you sleep.”
“That wasn’t one of the options.” I needed to turn the AC off. It was becoming really,reallydifficult to maintain eye contact with her.
“Well, it’s the one I choose.”
I opened my mouth to argue with her, but then I had an idea. Except I didn’t know which head it came from. The one signaling all the DEFCON 1 alarms or the one selfishly hoarding every last ounce of blood I had available in my body.
Or maybe this was a big enough emergency that they’d decided to put aside their differences and work together for once.
“Alright,” I said. “Fine. Let’s go to sleep.”
I grabbed a couple of extra pillows from the closet and plopped them in the middle of the king-sized bed, dividing it in half. Then I lay down on my side with my arms crossed, facing away from the division, and closed my eyes.
She didn’t even hesitate. The bed moved as Alexis climbed onto it. Two seconds later came thethumps of our barricade hitting the carpet.
I really hadn’t thought that part through.
I shuffled closer to the edge of the bed, keeping my lids shut. I just needed to wait until she fell asleep, and then I could relocate to the couch and—
A delicate finger traced a line across my back, liquifying my muscles.
“Go to sleep,” I grumbled.
Instead of listening, the mischievous finger started to draw shapes and swirls, moving lower and lower and lower… I twisted around. “Alexis, seriously—”
I cut myself off, my breath flipping backward when I realized how close she was lying down next to me.
“Hello.” She smiled, head tilted slightly on the pillow to meet my gaze.
I was so close to the edge of the bed that moving back meant falling right off. I honestly considered it.
“You have a nice back,” she said. “Reaaaal muscly.”
