Page 65 of Cold As Ice

Madison felt it, too.

And it shouldn’t have mattered because I wasn’t here for that. But I was still a guy, and it felt good to know I affected her as much as she affected me.

Fuck, I was turning into a pussy.

“Get some sleep, Austin. I’ll see you in the morning.” She gave me another smile before shrugging out of my hold and disappearing down the hall.

I doubted sleep was going to come easy tonight.

Not with her sleeping down the hall.

* * *

“Austin, wake up.”

“W-what?”

“Aust—”

“The fuck?” I bolted upright, almost head-butting Madison. “Shit, sorry.”

“It’s okay. You were out for the count.”

“Guess your couch was comfier than it looked.” I rubbed a hand through my hair and down the back of my neck.

Madison dropped her eyes to my bare chest, and a lick of heat went through me.

“Sorry, I got hot at night.”

“It’s fine. But I start my shift at ten, and I want to call in and see Imogen before I start.”

“Fuck, yeah. I should go.”

“Relax, hotshot. There’s time for coffee and breakfast. Come on.” She motioned for me to follow her, so I got up and pulled on my jeans and t-shirt.

“Can I use the bathroom?”

“You know where it is. I’ll go turn on the coffee maker.”

It should have felt weird, waking up in her apartment on the couch.

Oddly, it didn’t. And when I finally joined her in the kitchen, we worked seamlessly together to get coffee and plate up the stack of pancakes she’d cooked.

“This looks great, thanks.”

“Figured you’d be hungry.”

We ate in comfortable silence, stealing glances at one another.

I wanted to pick her brain, to know what she was thinking and whether she’d laid awake for hours like I had, remembering how good it had felt to be inside her.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

Her brow lifted with suspicion, but I didn’t confess. Some things were better left unsaid.

Besides, the thoughts running through my head were anything but ‘just friends’ right now.

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