Page 31 of Play With Me
“Would you stop your yammering? How am I supposed to keep an eye on you if I’m out in the doghouse?” I pull my shirt over my head, hearing her breath hitch as I set an alarm on my watch in case I fall asleep.
“You’re not sleeping in my bed. Get. Out.” She really tries her best to sound so severe, but the command comes out breathy and laced with contradiction. I just link my hands together behind my head and stare up at the ceiling.
“In all seriousness, you really need to calm down. Stress isn’t good for a concussion. Just rest, why don’t you? Put on a movie if you want. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Fuck, go to sleep if you’re tired. I’ll wake you in a few hours to check on you. But calm the fuck down. I’m not going anywhere, Cara.”
“Go sleep in the other room. This is too intimate.” She scoots down and lies on her side, facing me.
Mirroring her position, I reach out and pull theduvet up to her chin. “Baby girl, my fingers, tongue, and cock have all been inside you. It doesn’t get more intimate than that. I think we can handle spending a night in the same bed.”
With a deep sigh, she huffs but doesn’t turn around. “I’m going to be so glad when you go back to California.”
“Sure you are, baby girl.”
“Stop calling me that!”
My chuckles fill the room. Carmela tries to keep glaring, but eventually, her features smooth out. “Mick is going to want someone with me all the time now.” It’s not a question, but a statement in a tone of defeat.
“Whether he asks for it or not, I’m not leaving your side. You should get used to having me around, Cara. Forget fake fucking. We’re gonna be fake dating now. From here on out, you introduce me as your new boy toy.” I don’t know why I say it. It’s the worst possible decision I’ve made since coming to New York. Pretending to date her isn’t going to make whatever this is between us any easier—on either of us.
Surprisingly, she shrugs and cuddles further into her massive pillows. “I guess it’s not the worst idea.”
Wrong, baby girl. So fucking wrong.
“Maybe whoever is sending the notes will see me in a relationship and think they made a mistake? I’m not a cheater.” She pouts.
I want to ask her, but I stop myself. Cara notices, though, asking me a flat, “What?”
Shrugging, I turn onto my back again so I don’t have to look at her. “It’s a bold question.”
“I’m coming to realize that’s just your way, Anders. What is it?”
I bite my lip before deciding just to ask the damn question. “Have you been with either of them recently?”
Thembeing Mick and Luca, but I know I don’t have to spell it out for her. I hate how my heart beats rapidly while I wait for her to respond, pounding against my rib cage so hard she can probably hear it.
“No.” The simple word has me turning my head to see her watching me earnestly. “I haven’t been with either of them for a while. Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m only with them when I’m feeling lonely and need a familiar touch. There’s been no one but you recently.”
Relief hits me in the gut so hard it takes my breath away for a second. It makes me realize that if I don’t tread carefully, I’m going to get myself into trouble again. What Carmela and I have is a sizzling mess of chemistry. But there’s someone out there actively threatening her life. I can’t allow myself to get distracted with feelings.
Yet, I close the distance between our bodies until there are only mere inches between us. As we lay on our sides, staring at each other, I reach over to brusha lock of hair off her face. Her eyes follow my hand, cheeks growing red at the contact of my fingertips brushing against her skin.
“Anders…”
“Go to sleep, baby girl. You can go back to hating me in the morning.”
It takes a moment, but she smiles and nods. “Promise?”
Against my better judgment, I lean over and place a chaste kiss on her forehead. “I promise.”
Carmela
True to his word, Anders let me go back to hating him the morning after we spent the night in my bed. Only, I’m finding that it’s a lot harder to do now. Even when he starts laying into me about what the hell I was thinking less than twenty-four hours after my attack. Even when he refuses to leave my side, becoming my constant shadow, which makes it extremely difficult to…oh, I don’t know…live my life!
Hating Anders just isn’t coming as easily as it did before.
I want to hate his stupid cocky attitude and his stupid handsome face—his rude words that I have a feeling are only being thrown in my direction because he’stryingto get a rise out of me, even if he won’t argue back when I take the bait.
Only one week since my attack, and I’ve turnedinto a simpering idiot whose actions resemble a teenage girl rather than a grown-ass woman.