Page 38 of Echoes in the Storm
“I thought if I shifted the sofa by the window around to face the other one, and then shunted them both to the wall, it would make a little cave for you to sleep in. A safe space.”
He doesn’t say a thing.
My heart thunders in my ears, my other senses heightened while my sight is trapped in the dark. Panic engulfs me when I wonder if I made him mad. But then again, he hasn’t left. His leg still presses on mine, his weight still causing the mattress to dip and me to lean toward him.
I swallow, the spoons warm, and yet the fear of what I’ll find if I take them away forces me to keep them in place. My tongue sweeps across my lips, words failing me as I fight for what to say to accept I probably overstepped the mark making his problem mine like that.
Turns out I don’t need to say a thing at all.
The bed rolls as he moves. I prepare for him to leave, for the click of the door as he goes.
I don’t prepare for warm lips to press against my own. I sure as hell don’t prepare for the way his gentle caress makes my heart skip a beat, or how I lean forward to keep the connection a little longer as he pulls away.
Wow.Totally didn’t predict that.
The spoons hit the bed as I blink rapidly, willing my eyes to stop their ridiculous burn at the sudden intrusion of light.
Duke sits still as a statue, watching me as I re-join the room.
“Are you going to say something?” I whisper.
“I don’t know what to say.” His brow furrows, his eyes almost alarmed.
“Shit, Duke. You sure know how to make a girl feel awkward.”
I look away as he falters for words, and focus on the inane task of swapping the spoons over. If he’s not sure how he feels about what he just did, then whydidhe? I didn’t ask him to kiss me. I don’t think I did anything to instigate that kind of situation. What the hell is his deal?
“Cam,” he says, strong and sure.
“What, Duke?” I spin my heated gaze to him, maddened that he’s gone and made what was already a tense night worse.
“You didn’t stop me.” He frowns. “You should have stopped me.”
“I should have stopped you?”I roll my eyes, slapping the cold spoons over them immediately after. “Is that all you’re thinking right now?” I snap, aware I probably look like a lunatic going off my chain at him with spoons over my eyes. “You think it was up tometo stop you?” I huff, growing madder by the second. “Newsflash, buddy. It’s the twenty-first century. Men should be able to control themselves without blaming their lust on the girl involved.”
He ignores my rambling, and continues with his lame protest. “Why didn’t you push me off?”
Heat rushes through my body, settling low in my abdomen at the thought of why. “Because”—I swallow— “I liked it.”
He doesn’t say anything, simply hums as though the idea interests him.
“Let me guess,” I say. “That makes me a hussy, allowing some stranger to come on to me in myownbedroom.” I laugh, feeling the need to steer this somewhere a little more light-hearted. “Jeez, Duke. If you wanted a comfier place to sleep, you could have just said you changed your mind about swapping for the bed.”
He doesn’t laugh with me, not even a snort.Think I’ll stay behind these spoons forever.
“You talk too much. You know that?”
Well aware, buddy.
“You keep shit in weird places,” he continues, “and you eat rat-shit kids food that has no real nutritional value for you.”
“Anything else?” I drone.
“You hold on to ghosts that keep you isolated from everyone who loves you, and you drive like a fucking maniac.”
I sigh, resting my head against the headboard. “You know, this isn’t doing anything to help make me feel better about myself.”
“I know,” he says as though exasperated by the train of thought tumbling from his lips. “I’m not trying to be an arsehole, Cam.”