Page 129 of Nothing to Tell

“Do you know how grateful I was for that invitation?I couldn’t function without you by my side.Family, work, it all—”

“If we want to keep each other, we have to stop doing… that.”

“You didn’t like it?‘Cause I’m damn sure you—”

“I did.I did like it and I did…” Being close to him, just thinking about orgasm threatened to shove aside her resolve.“What happens when we wake up in the morning?When the sun rises?I shouldn’t be thinking about how good you feel…”

“Think about that any time,” he said with a whisper of swagger as he rested a shoulder on the door frame.“Sweet…”

“We’re making a mess of this.A mess of a good friendship with sex.”

“Great sex.”

“If I’ve figured out one thing this week, it’s that you’re my…”

What did Roxie call Zairn?She couldn’t—they weren’t.That wasn’t it.

“Your what?”he asked, boosting himself from the doorframe.“What am I, Sweet?”

What he’d been from the beginning.“My white knight.”

His suggestive brow relaxed.“And the white knight would never compromise his princess.”

His next step was backward.The wrong way.

No.No.That wasn’t what she wanted.

In the times he got closer, her heart raced as her subconscious sped through the tantalizing possibilities of what might come next.Until the moment of his partial retreat, she’d believed distance was good.Experiencing it was something else.And nothing about watching him back off was good.

“I don’t want you to go,” she admitted.

How bad she wanted him to stay was part of the problem.The biggest.

He raised an arm to offer her a hand.And that was it, the moment she had to choose.Did she take his hand or turn her back?It wasn’t even a choice.

“No words.No sex,” he said, conveying he’d respect her wishes, not that she’d ever doubt that.“Just let me hold you.”She wanted that.“I need you near me.Everything else can wait until the sun rises.And I promise you, Sweet, the sky will not fall, not while you’re under it.I give you my promise, I’ll always keep you safe.”

Tomorrow was coming, no matter what.Would she be ready for whatever happened next?Her arm rose and their fingers touched.While the dark still held them, she couldn’t resist the option.As long as his hand was open, she’d fill it with hers.

FORTY-FOUR

“I STAYED IN HIS bed all night,” she admitted to her friend on the phone.

“What did he say when you woke up?”

To her shame… “Well, I…”

Roxie exhaled.“You snuck out, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t sneak,” she asserted.“I just left… quietly… while he was sleeping.”

“Girl, you have to stop doing that!Did you at least shower and get ready at the house?Give him a chance to wake up and talk to you?”

“I went to the gym.”

Her friend was incredulous.“To shower?”

“I worked out.”Because she’d been slacking.At least, that was what she told herself.“Then showered.”