Page 63 of Exchange of Heart

‘I’m sorry I took so long.’

Corey nodded in acknowledgment as I slipped past him and closed the door behind me. When he joined me twenty minutes later wrapped in his own blanket, I glanced at the time on my phone. Five in the evening should be too early to sleep, but the exhaustion from my shitty sleep last night was taking its toll. I wondered if each blink would be the last before my eyes refused to reopen. Our clothes wouldn’t be ready until morning, so I wrapped myself like a newborn baby as best I could and laid on top of the sheets.

‘Now,’ I said. ‘When you’re ready to sleep, you go under the sheets.’

‘What, and let the sheets create some sort of barrier?’

‘Yes, exactly.’

Corey rolled his eyes and grinned. ‘Sure, Nora. If that’ll make you sleep better.’

The truth was, I’d probably sleep better if we cosied our bodies together under those covers, but boundaries with men were imperative. I couldn’t ignore my goals just because someone disguised as me listened carefully and offered help when I needed it. I’d seen and heard the complications caused by my dad and refused to be suckered into financial dependence like my mother. She’d warned me, I’d listened, and now it was up to me to stay strong and avoid falling into any traps. Mum started with marriage and ended with too many years off work caring for me and my brothers for her to be able to get back into her career.

Financially fucked wouldn’t be in my future.

Even with Hayley’s voice in the back of my mind telling me, love doesn’t have to be that way, Corey would remain outside my barrier.

Love?

Where the hell did that thought come from?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Nora

Despite it being years since I’d sleepwalked, I woke the next morning under the covers I’d carefully lain on top of, my personal blanket crumpled on the floor. The old mattress sagged in the middle, and our naked bodies pressed together in the sunken groove like snug sardines in a tin.

I gasped at the soft skin against my groin, the sound jolting Corey, which pressed his ass harder against me and did nothing to help ease my horrifying erection. My blood turned to ice until I was as stiff as the dick between my legs. My eyes squeezed shut and I counted to ten with deep breaths. Table legs. Overdue reports. Toilets. Vomit.

Nothing worked. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this aroused, and even this tight, firm ball sack begged for attention. I carefully rolled to the side and grabbed the blanket from the floor, wrapped it around me, and raced to the bathroom. I stared at my throbbing penis and hated the temptation to wrap my large hands around it and ease the urge.

Corey had told me not to let his dick suffer. Was it suffering?

I was suffering.

There wasn’t enough blood in this body for both my dick and my brain. It was the only explanation for what I convinced myself to do. I closed my eyes and brushed my fingers over the rock-hard penis. It tensed with desire and before my brain caught up with my actions, my hand placed a firm grip around it. Foreign yet intoxicating. An arousing dream where it’s not really your body yet you can feel the relief of pleasure. With motions I’ve never used on myself, I followed my instincts and swallowed my moan as I indulged until I reached an eruption of ecstasy I never wanted to end.

I felt dirty and satisfied all at once. Like every Christmas when I ate too much pudding.

I convinced myself it would be the first and only time I ever masturbated to Corey Flemmington. I turned on the shower, but just as the water washed my sins down the drain, Corey knocked on the door bringing me back to my guilt. I turned the shower off and wrapped a towel around me.

‘Hey.’ I poked my face out the door.

Corey held out a bundle of clothes in his hands, wearing his outfit from yesterday. ‘These are for you.’

‘Oh, thanks.’

‘Are you okay? It sounded like you woke from a nightmare or something.’

A nightmare. That’s exactly what it was.

‘I’m okay. Thanks for the clothes.’ I closed the door and pulled on my clean jeans and black T-shirt.

I hoped Corey hadn’t realised I’d scooted under the sheets with him last night. As far as he was concerned, I’d been on the top layer in my own blanket the entire time. It then occurred to me that there was no rain tapping the roof. I yanked open the door and raced into the bedroom.

‘When did the rain stop? Are the roads open?’

Corey looked up from his phone. ‘I’m trying to figure that out, but I don’t know which roads lead where.’