Page 79 of Puck Me Back to Life

He doesn't either.

The arrangement happens.

A few minutes later, he starts speaking again. “I still think you're being dramatic.”

“I'm taking you home.”

Kai immediately grabs my arm. “No.”

The answer comes so fast that I bark out a laugh.

He glares.

I grin.

The reaction is worth it. For the first time all evening, Kai doesn't try to argue about being cared for. He settles back down. The sitcom keeps playing. The room grows quieter. And somewhere in the middle of a terrible joke from thirty years ago, I realize neither of us has said a word in almost fifteen minutes.

Kai is half asleep. Curled against my side. Wearing my shirt. Occupying my bed like he belongs there.

The realization should probably concern me.

Instead, I pull the blanket higher over both of us and leave the television on.

Tomorrow can figure itself out.

Tonight, he's staying right here.

9

Kai

Iwake up before the sun. For a second, I don't know where I am. Then I feel the weight draped over my waist.

A large arm.

Warm.

Heavy.

Ash.

I bury my face into his pillows, enjoying the smell of him.

Then, my eyes jolt open.

I slept. Not passed out. Not stared at my ceiling until three in the morning. Not wandered my apartment counting the hours until dawn.

I slept.

The room is dark except for a thin strip of gray light creeping through the curtains. Ash is behind me. One arm wrapped around my stomach. His face buried against the back of my neck.

His breathing is slow and steady. He's still asleep.

I stay perfectly still.

The sensible thing would be getting up, finding my clothes, and leaving before this gets weird. Instead, I lie there staring at the wall. Because this feels... Dangerous.

Not the way Ash feels dangerous.