Page 84 of What Remains

“I don’t like being hot in bed.”

“Same.” The word is nearly drowned out by the water continuing to run in the background.

I’m not about to ask her what she plans to sleep in, even if I’m desperate to find out what she’s currently wearing (or lack thereof).

“Gwen?” I rasp.

“Yeah?” she whispers.

“You feel better now?”

“You know I do,” she says softly and without hesitation.

“Good.” I shut my eyes. “Go to bed for me, okay? Don’t even talk to your dad about those texts. Don’t read anything tonight. Your brain will get wired, and I need you to sleep.”

She’s quiet, then the shower water turns off. “I’ll behave.” I’m about to remind her that word isn’t in her vocabulary, when she adds, “Just for tonight.”

“Throw in a tomorrow for me, and we have a deal.”

She chuckles. “Don’t press your luck.”

“A guy has to try.”

She sighs and the small sound travels from my ear into my chest, filling the dull void there. “I’d expect nothing less of you.” She whispers, “Goodnight, E.”

I open my eyes, my heart rate picking up. “Goodnight, Gwen.”

CHAPTER 27

Gwen

My screen starts to go blurry from staring at it for so long. The lines of code merge into one stream and become 4D, popping out at me.

“More coffee?” Easton’s deep voice snaps me out of it, and I rub my eyes and twist around to find him standing by me, his U-M mug extended.

I shouldn’t notice the vein in his tanned forearm as he offers me the coffee or wonder what it’d be like to have that hand on me, but here I am, doing exactly that. With my dad on the couch behind us, no less.

My gaze wanders to Easton’s chest as he exhales, and yeah, he for sure clocked that look of mine. Probably remembers what I said on the plane before turbulence knocked us into Carter’s bedroom, too.

I doubt I’m blushing. Let’s be honest, when it comes to making this man have to clear his throat or shove multiple sticks of gum in his mouth, checking out his arm porn is the least offensive thing I’ve done in the last few years.

“You’d think I didn’t sleep last night with how tired I am.” I fake a smile and toss in an innocent shoulder shrug to deflect.

He knows I slept, though. I texted him when I woke up: It’s a miracle, I got six hours of sleep.

I’m pretty sure he was telling the truth when he said he managed about the same. No dark shadows under his eyes to suggest a lie. But something tells me he’s still coping with what happened on that island, and his dreams were more on the nightmare side. Just like mine.

“We’re just exhausted from no leads,” he finally responds, nudging my favorite mug at me.

I steal a quick look at Dad and Natasha working side by side on my couch. It’s just the four of us here, and we’ve been at it since seven in the morning. Aside from the mandatory bites of food both Dad and Easton forced me to take, we’ve spent the last five hours buried behind our screens.

Of course, Easton was a bit more discreet. He texted me his orders to “eat or else” from across the room. If Dad wasn’t in here, I would have pushed him to find out about the “or else” part.

“Gwen.” Easton says my name so low it’s like he breathed it out instead.

The mug. Right. “I should give this back to you at some point,” I say before taking a sip.

“Nah, keep it.” He starts to turn, and that’s when I do something ridiculous and reach for his arm with my free hand.