Page 26 of Guarding the Star

She smiles at my reaction. I can feel her smile without seeing it.

“Paula, Paula,” she murmurs against my mouth while her hand slides under my shirt.

My brain goes dark.

We kiss like nothing else exists, my hands running down her back, one of hers slipping under my waistband to find my ass, the other tracing my face with her fingertips.

And everything around us disappears.

“This isn't part of the contract, is it?” she asks when she pulls back, eyes locked on mine, voice dropped to nothing.

“No. This isn't part of any contract.”

“And you're okay with that?”

“I don't know,” I admit.

“God, Paula. I just kissed you and you say 'I don't know.' Do you ever answer with something that doesn't sound like a damn form?”

We stay quiet. Her hand still on my face. Mine on her waist.

“Do you regret it?” she asks.

“No.”

“No?”

“No, I don't regret it. And that's what worries me,” I say, and it comes out like a sigh.

She lets out a short laugh.

“Welcome to the club.”

She steps back. Half a step. Runs her hands over her face. Fixes her ponytail. And I watch the exact moment the shield goes back up. Her posture shifts. The smile returns.

“Okay. You go track down the psycho. I'm going to brush my teeth. And tomorrow we talk like adults who kissed in their pajamas on a Tuesday night. Which is the most depressing story in the world, but it's ours.”

“It's not depressing.”

“You kissed me right after a stalker threatened me. It's not exactly a kiss by the Eiffel Tower.”

“You don't need Paris.”

The shield wobbles for a second.

“No,” she says, quieter. “I guess I don't.”

When she comes back from the bathroom, she gets in bed and watches me while I type on my phone.

“Paula?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you stay tonight? I mean… here, with me… in the bed.”

“I don't think that's a good idea.”

“I'm not asking you to do anything. My body's not up for it right now. Well, my body is, but my head's not,” she admits, laughing low. “I just… I don't want to be alone. I know you'd be in the next room, but it's not the same. I would rather not be alone with the phone and that message and everything that just happened. Is that too much to ask?”