Page 75 of Once Upon a Lie

“Just a minute!” I call around a mouthful of toothpaste. I quickly spit and rinse my mouth and toss on a T-shirt so I’m not just in my fucking boxer briefs, and head for the door when the pounding doesn’t stop.

“Geez, keep your pants on, for the love of—” The curse dies on my lips as Valentina comes into view. She looks beautiful in sweatpants and a T-shirt with a small duffel hanging off her shoulder, but my first instinct is to be worried.

I expected her to go to Alfred’s after she finished at her parents’, not show up here an hour before midnight.

“Hey,” she says softly, her eyes flickering down to my boxer briefs. “So . . . uh . . . you weren’t asleep, were you?”

“No,” I answer honestly. “Not yet. Is everything okay?”

She looks a little sheepish. “My parents’ dinner ran late, and I know Alfred is already in bed, and I didn’t want to wake him up. I figured maybe I could . . .” She lifts the strap of her bag a little. “Crash here?”

It’s a wonderful idea. It’s a fucking terrible idea. It’s a dream and nightmare rolled into one, and worse than that, it’s, perhaps, the trickiest answer I’ve ever been asked to give. Accepting puts me in trouble; declining might just mean she stops fucking with me for good.

“Crash here?” I clear my throat and run a hand through my hair, weighing my options, and landing on a winning vote by a surprise 1 percent. My dick, unsurprisingly, is the deciding vote. “Yeah. Of course. You can definitely crash here.”

“Phew. Thank you. I was really dreading finding an Uber back to Alfred’s this late.” She smiles big and steps inside, her flowery perfume doing dangerous things to my resolve as it wraps around me like a fucking blanket.

“Looks like you’re already ready for bed,” she says, moving inside upon my ushering and quickly moving to set her bag on the couch.

I nod. “Yeah. Just brushed my teeth.”

“I’m already ready for bed too.” She glances down at her feet, and her top teeth dig into her bottom lip. Straightening her spine, she looks up to hold my eyes for a second, then two, and then turns and walks straight into my bedroom without a word.

I follow.

She stops at the foot of my bed, and I say the first thing that comes to mind. “If you want the bed tonight, you’re more than welcome to it. But I didn’t change the sheets or anything.”

“I was actually thinking I could take the bed tonight.” There’s a brief pause, and then she rushes on to finish. “And I was thinking you could take the bed too.”

I pick up a hand and pretend to write down the math in the air in front of me, and she dissolves into a laugh as she charges forward to grab my hand. “Come on,” she urges, pushing her sweatpants down to her ankles and stepping out to reveal bare thighs, white lace panties, and two perfect swells on the underside of her ass.

Fuck. Me.

She climbs into my bed, pulling the blanket over her legs like she’s been sleeping here for years, and gestures me forward. “Come on, Shane. There’s no reason both of us can’t sleep in this bed. It’s huge.”

I pause because after seeing her perfect ass and her sleek thighs, my entire nervous system is trying to shut the fuck down.

“I . . . yeah. Big. Yeah.”

She smiles. “Unless you’d rather stand guard all night.”

I exhale, run a hand through my hair, and sit down on the edge of the bed before turning back to look at her again.

She pats the empty spot beside her, and for better or worse, I give in.

She shifts closer and the sheets rustle and her bare legs are pressed against mine. Her skin is warm and soft and silky and all the things I really wish it weren’t right now. I talk circles around my dick, threatening everything under the sun if he gives me away.

She digs her teeth into her bottom lip again, and then leans over and kisses me.

Her lips brush mine gently like she’s testing the waters, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m already riding the waves of a Category 5 hurricane. She tilts her head to the side, and I find myself using it to my advantage and deepening our kiss.

When a little moan leaves her lips, I’m gone.

A growl escapes my throat, and I kiss her harder, deeper, electrifying.

Her fingers slide into my hair, her body presses against mine, and my cock, unimpressed with my earlier threats, revolts. But instead of shrinking back in horror, she grinds herself against me.

My brain screams to stop. My body doesn’t listen.