Page 67 of Make Me Dream of You

She steps closer, her arm brushing my elbow. “Is something bothering you? Do you want to talk about it?”

I shake my head. No, I don’t want to talk about how badly I want to kiss her and how I want her to tell Anthony to fuck off and spend time with me, instead. Only me.

Mine.

“No,” I say. “I’m fine. I’m sorry I’ve been in a bad mood. And I’m sorry about the other night, too.”

“You were in a bad mood the other night, too?” She scrunches her face up in the most adorable way and it makes me smile.

“No, I mean when you saw me, um…upstairs.”

“Oh!” She turns red and I regret saying anything.

I want to make her feel many things—happy, safe, content, aroused…but not embarrassed. Never embarrassed.

“I’m the one who should be saying sorry about that,” she says, not looking me in the eyes. “I mean, this is your place and I just wandered up there in the middle of the night. Next time, I’ll make sure to announce myself. Loudly.”

She looks up and smiles at me and it warms me from the inside.

“Honestly, I didn’t think you were home, and on the off chance you were, it was so quiet and dark I didn’t want to wake you if you were sleeping?—”

She’s cute when she rambles.

“You don’t need to worry about that. I hardly ever sleep.”

“You don’t sleep?”

“Not much. Insomnia.”

She grimaces. “That sucks. I have a friend who has a hard time sleeping, too. I can’t even imagine.”

“Yeah. It’s even worse on the couch.”

“Oh my god.” She takes a step back, her eyes widening, mouth dropping in horror, hand going to her chest. “And I’ve taken your bed.”

Fuck. “No, no, no. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, we need to switch. I’ll take the couch. Bex is with Macy tonight, so it works out.”

“Absolutely not. You get the bed.”

She crosses her arms over her chest, narrows her eyes, and purses her lips. “I’m not going to let this go.”

“It’s nonnegotiable. I won’t let you sleep on the couch while you’re staying here.”

“Fine,” she says, lifting her chin.

“Good. We’re in agreement.”

“We’ll just both sleep in the bed, then.”

It takes me a second to register her words. I must not have heard correctly. “What?”

“You won’t let me sleep on the couch and I won’t be the reason you can’t get better sleep in your bed. So, us both sleeping in it seems to be the only solution to me.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Why not?”

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