Page 46 of Hold Me Until Morning

I thought I must have already been drifting to sleep when my eyes popped back open, the sound of my phone vibrating on the wood pulling me from the promise of blissful sleep.

Groaning, I reached out and grabbed it, and I squinted through the darkness at the message.

CC

You didn’t even text to say goodnight. And here I thought we were friends.

My heart rate accelerated. A brimming of excitement and that clawing uncertainty that skimmed beneath the surface of my skin. A heatwave of warning.

The attraction that had never been extinguished through the years and the betrayal that gnashed at my insides for even giving it consideration.

I needed to put a barrier between us. Build a fifteen-foot wall.

The endeavor seemed doomed since he was in my face all the time.

Brow pinched, I tapped out a response, making sure to imbue all the accusation into it that I could muster.

Me

Are you watching my window?

His response neared instant.

CC

Tell me you weren’t watching mine.

Me

I have absolutely no reason to be watching your window, Mr. Cooper.

I fired it back just as fast, my breaths coming a little too shallow.

CC

Such a sweet little liar. And I thought we established it was Cody? Cody, baby. Let me hear you say it.

How easily he tossed out the tease and the taunt. It wound around me in a knitting of greed. Another text came in right behind it.

CC

I’ve never been so good at hiding what I want, so yeah, Shortcake, I was watching your window, wondering when I was going to catch you sneaking a peek at me again.

The air fled from my lungs, the oxygen growing too thin. How many times had he caught me peering out the window toward his in the last two weeks?

The stupid impulse to seek him out coming back to bite me in the ass.

It suddenly felt as if the temperature had risen by fifty degrees. My skin grew sticky with sweat.

Feeling suffocated by it, I threw off the covers and sat up on the side of my bed.

The draw I felt toward him was mad.

He was arrogant and brash and every-single-thing that I didn’t need in my life right then. My life was incredibly complicated, and it would be insane to toss another wrench into it.

More than that, it was our history that branded him as off-limits.

None of that seemed to make a difference, though, since desire was pounding through my bloodstream like the warning blare of a freight train.

---