Page 82 of Stone Cold Touch

Embarrassment swept through me. “How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough to know you’ve been checking me out.” The lopsided smile spread. “I feel like a piece of meat.”

“Shut up.”

“Didn’t say I didn’t enjoy the feeling.” He rolled onto his side, and I noticed that the dark shadows under his eyes had faded. His gaze drifted over my face. “I like waking up and seeing you here.”

A warm sensation buzzed through me like a happy little honeybee, and the feeling made me antsy. As I looked away, my hair slid over my shoulder, shielding my face.

“What?” he asked, dropping my wrist to reach up and brush back the blond locks.

“I don’t know.” I peeked at him, forcing my attention not to wander below his chin lest I find myself majorly distracted. “It’s just... I don’t know how to act when you’re so...open about this.”

His fingers lingered in my hair, slipping through the strands. “Act like you’ve always acted, Layla-bug. That’s what I’ve always liked about you.”

“The fact that I act like a dork most of the time?”

He grinned. “Yes.”

A laugh escaped me as I started to relax. Raising my legs, I crossed them. I watched him place the arm closest to me behind his head.

“I wish I would’ve been more open about it sooner,” he admitted quietly. “That I didn’t wait so long.”

I wished he had, too, because maybe things wouldn’t be so confusing and complicated now.

“Better late than never, right?” When I nodded, he slid his fingers down my arm. Even through the hoodie, I could feel his touch. “What’s for dinner?”

“I think some kind of stew or pot roast.”

“You going to eat with the rest of us?”

I shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know. It feels awkward to do so.”

“It’s not as though no one wants you there, Layla.”

That wasn’t how it felt to me. I glanced at the clock on the wall. “I should probably get going. You need—”

Zayne caught my arm and rolled so quickly that there was nothing I could do. I was suddenly on my back, staring into eyes that sparkled with mischief. He hovered above me, supporting his weight on his arms.

“Your running off isn’t what I need,” he said.

“It isn’t?” I squeaked out possibly the stupidest question, but I wasn’t to blame. The sheet had slipped low on his hips, and I honestly couldn’t tell if he was wearing anything under it.

“No.” His grin tugged at my chest. “Let’s snuggle for a while.”

“Snuggle?” I giggled at the image of a six-and-a-half-foot gargoyle cuddling.

He chuckled. “I thought girls liked to snuggle?”

“I really wouldn’t know.” That wasn’t true. I did love me some snuggling. All those times Zayne had slept beside me, and then there was the time with Roth, when all we’d done was lie in each other’s arms and talk about nothing important.

I drew in a sharp breath as my stomach flopped. I should not—could not think about him right now.

Zayne’s smile slipped as his eyes searched mine. “Sometimes you disappear on me when you’re here, and I probably don’t want to know where you go.”

My breath caught as my lungs expanded. I wanted to tell him that I didn’t go anywhere, and if I did it was nothing to be worried about, but that would be a lie and he’d know it.

One side of his lips quirked up. “But you arehere.So that means more.”

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