Page 61 of Vicious Sentiments

“Baby, I can’t lay in that bed next to your body and not touch you.”

I pause. I want him to touch me but am I being naive? Am I so broken that I don’t see how wrong it is for me? And I’m still not sure how I feel about what I read in the folder hidden in his office.

“Then just…” I flail. I don’t know if I’m ready for it but I don’t want him to go. I eye the chair in the corner of the room. “Just stay there.” I nod my head towards it.

He gives a sidelong glance at it. I would worry about the comfortability of it but I’ve tested it myself and it’s as comfy as it is probably expensive. It has a wide bottom and a plush back with floppy arm rests. It’s not a warm bed, but I really want him to stay.

“And you don’t think that would be creepy?” His lip twitches and it dawns on me that Margo asked him the same thing when she blocked him outside my door the night I overheard them.

“I would like it,” I say.

A wicked smile slowly curls his lips and he makes his way to the chair, flicking the light off on his way. I can just make out his silhouette as he takes the seat and stretches his legs out in front of himself.

Feeling content, I scoot back in the bed and cover myself. “Thank you,” I whisper into the dark.

“No, thank you. This is much better than the hallway floor.”

I picture how he fell in when I opened the door. Was that the first time he had done that or had he been there other nights?

“In the future, you can always come in,” I whisper.

“Don’t tempt me,” His voice is little more than a rasp. “Sleep well, baby.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

My foot is on the brake, and we’re still in the driveway, but my underarms are damp and my heart is thumping against my rib-cage.

“Julian, this is a bad idea,” I say.

“It’s fine. Just ease off the brake,” he says from the passenger seat. He’s got an arm slung over my headrest as he leans towards me and he doesn’t seem the least bit worried about the McLaren.

I’ve tried to tell him that I’ve never driven before—have never even sat in a driver’s seat, and don’t know the first thing about road laws but he herded me into the car anyways.

“What if I crash?”

He lifts his shoulders. “Only one way to find out.”

“That’s not funny,” I snap my head in his direction, and he sighs.

“We’re just going down the street. There’s hardly ever any traffic along here.”

“Unless, I accidentally run over someone,” I grumble because I know that I’m not winning this.

“If she doesn’t want to, can I try?” Marney butts her head in from the back.

“Pretty sure you can’t reach the pedals,” Julian quips back.

Marney was so excited when she heard that Julian was going to give me a driving lesson, that even though I wasn’t sure I was goingto do it, I let her come with us.

Now I’m second guessing my choice. The last thing I want to do is get Marney killed.

“I want to drive the convertible anyways,” Marney huffs and sits back.

“Actually, that sounds like a better idea,” I say. “Marney can show me how it’s done.”

“Will you just take your foot off the brake?” Julian says.

With a whimper, I do just that. The car rolls forward on its own and I slam my foot back down. The car jostles, lunging us all forward.

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