Page 44 of Snap Shot

I groan, pressing the pads of my fingers into my eyes. “What are you trying to do to me?” I mumble.

She startles and sighs out her next breath. “Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I was getting some water.”

“I was awake already,” I swallow another lie, gagging on the taste of cottonmouth. It's like a raccoon made a home there and then died. “Cupboard left of the sink.” The edge of the cool marble molds to me where I lean back into it, rubbing my eyes.

Indi finds a glass and fills it from the tap, peering over the rim when she brings it to her bowed mouth. I have never been so jealous of a glass.A long quiet moment passes as she finishes. This woman drives me batshit crazy. I brush over my jaw, nervous.

Tell her to stay. Tell her you can't stop thinking about her. That you want more moments like last night, when she cracked herself open a sliver and offered little pieces of her life to you.

“What's next?”

She cocks a leg, her back against the counter across from me, leaving the glass next to the sink. “Oh,uh, I'll start to take testimonials and see if there's any hard evidence…”

I don't mean to laugh. “I'm not talking about the case.” Scratching a brow, I continue. “I meant us. Are we gonna pretend like the last two weeks didn't happen?”

Tell her you want to know what she likes—her favorite food, how she spends her free time—everything. How she wants to be held, touched, kissed. Tell her you'll do it all.

“Yes!” Her shoulders slump, relieved. “I thought you'd never ask. That's what we should do. Clean slate. We can move forward—”

“Move forward?”

Indi pales as I straighten and stalk toward her, the heavy traces of whiskey making me brazen.

“And how am I supposed to do that? When you're here” —my eyes scan over her— “inmyhouse” —I take a step— “inmyclothes” —another step breaks the distance between us— “looking like you're exactly where you belong?”

Indi breathes out a barely audible response. “What?”

Tell her your heart wants to collapse onto itself when she's around. Not a single inhibition in sight, I trap her between my arms, posting them on either side of her frame. “How do you expect me to forget what you sound like when you come?”

This is not what we discussed! That's it. You're on your own.

She shrinks away, pressing herself into the counter, her lips cowering into a frown. “I hate you.”

“No, you don't, Indi.”

Fuck,she smells like the best times of my life. Warm, cinnamony holidays during the coldest parts of the year.I wonder if she tastes like it, too. My control dangles by the thinnest of next-morning-whiskey-drunk threads.“You showed meexactlyhow you feel when you moaned my name in your office.”

“Landon.” A surprised gasp gushes out, intoning with a chide.

“Yeah, just like that.”

Indi's throat strains through a gulp of air. Her eyes dart across my face as we close in, the tip of my nose sidling next to hers.

“I want to make you cry out for me again. Just. Like. That.”

Tears well, kissing the lower lids of her eyes.

No! That's not supposed to happen.

“I should've never stayed here.”

Indi grapples with my forearm and escapes, disappearing into my bedroom, then reemerges in her clothes from last night. My head throbs. Her heels clack past the door.

I pushed her too far, came on too strong and fucked up again.Ow, my head.

An aggressive, crescendoing growl bellows from my chest as I grab Indi's glass from the counter and hurl it against a white cupboard. Air tugs from my chest, heaving in the aftermath of the shatter and I slink to my room, hoping to sleep away the deep sense of regret settling in my gut.

Chapter 14: Calm Down, Everyone

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