Page 76 of Once Upon a Fake Date

“Look at you. My knight in shining armor coming to save the day,” she mumbled.

“I’ll always save you, sunshine.”

Setting her on the edge of my bed, I bent down to take her shoes off, letting them fall to the floor.

She smiled. “If I’m dreaming, I don’t want to wake up.”

I chuckled. “Not a dream, baby.” Her eyelashes fluttered as I pulled her into my arms. “Come on, we gotta get this dress off of you so we can go to bed.”

There was no way I was leaving her alone tonight. Especially not when she was all alone in the sorority house.

“Arms up,” I said, not wanting to yank the dress off and hurt her.

Audrey lifted her arms, and I tugged the tight dress off her body, doing my best not to look at her bare skin, knowing the only thing she had on was her bra and underwear.

“Turn around, sunshine,” I murmured against her ear. She complied, and I toyed with the strap of her bra. “On or off?”

“Off,” she murmured, covering her breasts as I flicked open the clasps, letting the straps fall down her arms.

I grabbed my red hoodie, pulling it over her arms and loving the way it fell down to mid-thigh, practically dwarfing her frame.

Audrey turned around and stepped closer to me, her fingers fumbling over the button on my jeans.

“Rosie.” I put my hand over hers, stilling the motion. “We’re not going to do anything tonight.”

She pouted. “Why not? Do you not want me?”

Dammit. “You’re drunk.” And there was no way I would take advantage of a drunk girl. And I respected her too much to let her do something she’d regret later.

Her teeth came out, digging into her lower lip. “The other night…” Her voice was all breath. “Did you not… like it?”

Fuck. Fuck that she even thought that. “It’s not that.”

Audrey frowned. “Then what is it?”

I sighed, bopping her on the nose. “Tonight, we’re going to sleep. Tomorrow, when you’re feeling better, we’ll talk, okay?”

She nodded, yawning again as I pulled the comforter back on my bed, extra thankful in this moment that I didn’t have a twin sized bed. “Parker?” Audrey whispered as she climbed into my bed, her hair spread out across my pillows.

“Yeah, sunshine?”

“You’ll be here when I wake up, right?”

“Of course I will.” I frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Her eyes shut as she snuggled into the pillow. “In my dreams, you’re always gone when I wake up.”

I ran my hand over her hair. “Good night, sleeping beauty.” I pressed my lips to her forehead, unable to stop touching her. “I promise I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Okay,” she murmured, curling up and quickly falling asleep.

I watched her for a few moments, satisfaction flowing through me at the sight of her in my bed. There wasn’t a single other person I could imagine here. It was like she was meant to be here.

Like all along, without knowing it, I’d been waiting for her.

CHAPTER 23

Audrey

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