Page 64 of Under the Ink

When Naomi heard the rap on the outside of her bunk, she suspected she knew why.

Just as she figured she knew the who.

“I know you’re awake, Naomi.”

That, too, was true. She’d just hurriedly gone pee in the bus bathroom—so he knew without a doubt that she wasn’t sleeping.

She’d been avoiding this moment. Why couldn’t it just go away?

“What do you want?”

Sage said, “I just want to talk. Five minutes, okay? And then I’ll let you sleep.”

“Okay. Then talk.”

After a second, he said, a little louder. “Nothere. I made some coffee. We can talk in the kitchen.”

She definitely didn’t want coffee, she thought as she grabbed her phone. After all, she wanted more sleep. But when she saw it was around five in the morning—at least it was five AM wherever her phone had last updated—she decided she might have some after all.

One thing she knew for sure—they still had miles and miles to go, and she had no idea where they were.

“Okay. Just gimme a sec.” Rifling along the side of her bed—if it could be called that—she located her bra and put it on, slipping her arms back through the sleeves of her t-shirt before pulling the curtain to her bunk aside. Even though she knew this wasn’t going to be a fun conversation, Sage made it easy to joke around, so she almost couldn’t help herself. “This better be the best coffee I’ve ever had.”

He actually smiled. She hadn’t expected that after bolting the night before.

Not to mention avoiding his calls and texts all day yesterday.

She wasn’t ready to deal.

It had been hard enough handling her own messed up head. She hadn’t said a word to Sage, because it was true that she wasn’t a virgin…but the time they’d spent together had been the first time she’dconsentedto sex.

Her first time with arealman.

And that was freaking her out…especially because he’d wanted to look at her.

Underneathher clothes.

No way. That was never going to happen. And what they’d done they would never do again. He had to know that. She’d already allowed him to see inside way more than she’d ever intended, so that was it.

No more.

And if he was going to force the issue, she might not be able to be kind or delicate about it.

Peeking her head all the way outside the curtain, she double checked that it was only Sage—and when she was sure, she stuck her legs out, covered by sweatpants, and dropped to the floor of the bus before closing it.

Those first steps always felt weird because the bus was in motion. Walking in front of Sage, she could feel his eyes on her and a wave of guilt washed through her body.

No. No way. This was Sage…the guy who’d talked about doing a groupie or two a night. There was no need to feel guilty because casual sex was his thing.

But why the hell did he want to talk about it?

She felt relief as she made her way downstairs before stepping into the kitchen area of the bus, glad to see that the only other person there was the bus driver. “The coffee smells good. Did you take any to Pat?”

“Pat?”

“Yeah, the bus driver.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that was his name. Do you want me to take him a cup?”

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