Page 13 of Resurrection

When he heads upstairs before me, I don’t tell him he can’t go to my room. When I get there, I’ll find him naked, waiting. Any other time, his presence would be a bit thrilling. Sex was never the problem between us. Rather, the sex he was having with other people behind my back. Tonight he’s a means to an end. I need a release before my sexual frustration rages out of control.

After I’ve put the glasses in the dishwasher, I wander up the stairs. On the landing just outside my door is Finn.

“I assumed you’d be asleep by now.” I keep my voice low. Eric doesn’t need to realize he was eavesdropping.

“Did you?” Finn pushes his hands into his pockets and shrugs. “You knew I’d be listening.”

“Hear anything of interest?”

“Eric’s a dick.”

“What can I say? I have a thing for dicks.”

He smirks and glances away from me. “You’ve had a warehouse theft?”

“Yes. But we’ll get it under control. Eric is overreacting.”

He isn’t, but I don’t need Finn trying to ride to the rescue when he has to sort out his own life.

Finn scans me with his ice-blue eyes. “He’s in your room?”

“Probably.” My heart hammers.

Whether Eric’s in my room shouldn’t matter to him.

Finn grips the back of his neck with one hand, while his other disappears deeper into his jeans pocket.

“You don’t have to sleep with him to prove a point to me.”

“Is that what I’m doing?”

“I still feel it, Carys. The connection between us. It’s humming right now. You can’t tell me you don’t feel it too.”

Goose bumps rise on my arms, and I rub them. His sixth sense is accurate. When Finn and I are alone in a room together, something lives and breathes in our space. Back when this whole thing first started, the sensation freaked me out. Then I wondered if the tension in the air might be love. Now I recognize it as good old-fashioned lust. I can take care of that myself.

“If it makes tonight easier for you,” I say, “I would have had sex with him even if you weren’t here.” Backing away from him, I place my hand on my bedroom door. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He shakes his head but doesn’t meet my gaze. “You’re better than this, Carys.”

With pursed lips, I examine him for a moment. “Maybe. But this is all I want.”

Then I turn the handle and walk into my room.

Chapter Five

Finn

The sun streams in from the blinds I didn’t bother closing last night. My sleep was restless and painful, and just fucking terrible. I shoulda sucked it up and asked Carys for the drugs. That’s why I waited for her on the landing. Since the other doors were open on the second floor, I knew Eric was in her bedroom, waiting for her. Her settling for that guy is the equivalent of having someone piss on my cornflakes. I didn’t walk away from her the first time for her to end up with a guy like him.

The sun keeps hitting my eyes, and I throw my forearm across them, wishing I could will myself back to sleep. While I’m lying here, I need to figure out how to get out of this house. Being around Carys is a bomb with a lit fuse, fizzing away, getting closer and closer to exploding. My instinct is to stay, to watch it go off, to relish in the chaos and destruction.

Not this time.

I climb out of bed and grab the other set of clothes someone put on the dresser before I got here last night. My movements are slow and careful, but I get dressed as quickly as I can andamble down the stairs to see what I can find for breakfast. As I come into the main room, I suck in a deep breath filled with greasy bacon and coffee. Doesn’t get better than that. Standing at the island, meat sizzling on the grill in front of her, is Lena. Her black hair is in some kind of bun thing, and she hasn’t noticed me yet. We only met once, years ago, when Charles Van de Berg introduced us at a party, and it became clear she was playing the role of Mrs. Van de Berg, in Switzerland. Carys talked about her a lot back then—how she enjoyed Lena’s company, how her feelings were a betrayal of her mother.

“You’re still working here? You a glutton for punishment?”

Lena jumps, lets out a squeak, and touches a hand to her chest.

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