Page 6 of Puck My Heart

I kicked him in the stomach a little harder than I intended, but he deserved it for perving on me last night, even if I had enjoyed the process.

“Aren’t you supposed to ask a lady for permission before you touch her?” I asked, though my voice came out more sleepy than sassy.

He laughed without looking at me, his eyes still closed. “Girl, last night I saw more of you than anyladyever has on show and I remember how much you love a good foot massage…as an apology.”

“You call that an apology—ohh.” I sighed and settled back as he started in on my arches with strong thumbs, my argument completely forgotten. My thermos tumbled from hands that weren’t half as responsive as I needed them to be, but the mutedthunkI expected didn’t arrive. Nor were my feet cold, considering my lazy ass didn’t relight the downstairs fire last night when in-zombie-ac me wandered about the house at all hours.

“I got it.”

I opened my eyes to find Hux leaning over me. He placed the long empty thermos gently on the carpet at my side, his proximity more intoxicating than he had been last night. Dark eyes, almost solid enough to be black that matched his hair, though I knew they reflected a deep chocolate brown in the right light, surveyed me with a sort of easy humor. I shivered as he squeezed the arch of my foot, resuming his massage as he eased back.

His gaze coasted over me, arched lips so often curved in a secret smirk he didn’t know I saw during my teenage years when he looked at me crooked up at one corner.

“Good to see you have some decent clothes.” His smirk grew. “Wait, isn’t that one of my old jerseys?”

I grabbed the nearest cushion and tossed it at him. The fluffy white thing bounced harmlessly off his shoulder. “Probably. I grabbed it out of a drawer this morning.”

He laughed at me. “How early were you up? ‘Cause you were asleep down here when I went out for wood.”

All the wrong sorts of comments about morning wood ran through my head. I chose to be an adult and shut my trap for a moment.

I shrugged and wished for a never ending thermos of enterally steaming black coffee instead. “Insomniac. I don’t sleep at any of the right times.”

He watched me for a long moment. Too long. I shifted under his gaze.

“No wonder, if you’re watching this shit.” He nodded at the TV that scrolled through the sixth season of a show I’d watched at least a dozen times around the clock plus the spin off. Not that I'd be fessing up to that any time soon.

“Way to insult a girl’s favorite midnight pastime, Hux.” I tugged my feet back, but he linked his thumb and forefingeraround my ankle in an unbreakable—or so it seemed to my soggy, sleepless ass—hold. “Let go.”

“No chance. Since when haven’t you slept?”

Since I dated the wrong man and developed a few extra habits that are harder to break than others.

I closed my mouth with a snap as my cheeks heated. “Sorry. That was supposed to stay on the inside.”

Hux watched me. Again. He was also developing a new habit around me. I wasn’t sure I liked it. “Sometimes it needs to be said. You talked about it?” He kept the words casual, but his grip on my ankles flexed.

I swallowed at the flash of possession in his gaze, like hecared. Like he hadn’t left me alone years ago, and not come back.That’s not fair.But that was the truth. My ultimate hang up. Likeanyonehad the time when I was?—

Nope, not going there.

“Yeah. I talk to a therapist once a month.” I gave a derisive snort. “She has an ostentatiously empty office. That’s how ‘good’ she is. And I talk to Mom when she’s in range. Sometimes.”

He swallowed. “Must be nice to have parents to talk to that sort of stuff about,” he muttered wistfully.

Fuckity fuck.

“Don’t do that,” I mumbled. Squeezing my eyes shut I mouthedsorry, unable to face the tragedy that happened less than two miles from this house. We all witnessed Hux lose it that year, and the next…he was a different man. The boy with a dream who grew up overnight, and never came back.

Until now. Huh. What a year to play happy families.

“It’s okay, Annie,” he murmured, running his fingers along the insides of my calves under my blanket.

I started at the nickname I hadn’t heard in years, though Hux had always called me that since we were kids. Since…I couldn’tremember how young I’d been. He just always had. The name sank over me.Familiar.

My heart squeezed, but Hux didn’t let up or give me a chance to breathe. His hands coasted over my borrowed sweats, but it was like he touched bare skin in a burning path.This isn’t fair.Any time I’d had a crush on him he’d been untouchable. I was cool with that; being untouchable left him firmly in the realm of my daydreams. And some other sorts of dreams.

But now…flirting with him last night had been the worst of ideas. A pit of regret swarmed low in my belly until I wanted to puke. I tugged my legs away and he let me, tucking them beneath me. Hux didn’t argue as I fumbled blindly for my thermos, still not looking at him even when I opened my eyes.

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