Page 89 of Under an Endless Moon

My entire being off kilter.

“Yeah, and tonight I just wanna take care of you.”

And this was going to have to suffice considering I wasn’t doing it the way I really wanted to do.

By the time I finished cleaning the kitchen, Raven was stretched out on the couch. There was a show playing on the television, but the sound was set to low, and she was reading a book rather than watching it.

I wound around the island, hesitating for a beat, but then deciding if we were going to truly put what happened last night behind us, I was going to have to act normal. No tiptoeing my way around her.

So I did the same thing as I’d done most nights since she started staying here. I moved around the couch and lifted her legs by the ankles and set her feet on my lap as I sat down on the far end.

Raven had changed into the tiniest pair of cotton shorts I’d ever seen, this baby blue color, and a tight white tank top that barely contained her tits.

It seemed she had set out to cause me physical pain.

Did my best to control the tornado of lust that twisted through me.

“What are you reading?” I asked, no interest whatsoever in the show playing on the television when I could be watching her instead.

A flush of pink flared on her cheeks. God, was her mind back there, too? Was she thinking about it? Me watching her?

Her tongue stroked across her bottom lip. “Just this small-town romance.”

Ah. Figured she’d be reading something sweet.

“Is it any good?”

“Really good. Definite five-star.” A tinge of excitement filled her voice.

A slow smile crept to my mouth. “You love it? Escaping into your books?”

She’d always been a reader. When she’d been young, she’d constantly had her nose in these giant fantasy books, the thick paperbacks half her size. I knew she still read, but I hadn’t had a clue how much until I found her on this couch or tucked up in my bed with a book night after night.

“I do. I love getting to have experiences through other people’s eyes. Things that I might not ever experience for myself. It’s different than when you’re watching TV. It’s like you’re there.”

“I can see that.”

She was staring over at me, and it wasn’t until then that I realized I was caressing my thumb up and down her calf, touching her like it was natural. Like I had the right.

I swore, her breaths had gone raspy, her body trembling as a new tension curled through the air.

Uncertainty.

Surety.

Our gazes tangled in this quiet intensity that keened between us on a tether.

Awareness spinning.

My throat grew thick, and I wondered if we both fucking knew.

Wondered if in that moment, we both knew if we’d met under different realities, if our circumstances were all different, we’d be doing this night after night.

Forever.

Two of us together in a real, permanent way.

But I think Raven knew it was impossible, too, because she suddenly hopped off the couch like she was about to catch fire. “I need to use the restroom.”

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