Page 65 of Fall Into Me

“A-a-and?” I stammered, fingers trying to grip him to me tighter.

“Super gross. You were right.”

A second bubble of laughter trickled up and out of my throat and I felt Fane chuckle in response. He kept talking. Random, stupid things until, eventually, the tremors in my body began to subside, the adrenaline draining away and leaving behind a bone-deep exhaustion. I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to think. All I wanted was to stay here, held in the safety of his arms, with his thumb tracing lazy patterns along my skin.

Fane started to hum. The deep and soothing rumble of his chest made my eyes fall shut the second I heard the start to his favorite song.

His thumb was still moving along the skin of my hip bone. I must’ve fallen asleep because when I woke up, I was pretty much lying on top of him, and the room was completely dark around us. If I thought I could get away with it, I was sorely mistaken.

He was already looking down at me when I tried to peek up at him through my lashes.

“Hey,” he whispered.

“Crap,” I mumbled, pushing up and away from him. His hands tightened on me for a second before he let me go. “Sorry.”

Fane pushed himself up to sit on the bed, leaned over to turn on the lamp on the bedside table. The warm glow that lit the room made the purple hue of his eyes look like they were housing a hale storm, the weight of his gaze was heavy when he settled it on me.

“We’re talking about it, Cali.”

“I know this all seems a bit wild, but it was nothing.”

“Nothing?” His eyebrows hit his hairline.

“Nothing.” I nodded, impressed with how I managed to even look him in the eyes.

“You were running like your life depended on it, slammed right into me, and then went into shock. The way you screamed…” He spoke slowly like he thought just talking about it would send me back into a catatonic state.

“Well, yes. I…” I scratched the back of my head and cleared my throat. “Thought I saw something.”

“You’re lying to me. You said, ‘He.’”

I wanted to tell him.

But every reason why I shouldn’t was right there at the forefront of my mind. “I don’t remember saying that.”

“You’re still lying.” It wasn’t said like an accusation but a fact. Like he knew me so well he could tell, just like that.

The fucked-up thing was I was sure he could. “I’m not.”

“You’re lying to me because you don’t trust me, and that’s fine. You don’tneedto trust me to tell me what had you white as a fucking ghost and terrified.”

Well, there was no debating that. Fane was many things, but he wasn’t an idiot.

The thing was, I wasn’t either, and everything that ran through my head this morning still rang true. I was terrified. Of course, I was terrified, I wasn’t made of stone. Despite mywillingness to ‘throw hands’ during dinner at my parents house, I was deeply aware that all anyone would need is to land one, mildly offensive hit and I’d be a goner.

But I was evenmoreterrified of what would happen to him if he got involved.

In the calmest voice I could manage, I said, “I scared myself. I overreacted.”

“Calista—” My name was a growl coming out of his mouth.

“Drop it, Fane. I was…beingdramatic.”Ugh. I wanted to tit-punch myself for that one.

“You’re joking.” He scoffed, looking so unimpressed I wanted to laugh, as inappropriate as it would have been right then. That’s when I noticed the time.

“Oh my god.” I’d never scrambled off my bed so fast in my life. “Oh my god, they’re going to kill me.”

It was half past seven. As in, an entire hour after we should have been at dinner.

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