Page 29 of Stick Move

How could I have been so stupid, so insensitive?

Well done, Brighton. Well done.

I sneak a look at him, but he averts his gaze, focusing intently at some spot on the bed. A pained expression moves across his face as his gaze quickly cuts back to mine. Wait, is that pain or is it…fear?

“You need to get out of this bed,” he orders in a deep tone that serrates my post-orgasmic pleasure.

“What?” I ask, breath leaving my lungs in a whoosh as I push myself up, sure I’m hearing him wrong.

“Move, Brighton. Now.”

9

NOAH

I take in the confusion—the anguish—on Brighton’s face, but under the circumstances, there’s no time for words other than, “Brighton. Move.” She gulps in air, and slides off my body, and the second her feet hit the floor, I jump from the bed, and put her behind me. “Where the hell…” I scan the bed, my heart racing.

“Noah, what…what is going on?” Her shaky voice rushes over my skin as one quivering hand touches my arms almost tentatively as she tries to see around me.

Christ, this is not how I wanted things to go down after the most amazing sex I’ve had since…ever. All I wanted was to linger in bed with her, touch her body, press soft kisses to her flesh, but some hairy asshole had different plans for us.

“Brighton. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to frighten you. I just needed you out of the bed.”

“Was it awful or something?”

The shakiness of her voice rakes over me and my stomach clenches. Why do my words always come out wrong around her? I turn quickly, and the tears filling her eyes hit like a punch to the throat. Jesus, I didn’t mean to upset her like this.

I put my hands on her arms. “No, Jesus no. That was incredible…it’s just…” I move her a little further back and then pull her in beside me, keeping my arm around her body as I show her the mussed bed. “Look.”

She stares for a second, and a sound I have no control over crawls out of my throat as a hard shiver goes through me. With her nose scrunched her gaze goes from the bed, to me, back to the bed. “What am I looking at?”

“Oh Jesus,” I practically yell when I no longer see the big hairy asshole.

“Noah, what is it?”

“It just went under the pillow.” I start pacing and shaking my hands. “Fuck.” How can I ever sleep in that bed again?

“What went under the pillow?”

“The spider. You didn’t see it?” I point. “It went under my pillow.”

Her eyes go wide as she stares at me, like I might have just escaped an asylum, and then when understanding hits, she puts her hand over her mouth, but she can’t hide her smile, not when it’s lighting up her big blue eyes like laser beams. What the fuck?

“Noah,” she mumbles her hand still covering her mouth. “Ohmigod, Noah.”

“What?”

She puts one hand on my arm, in a consoling manner. “You’re…you’re afraid of spiders?”

I stride around, my skin itching as I look for something to crush it. “It’s not funny.”

“I know.”

I shake my head at her, and she drops her hand, but she drags her bottom lip between her teeth to stifle her laugh. “First you laugh when I break my toe, and now you’re laughing because I don’t particularly like spiders.” I scan the floor for a weapon. “No one likes spiders. They’re real assholes and they’re lightning fast.”

“Assholes?”

“What is wrong with you?” She steps up to the bed and I reach for her. “Brighton, no.”

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