Page 87 of Unguarded

I stumble out of the room in search of water and Advil. I won’t survive this day without it. When I reach the kitchen, I’m greeted by defined back muscles and Cash’s perfect round ass in a pair of gray sweats. He catches me admiring it when he turns. My cheeks heat as I raise my eyes to meet his.

The corner of his mouth twitches. “You need to hydrate before you have coffee.”

I gape at the black eye decorating his face. When it happened last night, I had no idea how bad it was. He opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of water. He tears open a hydration powder packet and adds it to the bottle. I watch his inked biceps contract as he shakes the bottle up before he hands it over to me.

“Stop looking at my body like that. You need to recover.” He smirks at me before grabbing his coffee mug to take another sip.

Something has shifted between us. He’s acting different …

He’s flirting with me.

I twist open the bottle cap and down half the contents, realizing how parched I suddenly feel. He holds out his hand. I look down and see two little blue pills.

“It’s for your head.”

I take them, swallowing them down with more of the water. “I feel like death.”

“I believe it. I found two empty wine bottles and a third half gone.”

“Duke opened the third one, and he—” I pause when I see the dark glint in his eyes.

“I’m gonna have to have anothertalkwith my little brother.”

I shake my head. “Look what he did to your eye last night when you attacked him.”

“You should see the other guy.”

I lick my lips, tilting my head to study him. He takes another sip of the coffee, but there’s still a smirk on his face.

“You’re in a good mood today,” I observe.

His smile widens. “I got a good night’s rest.”

The night floods back through my head.

I begged him to fuck me over a hay bale. He was dreaming about me.

“Any good dreams?”

His gaze licks over my body, making me feel overheated. I look down to see that I’m still wearing the pink dress I had on last night, and it’s smudged with blood from Cash picking me up and carrying me.

“I did have a very,verygood dream. Maybe I’ll tell you about it later.” He walks over, taking my hand. “But first, you need a shower and a change of clothes. The best hangover food is pizza, which is already on the way. We’re being lazy today.”

32

CASH

After spending the day on the couch, eating pizza, watchingFriendsreruns and the first two Jurassic Park movies, Monroe’s hangover seems to be mostly gone. The sun is starting to set outside when she stands up and stretches her arms over her head. I admire the shape of her ass and legs in the pastel purple leggings she changed into after her shower.

I’ve been subtly admiring things about her all day. The color of her eyes when she isn’t wearing any makeup is somehow brighter. The way she smells when she’s clean, but doesn’t have perfume on makes me want to hold her close and inhale. I stayed on the other side of the couch, but halfway throughJurassic Park, she scooted closer to me and draped her leg over my knee.

“Tell me about your mom.”

I turn to face her. She’s twisting a strand of hair around her finger.

“Whatabout her?”

“How old were you when she died?”

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