Page 308 of Flirting with Darkness

“I’m not the only one with unhealthy coping mechanisms.” Nova gave him a pointed look. She’d seen how many bottles he’d had in there.

“It doesn’t affect me the same way it affects you.”

Right, he didn’t know she was more than a witch.

Nova sighed, staring at the food on the table and the water he’d put there as surreptitiously as possible. Dex had really tried and she’d managed to fuck this up too.

“What can I do to help?”

Nova didn’t know how to respond to that. Normally, she’d train with her dad until her body was in so much pain, or so numb, she’d fall into bed and sleep like the dead. But she couldn’t do that here, not without giving away what she was.

Sometimes she’d play her first-person shooter games. Starting up someCall of Dutyand wrecking the shit out of all the boys sounded amazing, but she didn’t have a gaming setup here.

“I hate feeling like a failure,” she admitted, adjusting his shirt slightly. There was so much more she could say, but Nova didn’t trust herself. She should be telling him nothing.

“Why do you feel like a failure?” Dex finally sat on the couch next to her and she avoided looking when he rubbed the nipple she’d flicked.

“My family has a lot of expectations.” Nova suddenly wanted to tell him everything.

Being friends was somehow worse because now she had to constantly avoid direct questions.

She should have never replied to his text message.

Dex was silent as he watched her. “Is physically comforting a friend okay?”

How the fuck was she supposed to respond to that? “In what way?”

Without wasting any time, he grabbed her leg and yanked her toward him. Nova slammed into his side and he wrapped his arms around her. Dex didn’t look down at her though, his eyes were fixated on the TV. “Friends are allowed to platonically hug friends, right?”

“Would you hold a man like this?”

He grinned down at her then and winked. “Yes.”

Oh.

Well then.

“As a boyfriend or a friend?”

“Both.” Dex tapped the remote and let the show play. “Not all of us are afraid of nonsexual intimacy Nova.”

Fucking hell, this wasn’t making anything easier.

But it was warm, and relaxing. She watched the show and rested her head on his shoulder. Her mother had held her like this on rough nights when the nightmares wouldn’t stop.

It could really be this simple.

“I like this show,” she told him. “Thank you for inviting me over.”

“Mhm.”

Dex squeezed her once and she relaxed into him.

Her father was definitely right.

She needed to leave.

19

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