Page 156 of Gloves Off

“Good.” Her mouth tips, eyes sparkling. “Because I noticed something in your room.” She buries her face into Stefan’s fur. Those two have always loved each other. “Alackof something.”

Oh god. I’m not ready to talk about this with her. I should have retrieved the bunnies myself.

“What?” Darcy asks, and my mouth starts to pull into a wince.

“There’s no bed in there.” Jordan studies me. She knows. Shesoknows. “Isn’t that weird, Georgia, that there’s no bed in your room? Are you sleeping on the floor?”

My face is going red. She knows I’m not sleeping on the floor.

“No, I’m not sleeping on the floor.” I stare at her, giving her myshut the fuck upeyes.

“Are you sleeping on the chair?” she wonders aloud with an innocent expression.

“No.” I’m going to kill her, and yet I’m smiling. “I’m not sleeping on the chair.”

Darcy sucks in an excited breath, clutching her hands together, eyes lit up bright and sparkly.

“Are you sleeping on the?—”

“I’m sleeping in Alexei’s bed. Happy?”

“Yes,” Darcy bursts out, bouncing up and down. “Very.”

“I’m a sleepwalker.” I can’t make eye contact with anyone. “It’s for my own safety.”

Silence, before they all burst out laughing.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Hazel asks.

“I’m serious,” I sputter, face burning hotter than the sun. “And it was his idea. Pippa, you believe me, right?” I gesture at the younger Hartley sister. “You’re the nice one.”

“Hey,” Hazel says, but she’s smiling.

“I thought I was the nice one,” Darcy says, pretending to pout.

“You and Pippa tie for being the nice ones, but I already know you don’t believe me.” I look to Pippa. “But you believe me, right, Pips?”

She presses her lips together, giving me a wincing, sympathetic look. “No.”

Hazel and Jordan smile at each other. Hazel starts walking around the room with her arms out like a zombie.

“Alexei,”she moans in a low voice like she’s possessed, and we’re all shaking with laughter.“Take your pants off so we can make a baby.”

Pippa chokes on her wine. Darcy is horizontal on the floor, shaking with laughter, and Jordan just smiles.

I’m helpless with laughter. “I’m a sleepwalker, not Frankenstein’s monster.”

“And what are you doing in this bed you share?” Jordan is enjoying this too much. “Just sleeping?”

“Who are you, my mother?” I sound so defensive. Even she’d want to know.

She shrugs, smiling. “He’s touching you a lot.”

“At every opportunity,” Pippa adds, also smiling.

“He really likes your hair,” Darcy adds. “He always stares at it. And the shoes.”

“Right.” Hazel nods. “He’s obsessed with her shoes.”

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