Page 116 of Texting, Trouble & Touchdowns
“You’re dangerous, Liv.”
“Too fucking dangerous.”
She doesn’t hear me.
She just shifts closer, her thigh sliding over mine like a claim, her hand resting against my stomach like it’s where she belongs.
Maybe she does.
Maybe I’m the one who’s late to that realization.
And if this is what spiraling looks like?
Fuck it.
Let me fall even faster.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Olivia
Rules of Engagement (and Other Lies We Told Ourselves)
I wake up warm.
Not just blanket-warm. Not simply couch-on-a-snowy-day-warm. This is human-furnace warm. Male chest, arm slungacross my waist, someone’s thigh tangled with mine kind of warm.
And I should probably be alarmed. Or at the very least mildly uncomfortable. Except my body? She’s having the time of her life.
Also, she already knows it’s him.
Lucian.
Lucian Freaking Crawford.
His scent hits me before my brain even finishes booting up for the day—citrus, musk, and a hint of whatever shampoo he uses that smells way too good to be legal. How does this man still smell edible after sleeping? I probably smell like stress and one too many poor decisions.
He smells like a whole damn cologne commercial. With abs.
There’s a hand on my stomach.
I crack one eye open.
Yep. His fingers are possessively splayed over the hem of his shirt that I’m still wearing—like he’s been holding onto me all night.
Correction: I’m ninety-nine percent sure he has been holding onto me all night.
His breath brushes my hairline—slow, deep. Still asleep or pretending really well.
Good. I need a second. Maybe two. Maybe a lifetime.
Because everything hurts- not in a call-your-doctor way. This is the used-in-all-the-right-ways soreness. The kind my physical therapist would absolutely frown at but probably high-five me for. Yet, it’s not just physical.
That would be way too easy.
There’s a pull behind my ribs- a soft, low hum I hesitate to name yet because it’s probably the aftermath of my poor choices.
I shift slightly, and his arm tightens—like his body already knows I’m trying to escape.
