Page 104 of Burn Bright
“You’re going to sleep in your car?”
“I did it for two years. One more night won’t kill me.”
“Just come here,” he says. “Stay with me for the night.” His words are so casually cool that you would never think Ben Cobalt just invited me to spend the fucking night! I’m freaking out, and my feet decide now is the time to lose momentum.
I stop in the hallway, my boots frozen beside a stain on the ugliest purple carpet I’ve ever seen. “In case you’ve forgotten, Friend, you sleep on a couch.”
“It’s a pull-out. I can take the floor.”
“No, see, car trumps floor.”
“Then we can share the pull-out. It’s big enough for two people.”
I grumble a noise of disbelief, but my cheeks are likely fire-engine red. I am set ablaze at this idea.
“My legs fit on it, Fisher. What does that tell you?”
“That you’re curling up in the fetal position at night.” I chew on my lip, feeling the start of a smile.
He laughs. “Jesus. What do I need to do to convince you? Do you want me to video call while I pull out a tape measure?”
My lips tug into a bigger smile. My heart pounds so deeply. “That’s unnecessary—” He’s video calling me.
When I click into it, his face fills the frame. Tendrils of his hair swoop over his forehead, and his blue eyes are so captivating that I wonder how many girls he’s charmed into bed. Ten? Twenty? Is our body count even similar? Friends probably shouldn’t actively want this information. Maybe that makes me an overly curious friend. I can live with that.
“Harriet Fisher,” he says, all too seriously. “Please spend the night at my place.” Spending the night with him, even as friends, does beat sleeping in a car ten times out of ten. Resisting is futile, but I do have questions.
“Are your brothers okay with it?” I ask.
I haven’t seen any of them since that night at the escape game a month ago. In truth, I have been full-on avoiding. They’re intense and truly the first people to intimidate me who don’t have an M.D. after their name. But I know being friends with Ben means I will run into his brothers sooner or later.
“If they weren’t okay with it, they’d be the biggest hypocrites on the planet.” Oh, his brothers bring home hookups.
That is…information I never thought I’d have. He flips the camera to a long camel-leather couch that honestly looks like it might’ve been picked out of a designer showroom.
It must be made of eco-friendly leather. Ben has told me there are a bunch of different kinds made from things like mushrooms, teak leaves, and even cacti.
So I can’t see Ben sleeping on cow hides, especially after he asked if my jacket was authentic leather. I almost laughed. It is100% pleather. No way could I afford the real deal, not that I had a big desire to anyway.
I asked him if any of his family is as environmentally conscious. He said his brother Beckett won’t wear real leather, but it’s mostly just out of respect for him.
I’m still staring at the couch. Where Ben sleeps. And…where his brothers live. That is asharedliving room.
“But are your brothers having friendly sleepovers orfriendlysleepovers.” I emphasize the second ‘friendly’ with a raise of my brows.
Ben is grinning. “Probably the latter.”
“So won’t your brothers think we’re havingfriendlysleepovers too?”
“I will make sure they know it’s the normal kind of friendly.”
I bite the corner of my lip. “Okay.”
His face lights up. “Okay, see you in fifteen.”
We hang up and my feet start working again. But it’s only when I make it to the street that I realize what’s happening. I’m about to spend the night at the Cobalt brothers’ apartment.
Holy shit.
