Page 32 of A Lonely Road
He reached over and tucked a curl behind my ear. “I’d love for you to stay. And without expectations—if you want to sleep here next to me, that’s fine. You want to cuddle, even better. And if you decide you want more than that, I am absolutelywilling to work off that cake in a way that ought to satisfy us both.”
From the way he looked at me, I knew he meant every word.
Even though I’d used the wordusually,the truth was that Ineverspent the night with anyone, whether it was a one-night stand or any of the brief relationships I’d attempted not long after I first set out on my own. Audrey and Jamal had never tried to change my mind, they’d just accepted that I slept alone, end of story.
Still, with Jake’s blue eyes watching me in that soft, warm way of his, I couldn’t quite bring myself to walk away just yet.
“I’ll stay,” I whispered, reaching out to trace the sharp line of his jaw. “For tonight, anyway.”
“Excellent decision. So, sleep?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Oh no, I choose what’s behind door number three, thank you very much.”
Without another word, he made good on his promise. It didn’t take long before I seized the reins and rolled him onto his back. If he had any lingering doubts as to how I felt about elevating our relationship to a different level, I set about systematically erasing them, one by one, moment by moment, stroke by stroke.
By the time I collapsed against his chest, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get enough of him. That thought was as beautiful as it was terrifying.
Just before I fell asleep, blanketing him with my body, the wordsjust friendsfloated across my mind and I chuckled softly against his shoulder.
His only response was an unintelligible murmur, and I let go of consciousness with the knowledge that he, too, had clearly thrown that particular decree out the window.
Chapter Sixteen
Jake
WhenIawokethenext morning, Nora was gone. The loss of her soft body beside me kicked off an ache inside my chest. It lingered even when I reminded myself shehadspent the night.
And what a glorious night it had been.
Baby steps.She would need time to get used to things, get comfortable with this level of intimacy—something beyond the physical. Every time she opened up to me, she showed more and more of her true self, the one she’d hidden behind those thorns, like the blossoms on the hawthorn tree out back.
Eventually, with patience and kindness and trust, I was almost certain she’d show me the rest.
I swallowed my disappointment, then glanced at the clock and swore under my breath. It was almost eleven—I hadn’t sleptpast eight in years. Of course, I hadn’t had such a fascinating companion to keep me up half the night, either.
The thought had me grinning up at the ceiling as memories of Nora, naked and glorious and bold, danced before my eyes.
Even though I'd joked about my sister being a force of nature, coming together with Nora was like being caught in a hurricane. She was wonderfully intense, with every new height drawing me higher right alongside her. Everything about her made me want to learn more, experience more.
Had she really run away this morning?
It hit me like a bucket of frigid water. Disappointment wasn’t the right word for what I was feeling—it was more a crushing sense of loss. Even though she'd warned me, made it sound like it wasn’t personal, I still felt like I’d done something wrong. I wracked my brain, trying to think of a moment when I might have pushed too hard, rushed her too fast, but there was nothing. Everything felt so perfect, so natural.
Things seemed to be going so well between us, and she’d given every indication of enjoying the night as much as I did. Her admission about being the first to leave echoed in my head and made my chest ache again, because I recognized that she was speaking from experience.
How could I make it clear that I had no intention of walking away from her without scaring her off with the force of that admission?
I rubbed a hand over my face as I sat up. It was a moment before I noticed that the cake box was gone from the bedsidetable, replaced by a scrap of paper she’d pulled off the notepad from the kitchen. Leaning over, I grabbed it and reread the words several times before they sunk in.
You’re cute when you sleep. Just couldn’t bear to wake you. Cake’s in the fridge. Leftovers make an excellent breakfast, FYI. ~N
I couldn’t hold back the idiotic smile that spread across my face. This didn’t feel like a “first one to leave” type of situation. This felt . . . good. It felt like a beginning, a promise of more to come, not like she considered things between us over and done with. I thought about texting her but forced myself to wait. Even if she'd warmed up to me—and fuck, had she warmed up—I still had the unsettling feeling that it wouldn’t take much to scare her off.
Patience and continued reassurance seemed to be just the thing to coax Nora from behind her walls. I could provide both of those things, not just until she recognized I wasn’t going anywhere, but for as long as she wanted me around.
If there was one thing I’d learned from being a twin, it was that I was the steady one in the face of Sam’s animated exuberance. I was the one happy to wait for my pleasure, to work for my reward, no matter how long it took. Sam loved a challenge, yes, but she thrived on a continually changing routine that accommodated her flashes of interest and fits of whimsy.
Steadfast and steady, my father had always called me, usually after my sister went whirling through a room and left me blinking in her wake. Though I knew he’d meant it as a compliment,it hadn’t felt like one back then, not when our classmates flocked to my sister from the first day we started at a new high school and referred to me only as “Sam’s brother.”
