Page 53 of What Is Love
As soon as we got inside, Wyatt asked Roe, “I’m guessing she’s sleeping in your room?”
“You’ve both been drinking. She isn’t sharing a room with you,” Roe said.
Wyatt smiled. “The next time you have a sleepover, I better be invited.” He looked at me. “Night, joint thief.”
“Night,” I said as he went down the hall to his room.
“Let me get you some water and some painkillers,” Roe said as he went into the kitchen. I heard doors open and close, a pill bottle shake. He returned with a glass in one hand and pills in another. “I have a feeling you’re going to need this after everything you drank tonight.”
I took the pills and swallowed them down with the water he’d brought me. “Thank you.”
He led me to his room, which was directly across from Wyatt’s. Roe opened his door, flipped on the light, and gestured for me to go in first.
The first thing I noticed when walking in was that his room was very neat and organized. He had a queen-size bed with white bedding in the far corner of the room. There was a nightstand next to it with a lamp, a clock, and a framed picture on it. The wall by the foot of the bed was taken up by an extremely tidy desk and closet. The entire wall opposite of the bed, from floor to ceiling, was lined with black bookshelves. He had his own personal library.
“Did you know that when you take things in, you do it with no emotion or reaction on your face?” Roe said as he shut the door and leaned against it.
“What?” I said, turning to face him.
“All the years I’ve known you, you’ve done a very good job making yourself unreadable. It threw Wyatt, by the way. He said when he took you to his room, you looked around as if you were staring at blank walls. You just did it again right now as you looked around my room.”
“It’s safer to not react,” I said as I looked away.
“What do you mean by that?”
I shrugged. I didn’t have the energy to backtrack and lie.
He didn’t push me to answer. “Lately, I’ve noticed that when you’re relaxed, you let your feelings show.”
“I feel safe around you,” I said without thinking, but it was honest. Before I could second-guess what I’d said, my gaze caught on the frame on his nightstand. I set my glass of water and wristlet on the flat surface next to it before picking it up. It was the picture of him, Wyatt, and Reid where they were younger—the same one Wyatt had in his room. I wondered if Reid had the same picture at his place. There was something beautiful and enviable about having people who’d been close to you for most of your life. People who brought good into your world.
I felt Roe come up behind me. “Do you not feel safe right now?”
I set the frame back where it had been and turned to face him. He was inches from me—so close that I could feel him without actually touching him. It was like he gave off a pull, and the more time we spent together, the stronger it felt. Giving in to it, I grabbed his hand with the bird tattoo. He let me lift it up so I could see it better. I ran a finger over it, outlining it. Then I ran the pads of my fingers over the butterfly that spanned his two middle fingers. “I’m nervous.”
“Why are you nervous?”
“I’ve never slept over somewhere before,” I answered honestly.
He took his hand from mine to bring it to my cheek. I tilted my head back to look up at him. His eyes roamed all over my face, taking in every detail. I couldn’t help but admire his long dark eyelashes that made his beautiful eyes stand out more.
“You’re so pretty,” I blurted.
He smiled as he brushed his thumb along the very edge of my bottom lip. “That’s the alcohol talking.”
“I’ve always thought that.”
His thumb pulled down on my bottom lip just a little and I almost gave in to the urge to slip out my tongue to taste him.
He closed his eyes as he sighed through his nose. When he reopened them, his hand dropped to my shoulder. “We should go to bed.”
I nodded and he pulled away. He put a few feet between us before running his fingers through his hair. “I can sleep on the floor.”
“You don’t want to sleep next to me?”
He scoffed like that was the silliest question I could have ever asked as he sat on the edge of his bed and began unlacing his boots.
I took a seat next to him and began taking off my own. He paused to watch as I slid them down, unveiling each of my legs beneath. I stood to set my boots and socks out of the way. Roe got up and put his in his closet. Then I reached behind me to unzip the leather skirt Mac had lent me. He went still as a statue as I slid the skirt down and stepped out of it. I folded it and walked across the room, past him, to set it on his desk. His whole body turned to watch me. All I had on was Mac’s dark green crop top and my cream silk-and-lace thong. It all left very little to the imagination.
