Page 22 of Lost in You (Flirting with Forever 1)

Me: Maybe. I don’t know. That’s part of the problem.

Me: Gotta go. You all can keep gabbing if you want. I’ll catch up later.

I set my phone on the bedside table, facedown. Shawn definitely doesn’t need to see any of that. Odds are good that they will keep talking, and the messages will keep flashing on my screen, especially after my last comment.

I’ve just slid under the covers on my designated side of the bed when the door opens, and Shawn comes out. Another episode of Friends has just started, and Shawn goes from standing still to playing air guitar to the theme music in no time flat.

He’s so into it I try not to laugh, but it’s so adorable I can’t help myself. I cover my mouth while I look on at him wildly strumming and moving fingers on the strings of his air guitar. I’m glad an actual guitar isn’t hiding his body, because I’m rather enjoying the view as he really gets into it, my eyes roving over him. As he gets closer and closer to the bed, the temperature in the room seems to rise, and I can’t help watching every little move he makes. His pajama bottoms are slung way low, treating me to a decadent view of the V-shaped ridges of muscle that dip down below his waistband. I don’t ever recall being this close to a man who looks anywhere near like this. He’s close to god-like. A guitar god. My fingers itch to reach out and touch all that taut, smooth skin, find out what it would be like to have the hard planes of his body pressed up against the softness of mine.

I’d like to lick him. Yes, I would. I’d run my tongue—

“Madison?”

I blink and Shawn’s at the edge of the bed, looking down at me, his brow furrowed. Oh my God. Way to get a little carried away. I only hope what I was thinking isn’t indelibly written all over my face.

“You okay? It was like you thought I was funny and then not so much. Did I do something wrong?”

With a quick shake of my head, my response bursts from me. “No, no. My mind is just running amok an awful lot lately.”

His head tips to the side, intense blue eyes studying me. “Okay, Butterfly. Just don’t fly too far away from me just yet. I don’t think I can handle making it through this wedding tomorrow without you.”

He climbs into the bed next to me, adjusting himself against the pillows. I look over at him, pressing my lips together. “Me neither, Shawn.” I find my lip between my teeth again as I watch him get settled. “I don’t think I’d be able to get through it without you either, I mean. Thank you again for coming with me—for helping me through this.”

“Well, don’t thank me yet. But I hope I can be the man you need me to be tomorrow.”

My breath hitches. Why do I get the feeling that he really could be the man I need? And not only that, but maybe the man I want.

For now, though, fake boyfriend.

One thing at a time.

I shove my thoughts aside and sink back against the pillows, content for the moment just to be here with him, feeling his heat next to me, and listen to the happy sound of his laughter as we watch the TV program together. I shut my eyes and let myself drift.

Chapter 11

Shawn

Madison has slumped lower and lower onto her pillows as we watch the show. I’m pretty sure she’s asleep, or almost there, and now I don’t really know what to do because if I try to get out of this hokey little bed, I know I’ll wake her up. She looks so damned peaceful, I can’t bring myself to do it.

She mumbles a little bit and rolls inward on the bed toward my body. It’s relatively cold in the room, and like a heat-seeking missile, she instinctively keeps scooting closer and closer to me.

Carefully, I slide down further in the bed just as she edges even closer. I leave the TV flickering as it plays another episode, but go ahead and turn out the bedside light. She sighs in her sleep and nuzzles her cheek against my arm. She’s pretty damn cute. So innocent looking and so pretty as her wild curls spill everywhere around us on the pillows.

I grimace as I think back to our conversation at the restaurant about how she’d discovered Chase’s cheating. It had sounded like her discovery of him with the neighbor had come as a great shock to her. And then the look on her face when she mentioned that Chase had just kept right on fucking the other girl … well, I want to find him and make him hurt. As far as I can tell, Chase has lost all sense of morality.

And after hearing why she’d ended things with him, I’m now one thousand percent sure she has no idea that time with the neighbor wasn’t the first time he’d cheated on her. She doesn’t know. I swallow carefully, trying not to get myself all worked up.

I don’t know what happened to make him like this, but I could tell he’d come back from college a completely different person. I’m curious what Madison saw in him and why she’d ever dated him in the first place, but I’m guessing I probably don’t want to know. Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why we like the people we do. And I can’t fault her because before he changed, he’d been a decent guy. Perhaps she’d been blinded by the image of the guy she remembered from high school. He’d been cool.

This new version of him is not.

I’d found that out the hard way.

“Shawn! Over here!” Chase waves to

me from the far end of the bar, where he’s set up camp, surrounded by a bunch of women. As I approach, I can tell they are pretty well blitzed, and Chase is having the time of his life with so many women.

Before I get to them, I snag the bartender’s attention and order a beer. Once it’s in hand, I join the group. The very, very drunk group. I can’t help but wonder how long they’ve been at it, they weave on their feet as I watch. “Hey, Chase. How’s it going?”

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