Page 24 of Beautiful Enemy

“It’s a headache. Not withdrawal.” She nods toward her notebook computer on the kitchen table before dumping the contents of her mug into the sink. “Been bent over that for twelve-plus-hour days since I was a teenager.”

“So, what, two years, then?”

The comment earns me side-eye as she puts a kettle on and fixes something else on the counter obscured behind her body. “I’m twenty-four. I’ve been doing this ten years.”

I cross to her, and she stiffens the moment she feels me at her back.

“What are you doing?”

I press a thumb into the muscle where her shoulder joins her neck inside the wide strap of her bra, and she sucks in a breath. “Ow!”

Rae tries to twist away, but I don’t let her. “It’s a trigger point. Breathe.”

“You are a sadist.”

“Give me thirty seconds. If it’s not better, you can call me whatever you want.”

For once, she does what I say.

I let my curiosity get the better of me. “So, you started at fourteen. High school dropout?”

The muscle starts to give under my hands, and I rub a small, deliberate circle that makes her hiss.

“Got my GED at sixteen and finished early so I could work on music.”

Determined.

“Plus, I don’t sleep much.“

I switch to the other side of her neck and dig in there. This time, she doesn’t jerk away.

“You looked as if you were sleeping fine this morning.”

She rips herself out of my hands, bracing against the sink and turning to level me with accusing eyes. “What the hell were you doing in my room?”

“I returned your sweater. You’re lucky it suffered a kinder fate than my jacket.”

“And you stuck around to watch me?”

“You talk in your sleep. Not my fault you were saying my name.”

I’m expecting her to snap back at me, maybe even hit me, but her expression is shocked.

As if she wants to tell me I’m lying but she’s not sure.

I wanted to catch her off guard, but it’s me who’s rocked when a bolt of attraction surges down my spine, has my abs clenching under my dress shirt.

“I didn’t.” The whisper drags along my skin, and fuck if I can’t help thinking how she’d sound whispering other things.

“You did,” I promise.

Her throat tightens as she swallows. Her eyes cloud.

A timer goes off, and she slips out from where I have her against the sink.

Dammit.

The knee-jerk disappointment makes me grimace.

---