Page 37 of Pretend

“And I appreciate that, but if you don’t tell me what I want to know soon, I’m going to hurt you,” Morgan explained, blinking at him as she reached up and pushed her glasses back up her nose as she waited for him to talk.

“I still have four skips left,” he reminded her.

“Then, why don’t we get those out of the way?” Morgan suggested as she folded her arms over her chest as she went back to trying to intimidate him.

“Ask away,” Eric said, only to glare when the little bully reached up and palmed his face before pushing him away.

“I’m going to require distance for the rest of this interrogation,” Morgan said with a satisfied sigh as Eric reluctantly stepped back, only to sigh heavily and kept moving back when she shot a pointed look down at his feet.

“Better?” Eric asked as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

“For now,” Morgan said with a slow nod. “You were telling me what we’re really doing here.”

“That’s not really a question,” Eric pointed out, feeling his lips twitch as he watched her eyes narrow dangerously on him.

“It’s like you want me to hurt you,” Morgan said, shaking her head in wonder.

“I’m not really into that,” Eric said, watching as her lips twitched before she managed to pull it back.

“What are you up to, Eric Bradford?” Morgan demanded, confirming his fears.

He wasn’t going to be able to pull this off without telling her something.

Morgan was…

God, there was no good way to say this, Morgan was adorable as hell, but she was also beyond fucking paranoid. Always has been. While other kids had been excited about the prospect of Santa Claus bringing them presents, Morgan demanded answers. She wanted to know how Santa knew if she was good, how he knew what she wanted for Christmas, how he was able to get into their house without a key, and how eight tiny reindeer were able to fly without wings.

Her parents did their best to explain everything, but Morgan didn’t buy it, which led to her demanding that he sneak over to her house on Christmas Eve and help her hide behind the couch with a Nerf bat so that she could wait for Santa and get some real answers. Granted, if he’d known that she would end up hobbling her father when she spotted him eating the cookies that she left out to lure Santa closer, he would have taken that bat away from her, but…

He’d been curious to see if she could take Santa down.

That was quickly followed by her parents deciding against surprise parties after they tried to surprise her with a clown for her sixth birthday. Then again, if Bo-Bo hadn’t snuck up behind her with a party popper, she probably wouldn’t have started screaming “stranger danger” and punched him in the balls.

And now…

“Do you want the truth?” Eric asked, watching her closely.

“Usually,” Morgan said, once again gesturing for him to get on with it.

So. Fucking. Cute.

“I was hoping that I could pull this off without having to tell you what I was up to, but then I remembered something important,” Eric said conversationally as he stood and made his way back to her.

“What’s that?” Morgan asked as she watched his every move.

“That you’re a pain in the ass,” Eric drawled as he moved to stand between her legs again.

“That should have been taken into consideration before you started screwing with my head,” Morgan reminded him.

“Probably,” Eric murmured in agreement as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Did you miss the threat of violence that I made a few minutes ago?” Morgan asked, blinking up at him.

“I did catch that,” Eric said, nodding solemnly.

“Then, start talking,” Morgan said as she folded her arms over her chest as she did her best to intimidate him.

“I want a fresh start,” Eric said, leaning back in to kiss her cheek. “I want more.”

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