Page 124 of Alive At Night

“Don’t get used to it. You’ll always be Daisy to me.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE

julian

JUNIPER MADE ME SLEEP on the couch.

I mean, she didn’tmakeme. As much as I’d wanted to crawl in beside her last night, sleeping in the same bed as Juniper was a proven form of torture. Until she was convinced of every fucking thing I said recently, I didn’t trust myself that close to her.

We shouldn’t be doing any of this, but I no longer cared. As hard as I tried to reason, I couldn’t push Juniper away like I did when we were younger. If the last few months had taught me anything, it was that. She was there, right fucking there, and unless I changed jobs and moved out of Boston, which I really didn’t want to do, that wouldn’t be changing.

From the minute she walked out of the office to go on a date with Noah, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it. I couldn’t sit on the sidelines and watch her live life without me. Especially when she looked so goddamn unhappy about it. It would be different if I thought she wasn’t hurt, if she didn’t ache just as much.

All I could do was embrace it. I pushed down all those other thoughts that had been circulating in my brain for the last decade and embraced every ounce of emotion, all of it surrounding Juniper.Juniper.And I came to one conclusion.

She was fucking mine.

Juniper St. James was mine; there was no denying it any longer. She thought she was Noah’s to take out on a date? Never, not ever. They were both fucking around with me, and I knew it, but that didn’t stop me from spiraling until I had Juniper back in my arms again. She. Was. Mine. And now I just needed her to stick around long enough so I could prove it to her.

I’d never had a problem sharing.

But sharing Juniper St. James?

Not a chance in hell would I ever be good at that.

Closing my eyes to shield the sun coming through the windows of my living room, I wondered if I’d manage to get another twenty minutes of sleep when all I could think of was how Juni was in bed less than twenty feet away. My bed. She was in my bed. And I was out here, getting a crick in my neck.

Maybe I could climb in with her, just for a few minutes. Just to savor a bit of closeness before we went to work and spent the whole day pretending that we didn’t want to jump each other’s—

“How’s my little sleeping beauty?”

Juniper’s sugary voice broke through my daydreams of crawling beneath the covers to find her warm body, and I sighed with the realization that it wouldn’t happen. Not today. She was already awake—of courseshe was already awake.

“Who the hell you callinglittle, Daisy?” I muttered. She’d be eating her words soon enough. Until then, I resigned myself to reality and opened my eyes. And then nearly fell off the couch. “Jesus fuck.”

“Oh, you are awake.” Her smile stretched wide as she walked into my kitchen to grab a glass of water. “I thought maybe I’d need to play Prince Charming and kiss you to get you up.”

I groaned, running a hand over my face. Nothing sounded better than a good-morning kiss from Juni, but if she came over here dressed like that, we probably wouldn’t make it to work at all.

“I peeked into your closet,” she added cheekily as if it weren’t already fucking obvious. She rounded the corner of my kitchen counter, leaning on the end of it so I could get a full view of her in my college football jersey. And nothing else. In a slow, torturous movement, she set her glass of water back onto the counter before spinning.BRIGGS, written across the back of the blue-and-gold jersey, flashed at me.

“I’m a little sad that I never got to see you play in college,” she said before flicking her long, wavy hair over her shoulder. With the smallCon the front of my jersey showing, she added, “Captain.”

She was trying to fucking kill me.

“Juniper,” I intoned—a warning.

“Julian,” she said, her voice sultry and sweet. Her eyes landed on my bare chest, dropping until they hit the blanket around my waist, which was thankfully covering a painful case of morning wood. Today, it had nothing to do with it being morning and everything to do with Juniper standing in my kitchen half-naked.

I leaned forward, pinning her with a stare so she knew how goddamn serious my next words were.

“Unless you want to lose your virginity by getting bent over my kitchen table before work, I’d suggest you go back into my room right fucking now,” I said, lowering my voice and making sure it dripped with intent.

Juniper worried her bottom lip between her teeth and cocked her head to the side in consideration, but she didn’t leave. She returned my look, and hers simmered.

Unable to bear it, I flung myself back onto the couch, rubbing the heel of my hands over my eyes. “What are you doing to me, Juni?” I groaned.

“Does it bother you?” she whispered.

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