Page 62 of Alive At Night

Julian’s lips twitched. “Am I the only one who’s required to be nice in this fake relationship?”

“Yep, pretty much,” I said, giving him a satisfied nod.

“I think I’ll still survive.”

At least that made one of us.

When I didn’t reply, Julian held out his arms like he expected me to dive into them, and I stilled.

Okay,fine. Maybe I did need some practice with this.Thisbeing voluntary movement toward Julian Briggs. Presently, my body seemed to require a little coaxing. Or maybe that was my brain.

After sliding off my desk, I warily closed the distance between Julian and me, trying to ignore the odd, encouraging smile he flashed me. And once my face was in the perfect position to stare straight at Julian’s neck and his bobbing Adam’s apple, Julian closed his arms around me. A hand settled on the base of my spine. The feeling of it burned through my dress, but pleasantly so. I could do this. I could handle this.

But then Julian began trailing his fingers up the length of my spine like he was tickling keys on a piano, and I immediately changed my mind.

“Relax, Daisy.”

Easier said than done, but I took a deep breath and let myself lean into him.

“See?” Julian breathed. “That’s not so bad.”

When I didn’t reply, he added, “I bet I don’t even smell bad, do I?”

I shook my head, breathing in the masculine musk of his cologne. And then my eyes fluttered shut as Julian’s caressing hand put some sort of drowsing spell over me. It must be the lingering Halloween spirit from the weekend. It had to be.

“How late were you out last night?” he asked, voice soft, humor apparent in it.

“Not that late.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Did Noah walk you home?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“When?”

“Not long after you left.”

“But then you stayed up. Didn’t you?”

I nodded against his chest, hoping I didn’t get my makeup on his crisp, white shirt. If I did, he might revoke his kindness rule, and I was a little bit banking on that at the moment.

His chest rose and fell beneath my head in a steady wave. Hard and soft at the same time.

This wasn’t supposed to feel this good.

Shit, bad idea. Such a bad idea.

“When we go to New York, I’m going to make sure you get plenty of sleep.” His voice was husky. It had a soothing quality I didn’t ever imagine possible.

Thatwoke me right up. Because I hadn’t thought that far ahead to realize that if Julian was my date to Sofia’s wedding, then we would be staying together. Sleeping together. Well, notsleepingsleeping together, but sleeping in the same room. And we’d already done that once, and to put it mildly, it would be dangerous to repeat.

“I don’t need you to tuck me into bed, Julian.”

“Someone clearly does.”

“Should I have asked Noah to do it last night?”

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