Page 70 of Alive At Night

“Juni?”

I stepped beside her, looking over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of her face. She stared blankly ahead, causing my frown to deepen.

That is, until I followed her gaze.

The room was nothing short of elegant. The finishes screamed luxury and unheard-of expenses. But most importantly, in the middle of the room sat a large bed with fluffy white linens and a sleek, black headboard.

One large bed. One set of fluffy white linens. One sleek, black headboard.

One.

CHAPTERSIXTEEN

juniper

THERE WAS ONLY ONE bed in our hotel room.

It had been enough of a disaster when I thought I would have to share a room with Julian. Now I had to share abedwith Julian? After that car ride, when we’d skated around the topic of the last time we’d shared a bed? When Julian said that thing aboutprovinghe could leave me more than satisfied?

Oh, hell no.

Julian pushed past me, dropping one of our bags—because he’d insisted on carrying both—onto the armchair in the corner. He set the other on the ground.

“I’m sorry that you’re not going to be able to sleep with my friend like you’d clearly been planning on.”

His words were sharp, and his features pulled taut as he unzipped his jacket and wrestled out of it in an overly aggressive manner.

I barely managed to find my voice. “It wasn’t like that. I made these reservations before asking Noah to go with me. I don’t remember booking one bed, but then again, I didn’t expect to need two.”

Julian exhaled heavily. Dramatically. He was always so dramatic.

“At least the bed is big,” I added.

Julian’s gaze met mine, and I immediately knew that it didn’t matter how big the bed was. A forbidden heat lingered between us, and it would only fester beneath the sheets.

When Julian finally looked away, it was to search the room. His eyes landed on the nightstand, and he strode toward it to pick up a leather-bound booklet.

“I’m ordering room service because you need to eat something.” His movements were brisk as he began flipping through the pages. “So either tell me what you want, or I’ll pick for you.”

“You can pick.”

I hadn’t been hungry when Julian pulled into a rest area with a few different food options earlier. It was hard to focus on food when I was too busy reliving The Car Incident™. God, I was so tempted to delete all my audiobooks off my phone to make sure there was no way that could ever happen again. But I was too afraid to even open the app.

Meanwhile, Julian had glared at me when I told him I still wasn’t hungry. But eventually, he let it go.

He wouldn’t let it go this time; I knew that. He got overly stubborn with things like this, and I didn’t have any more fight left in me tonight.

Julian nodded absentmindedly while he perused the menu and then, before I knew it, had ordered more food than his entire eight-person family could eat.

I stared at him as he hung up the phone.

“Who’s going to eat all that?”

“You,” he replied flatly. “And me.”

“Jul—”

“If anything, I came this weekend to make sure you eat and sleep. So pick which side of the bed you want, and relax until the food comes.”

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