“I need these gone,” I choke.
Kieran nods before he comes around the opposite side of the bed and starts clearing up the rest of the petals.
We work in silence, and if he notices any of the stray tears that start to fall down my cheeks, he says nothing.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I mumble, quickly grabbing my pajamas from my suitcase.
Kieran nods, and I leave him to finish cleaning up the petals as I lock myself in the bathroom to try and put some space between us.
I wish I didn’t care about Kieran or our fake wedding or any of it, but I do, and that only makes me cry harder.
My skin feels sticky from the humid Vegas air, and I stand under the waterfall shower until my skin turns pink. The exhaustion goes down to my bones, and I feel like I’ve experienced every emotion possible in the past twenty-four hours.
I wish I could stay in this shower forever if only to avoid climbing into that bed, but my eyelids start to feel heavy, so I shut off the water and towel myself dry before pulling on a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top. I barely even have the energy to brush my teeth or take my pill, but I force myself to because I don’t want to wake up with stale alcohol breath in the morning.
When I head back into the bedroom, I find Kieran trying to wedge himself into the chair, wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants.
I sigh, trying to not gawk at the sight of his abs. “You’re going to break that.”
“I’ll manage,” he mutters without looking at me.
I know I should just leave him to struggle. I know I shouldn’t care if he gets a good night's sleep or not. But I glance at the enormous bed and back at Kieran, and guilt starts to creep in.
He might be a pain in my ass, but he’s still a human being who is visibly struggling because ofme.
“Just…get in the bed,” I offer as I climb into the bed myself.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“Like I said earlier, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“And I’m telling you, you won’t.” I pat the free side of the bed. “Just get in, Kieran.”
He looks up at me then, with a deep crease between his brows.
“You’re sure?”
“The bed is so huge an elephant could sleep between us. As long as you stay on your side, I think we’ll both survive.”
After a long pause, he eventually nods before untangling himself from the chair and crossing over to the bed.
I watch him out of the corner of my eye as he grabs a pillow and tosses it on the floor before pulling back the covers.
“It should be illegal to still have such visible abs after eating a boatload of pasta,” I mutter as he climbs into bed beside me.
The mattress dips under his weight, and suddenly, the bed doesn’t feel so big after all.
“So, you admit you were looking?”
“It’s hard not to when you insist on parading them around all the time.”
Kieran chuckles, and I quickly roll onto my side so that I’m facing away from him so that he can’t see how red my cheeks are.
“I can parade other things around if you’re getting bored of the abs.”
I flick off the lamp. “Go to sleep, Kieran.”
