“You also said that I should stay with a friend,” she throws in with a coy smile.
When I said that, I didn’t mean me.I’ve decided the way I feel about Chloe is anythingbutfriendly.Still, I’m hardly going to send her home if she doesn’t want to go.“You can stay if you want.”
She blinks at me, her eyes narrowing.“But do youwantme to?”
I shouldn’t want her to, but I answer honestly.“Yes.”
Is that selfish, knowing I’m leaving town in a few weeks?
Also yes.
The truth is, I don’t want to spend yet another night alone in this house, or spend the rest of the night overthinking every decision I’ve ever made.
I want to lose myself in her.
Not that I’m going to give in to that urge.
“Although only one of the rooms is set up,” I add, just so she knows the situation upstairs.
Chloe’s shy smile brightens her whole damn face as she pushes to her feet and adjusts the waistband on her borrowed sweatpants.“That’s okay.I don’t mind sleeping on the floor.”
As if I would ever let that happen.“If anyone is sleeping on the floor, it’s me.”
She follows quietly as I check that the front door is locked, then turn off all the lights on the way up the stairs.We keep going to the room at the end of the hallway, which I’ve claimed as my own.
My brothers are going to be pissed that I stole the only other room with an en-suite, but they can suck it up.I’m the one here doing the work, so I get first dibs.
Chloe’s lips purse as she peers into the room.“The bed looks big enough.Why don’t we both just sleep there?”
I splurged on a king mattress, so hypothetically, there should be plenty of room, and I have enough restraint to keep my dick in my pants.This, tonight, is about making Chloe feel safe...giving her a place to stay where she doesn’t have to worry about her dad, or her house, or anything else.
Including me trying to make a move on her.
“Only if you promise to behave,” I say.
Grinning, she sinks onto the mattress. “Don’t worry, Ethan.I promise to be a very good girl.”
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
CHLOE
I’m curledup on Ethan’s mattress, his house gently swaying as the wind batters the island.Normally, the rocking motion puts me right to sleep, but not tonight.
Tonight, I’m thinking about my dad and feeling mildly guilty that I’m not there to make sure he’s okay.But dammit, he can get his own glasses of water and find his own painkillers for the debilitating headache that’s bound to strike around five or six in the morning.I love my house, but right now I can’t be near him.
There’s one more reason I can’t sleep.
He’s six foot and change, has the body of a Greek god, and is lying as far from me as the king-sized bed allows.
I smooth my hands down the blanket covering my waist, already feeling his giant sweatpants tangle around my legs.I hate sleeping in pants, but since I’m not wearing anything underneath them, I don’t really have much of a choice.I could go downstairs and grab my underwear from the dryer, but am I really going to sleep in Ethan’s T-shirt and a pair of lace panties that leave nothing to the imagination?
“Are you asleep?”I whisper into the dark room, counting the seconds between the flashes of lightning and booms of thunder.When I was a kid, my dad told me that every second between the two is how many miles there are between you and the storm.I have no clue if that’s true or not, but if it is, the storm must be right on top of us.
Ethan huffs a breath.“No.”
His voice sounds so much deeper in the dark.
“Why not?”I whisper back.He’s so still—I honestly thought he was passed out.
