Page 86 of The Heart Breaker

Heat climbs up my neck, and I turn around, hearing a low laugh slip out of him as I sit on the couch.

“What are you even doing here, anyway?” I ask. “Shouldn’t you be with your family or something?”

I lift my head and see him tense slightly. “My dad sucks,” he says, sliding half the pizza onto a plate. He picks up both plates and turns. “You?”

I let out a sigh. “It’s… complicated.”

He drops the plates onto the table and sits beside me. “Family usually is,” he says, grabbing the remote and flicking on the TV, pressing play on the next episode of Demon Slayer.

I blink. “You’re already on season two?”

He takes a bite of his pizza and shrugs. “It got good.”

A smile slips out before I can stop it. I like that he watched something because I suggested it. I remember how hurt I was whenever Chase used to make fun of me for watching it.

I was a goddamn idiot for staying with him as long as I did.

I pick up a slice and take a bite, keeping my eyes on the screen for a minute.

“My mom and I had a fight,” I blurt out.

Cole glances over at me. “About what?”

I swallow, keeping my eyes on the TV. “I finally told her I was at Colton,” I tell him.

His brows pull together. “Why’s that a problem?”

I lift my eyes, letting out a deep breath. “She kept something from me,” I say. “And until yesterday, she didn’t know I knew. When she found out, she started yelling, and I started yelling. My stepdad tried to step in and calm us down but then she said some stuff, and I said some stuff, and the next thing I knew, I was at the airport booking the first flight back.” I glance over at him, my mouth twisting. “Very mature of me, I know.”

I take another bite, then gesture at him with my slice. “And now here I am on Christmas Eve, in the apartment of a man I used to hate who doesn’t even own a Christmas tree.”

He arches a brow as he chews. “You came here for dick, not decorations.”

I shoot him a glare, but the words turn my stomach, because when I stormed out of my parents’ house, the only person I wanted to see was him. Not for sex or a distraction. Just… him.

Cole is starting to become a constant presence in my life, and I don’t like what that might mean. He’s not just the guy I sleep with. Not just the guy who gets under my skin or takes up too much room in my head. He’s becoming the person I want to be around for no reason at all.

And that feels dangerous.

“I could’ve gone anywhere else,” I say, lifting my chin a little because suddenly I feel like I need to prove that. To him. To myself.

He holds my gaze while the TV murmurs in the background, and all I can hear is my own pulse pounding, every part of me suddenly too aware of how close he is.

“Glad you didn’t,” he says, his fingers lifting to brush against my jaw, tilting my chin up with a touch so careful it knocks the breath right out of me. I go still. I’m not even sure I remember how to move.

He leans in until his forehead is almost touching mine, his breath warm against my cheek, and when his mouth grazes the side of my neck, a shiver runs straight down my spine.

My eyes slip shut when his thumb slides under the hem of my sweater, his fingers brushing lightly over my skin. It’s so different from how we usually are that it throws me for a second. He isn’t grabbing at me or rushing. This feels slower, softer.

I open my eyes when the room gets too quiet and find him watching me. His gaze drops to my mouth, and the look in his eyes makes my head spin a little. I wonder if he’s thinking about what it would feel like if we actually kissed, just like I am.

God, I never should’ve made that stupid rule. I really thought that if he didn’t kiss me, I could sleep with him and somehow stop it from turning into more.

So much for that, because here I am, wanting him to break the exact rule I made in the first place.

My stomach tightens when his fingers trickle down my stomach. The hair on my arms sticks up when he settles on the button of my jeans, his eyes flicking to mine, giving me time to stop this if I want to.

I don’t.