“Don’t you knock?”
He grinned. “I didn’t want to wake you up.”
“So what was your plan?”
“Ideally, I was going to sneak into your bed, but I guess I was louder than I thought.”
“No, I just don’t sleep deeply anymore.” We both knew why that was. Getting kidnapped by cougar shifters and almost raped can do that to a girl.
I looked away. Seeing him without a shirt was doing a number on me.
He noticed. “Still going to tell me you don’t want to work things out?”
“Yes, but I’m too tired to argue.”
“I just wanted to tell you that you were awesome tonight. Plus, you did promise to tell me what upset you.”
I’d hoped he’d forgotten. “Okay, but we need to be quiet. I don’t want to wake up Hailey.”
“I can do quiet.”
I sat down on the couch next to him, not even caring that I was only wearing a t-shirt. He’d seen me in less. “I don’t want you going off your handle.”
“I can’t promise that. If someone did something to upset you, there will be consequences.”
I already saw his eyes changing. I couldn’t set him off. It wasn’t worth it.
“It really wasn’t anything. I—I just kind of wished we didn’t have to pretend.” It wasn’t a lie. It had gone through my head more than once. I wished Levi hadn’t hurt me so bad that I could never trust him again.
A slow smile spread across his face. “Why would I get mad about that?” His eyes went from black to heated. “I don’t want to pretend either.”
“You’d be mad that it still doesn’t change things.”
“It will one day. It has to.” He scooted closer to me. “We belong together.” His breath was warm on my face and he put an arm around me. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too, but it doesn’t matter.” I closed my eyes. It was so late, and I couldn’t fight the exhaustion anymore. I felt Levi shift us so that we were lying down, his arms wrapped around me.
I forced words out even as I felt myself drift toward sleep. “I shouldn’t fall asleep with you.”
“You’ve slept with me on the couch before. I’ll be good.”
“I know.” I was vaguely aware of him pulling the blanket off the back of the couch and covering us with it.
“Goodnight, Al.”
“Night.” I already knew it would be the best few hours of sleep I’d had in weeks.
***
“Morning, love,” Levi said softly. I turned to look at him. It wasn’t easy considering the size of Levi and the couch.
“Hi.” One of Levi’s hands was still wrapped around my waist—under my t-shirt. He didn’t seem interested in moving it.
“Next time, let’s use a bed. If I recall correctly, you have a perfectly good king size one in there.”
I felt warm just thinking about how he knew that. That night had been incredible—the best night of my life. Too bad what happened afterwards was a nightmare.
“Thinking about it again, aren’t you?” He used his free hand to brush some hair off my face. Strangely enough, I let him.
“Again?”
“You said my name a few times last night.” He grinned.
“And that somehow meant I was thinking about that night.”
“It’s how you said it. The first time I answered, but then I realized you were sleeping. The next few times made it pretty obvious what you were dreaming about.”
“I wasn’t having sex dreams about you, Levi.” I sat up, then stood as soon as I woke up enough.
Levi sat up and stretched. “Seriously, my back is killing me.”
“It’s not my fault. Whose idea was it to stay here?”
“I’m not saying it wasn’t worth it. It was definitely worth it.” He raked his eyes over me, and I suddenly felt self-conscious.
Hailey’s door opened. “Well, hello there. What did I miss after I went to bed last night?”
“Good morning, Hailey.” Levi got up to pull on the t-shirt he’d carelessly thrown over a chair when he came in the night before.
“You have a nine o’clock, right?” she asked.
“What time is it?”
“Eight twenty. If we get a cab, you’ll make it back just in time to grab your books.”
“I’ll drive you,” Levi offered.
“Normally I’d say no thanks, but I can’t be late.” I sighed with relief. Catching a cab in the morning could take a while.
“You’re cute.” Levi put a hand on the back of the couch.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re honestly worried about being late to your econ class, aren’t you?” He slipped into his black shoes.
“Of course, it’s only the second day.” I ignored the fact that he knew what class I had. That was old news.
“I just need to get dressed. Come with me Hailey, I’m sure you can find something too.” She followed me, wearing the PJ pants and t-shirt I’d given her. I’d let her have the only pair of PJ pants. I wouldn’t have if I’d known about the company.
Fifteen minutes later, we were slipping into Levi’s car. “Thanks for the hospitality, Al. That was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a while.”
It was mine too, but I kept the fact that I was still having nightmares to myself. “Glad to hear it, but don’t expect it to happen again.”
He started the engine. “It will. Very soon.”
“No, it won’t.”
Hailey laughed. “You guys act like an old, married couple sometimes—wait you are mar—”
“Don’t say it, Hail.” I turned back to glare at her.
Levi put a hand on my leg. “Don’t say married? See, telling everyone at school we’re engaged isn’t so bad, is it?”
I pushed his hand off even though I liked it there. I needed to put my resistance back up. I was getting dangerously close to giving in to him. Truthfully, I’d already given in. Letting him spend the night on the couch was a huge step in the wrong direction.
“So what are the plans this weekend?” he asked.
“I’d like to do something with some of the girls on our floor—we obviously never caught up with them last night.”
“Same, we’ll have to talk to Anne and Tiffany,” Hailey agreed.