Fall

“Would you rather it be something else?”

“I won’t hesitate to lock you in the bathroom and play that scary movie by the door, Jaymeson.”

“No suffocating, left side, got it.” I quickly pulled off my shirt and pants, leaving only my black boxers on, and climbed into bed.

Pris, yawned and turned off the lights, then climbed in next to me.

“You’re going to have to find another bed partner, Jaymeson.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m dating Smith and I doubt he’d like the fact that you and I sleep in the same bed every night.”

“He doesn’t have to know.” My voice taking a defensive edge. “It doesn’t involve him.”

“But it does.” Pris’s voice caught. “It does now. I want to make things work. I have to make things work.”

A hint of desperation plagued her voice. Nodding, I kissed her head and whispered against her hair. “I’m not ready to let you go yet.”

“Well, that makes two of us,” she replied. “Now, be a good friend and try not to snore.”

“Pris?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I hold you?”

The three beats of silence nearly killed me.

“Yeah.”

I wrapped my arms around her body and sighed with contentment. This was it. I’d gone and done it. Because I’d rather hold her in my arms all night, then have sex with anyone else.

Ever.

Which meant only one thing.

I was going to murder Alec and Demetri — because they’d been right. I wasn’t falling.

No.

I’d already fallen.

Chapter Thirty

Jaymeson

I whistled like a fool for the entire day. My morning with Pris had gone perfect. We’d woken up entangled. Arms and legs everywhere.

And I would have happily stayed that way if she wouldn’t have punched me in the stomach for accidently grazing her boob.

Total accident by the way. It’s not like I wanted her to chop off my fingers or anything. I knew when it was okay to touch… And waking up a girl by grabbing her? Probably the easiest way to lose one’s balls.

I’d also been fielding phone calls most the morning from the crew that was currently at her house fixing things up. It seemed that the work wasn’t going to take any longer than a week, which was good considering her parents would be home soon.

The only crappy part of that whole scenario was that the faster they worked, the closer she was to leaving me — and going back to her house where she belonged. Pretty sure starting another fire would land me in prison.

My days and nights started flooding together. I’d wake up with her body pressed against mine, and I’d tell myself that the next night would be different, that I’d tell her — either tell her or let her go.

Then she’d do something so damn adorable that I couldn’t think straight.

We watched entire seasons of TV shows, ate breakfast every morning together. It was strange. I’d always thought that the day-to-day relationship stuff would end up scaring the hell out of me. Instead, it made me crave more.

Everything about being with her was exciting. Even making breakfast, even going into the bathroom and smelling her shampoo.

It wasn’t fair.

It had to end. I had to do something, because if she said Smith’s name one more time, I was going to freaking murder him.

It had been two weeks.

He texted her at night.

I hid her phone twice and lied about it.

Yes, I’d resorted to lying like a five-year-old in order to keep myself sane; I’d lied to myself about the whole thing. What we were doing wasn’t normal, nor was it fair, but I was too selfish to change a damn thing.

****

“Morning, sunshine.” I threw a pillow at Pris’s face. She groaned and sent me a glare before slowly rolling out of bed. We’d fallen asleep on the couch watching movies again, arguing about why Lord of the Rings was better than Star Wars.

I was for Star Wars.

She was for LOTR.

I called her an immature toddler.

And in return I was called a grumpy ass-hat.

Just a typical evening for us.

“Tired,” she grumbled.

“I’ll make coffee.” I whistled to myself as I walked into the kitchen. A buzzing sound interrupted my happy mood. Her phone was on the counter, and it was her dad.

Shit. He’d skin me alive if he knew what I was doing.

“Pris!” I called. “Your dad!”

She ran into the kitchen and snatched the phone out of my hands. “Hey, Dad, is everything okay?”

Her smile was enormous; she asked questions about some orphanage in the Philippines and then smiled some more as her dad chatted her up on the other side.

“Love you too,” she answered and pressed End.

“Everything okay?” I scooted her coffee across the counter and waited.

She licked her lips and looked into her coffee. “I would do anything for my parents, even though I get annoyed that they’re constantly gone or doing things for others, selfish right? I guess sometimes I just, I don’t know…I miss being a family. Getting old sucks. But yeah,” Her voice was resolute. “I’d do anything for them.”

“Sounds like it.” I smiled as jealousy stabbed me in the chest. She had the most amazing family I’d ever heard of. A family that ate every meal together, went on trips every summer, a dad who really trusted her so much that he never even had reason to question her.