Chapter Eleven
Sutton
Langston was right.
He hadn’t said anything, but I’d seen the way he’d looked at me after he’d scared Rendi off earlier.
He knew I was growing some pretty serious feelings for Marti, and he also knew it was a terrible idea.
And I couldn’t argue with the man. Mostly because he hadn’t even said the words out loud, and also because it really was a terrible idea, but try telling that to my heart and body.
Every single day I felt that stupid draw strengthening. I couldn’t help but step closer every time I was in the room with her, and then I couldn’t help but touch her when she was in reach. And apparently, now I was nearly kissing her whenever I had her in my arms.
I put my phone on the charger next to my bed and slid lower against the pillows.
I probably wasn’t going to get any sleep with the way my thoughts were tumbling around in my head, but I needed to at least try.
Marti had the morning shift, and making it to the diner by five-thirty in the morning, meant I needed to be up by at least five.
Too bad I was still staring up at the ceiling with my hands tucked behind my head, imagining a little too vividly what her lips might feel like, twenty minutes later. Yeah, sleep wasn’t even close.
I felt the air change, and I was already looking toward the door before a cautious looking Marti poked her head around the frame. “Can I come in?”
I smiled softly. As cute as it was to watch her nervous and clumsy, seeing her right then, hair pulled up out of the way, not a stitch of makeup on and clearly ready for bed in her oversized T-shirt that she’d stolen from me, I was beyond grateful that for the most part, that nervousness had lessened.
She may still get tripped up if I winked at her, and she’d blushed beautifully the entire ride back to my house after I’d nearly laid one on her in the middle of the diner in front of the whole town, but the fact that she was even standing in my doorway just meant she was becoming more comfortable with me.
That might not lessen the draw I felt toward her, but it felt nice.
“Yeah,” I croaked, sitting up. “You okay?”
She froze, blinking down at me for a long moment, and I tried not to smile like an idiot.
Why did I enjoy her attention so much? I really hadn’t thought anything of going to bed without a shirt.
I’d done it every night for years. I actually couldn’t remember a time when I’d worn a shirt to bed, but I’d also never had a Marti wander into my room at this time of night, regardless of the fact that my door had definitely been open the entire time she’d been here, in case she was scared, and so I could hear the rest of the house.
I didn’t interrupt her perusing.
I might have even tightened my abs a bit to draw attention to their definition. There wasn’t anything pressing right then, and there was nobody around to witness my vanity. Except the person I was kinda wanting to witness it.
After a while, she seemed to blink out of it, her face once again turning red.
It should probably have been unflattering on her pale skin against her light auburn hair.
Hadn’t that been said countless times of red heads?
But it wasn’t even a little. She looked stunning with that added color in her cheeks.
Clearing her throat, she stepped closer to the bed, still looking a little stiff, but determined.
“Jackson thinks what happened the night my father went to jail was something that I did on purpose. He thinks I set him up.” She shifted back and forth on her feet, her fingers clasping and unclasping in front of her.
Something was off. Her face tightened. Her brows drew together, and her lips firmed. When her chin shot up and she looked me directly in the eyes, I knew what was coming next.
“I did,” she said firmly, shoulders back.
“I planned it before I even left for school. I knew my dad didn’t want me going, so he never even knew I’d applied, or gotten accepted, or that I had gotten a scholarship.
Several actually.” She said that last part a little softer, proud but still humble.
“While I was away, I ignored their texts and calls, I never told them where I went, and I was careful to give the school a post office box to mail everything to.
“I knew it would all just infuriate him more when he realized everything I’d done behind his back, and then not answer?
” She gave a small laugh. “I knew what I was doing. Just like I knew what I was doing when I left my dorm that day and went back home. I purposely opened all the windows in the house before he got home. I told everyone I was airing the house out because it was filthy and smelled awful, but I knew he’d come home and see my car and go into a rage.
“I hid in the top of the linen closet. He tore the house apart, screaming and breaking things, but I stayed hidden. He’d just found me when the police showed up. That’s why I only had some bruising on my arms and a knot on the back of my head instead of being beaten or dead.”
My stomach dropped out completely when I considered what could have happened to her that night, and I sat up fully, pulling the blankets back on the other side of the bed and patting it.
She scanned my face, her frown softening after a moment. She tentatively climbed in, still watching me. I didn’t hesitate to pull her to me, wrapping my arms around her completely and pretty much forcing her head to my chest.
“That was so stupid,” I whispered, clutching her tight enough to make her grunt. Or maybe that was a sound of indignant irritation, since I’d called her stupid. “He could have killed you.”
“I don’t regret it. I know it probably wasn’t the right thing to do, but I baited his anger for months, and then I set him up.”
It all made sense. That was why she’d been cagey about everything. That was why she hadn’t even talked to her best friend about what had happened that night, and that was why she had left school suddenly.
The longer I was quiet, the more tense she seemed to get, so without permission, I scooted down on the bed again, pulling her with me.
“Is this okay?” I asked, settling the blanket on top of us while pressing her head back against my chest.
She bit her lip, nuzzling closer. “Yes, please.”
I tried to ignore her warm breath against my chest hair. Maybe I should put a shirt on.
“You do know I’d still protect you if you weren’t comfortable with this, right?”
She laughed, tentatively settling her hand against my stomach over the blanket before leaning her head back to watch my face. Her cheeks were that pretty pink again, making her eyes seem even brighter. “I know. You aren’t the type of person who would take advantage of me like that.”
I groaned, looking away. I was glad one of us was sure of that, because the more time I spent with her, the less convinced I was that I was a gentleman.