Page 65 of Bleed the Shadows

I shook my head. “No thanks. I think I’ll just head to bed."

My head felt fuzzy with lust. It was better not to tempt fate.

“I’ll walk you,” he said.

I couldn’t help smiling. “Up the stairs?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

We headed up the stairs and emerged into the third-floor hall. My room was right there, so there was nothing to do but stop outside my door and look up at him.

“Thanks for such a nice night,” I said. He might have owed me a nice night, but my parents hadn’t raised a savage.

“You’re welcome.” His eyes were locked on my face. “Thanks for coming.”

I nodded.

“Are you going to knee me in the balls if I kiss your cheek?”

I thought about it. “A kiss on the cheek is fine.”

He hesitated, then leaned toward me.

My breath caught in my throat, and my nipples got hard as the scruff on his face brushed against my jaw.

He pressed his lips gently but firmly against my cheek and I closed my eyes, an exhale escaping from my mouth at the sheer pleasure of his lips against my skin.

I never wanted it to end, and for a few seconds I thought it might not. The kiss, erotic in its own chaste way, stretched on until I had to force myself not to turn my head. Had to force myself not to wrap my arms around his neck and offer him my mouth.

Then he pulled away, straightening in an almost formal posture. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.

“Good night, Maeve.”

“Good night.”

I fumbled with the door, my heart racing, and stepped into my bedroom.

Safe inside, I leaned against the door, trying to catch my breath in the moment before June’s voice sounded in my head.

You are so fucked.

40

MAEVE

I gotup from the sofa for the third time during the movie and walked to the kitchen window.

“He still there?” Poe asked from the sofa.

“No.” The stray dog I’d been feeding had been lurking outside the loft all night. I’d already been down to feed him and give him water and had gone down a second time just to keep him company, but I was worried about him all alone out in the cold. “I still think we should bring him inside.”

“Bram will lose his shit,” Remy said, his gaze locked on the action movie playing on the TV.

A week earlier I would have said Bram was a coldhearted bastard, but that was before our date a few nights ago. Now it was impossible not to see Bram’s coldness as a product of all he’d been through. It wasn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card, but it definitely added another dimension to all his hard edges.

Plus, he hadn’t seemed to mind the yellow dog hanging around.