Page 47 of In the Net (Sin Bin Stories #5)

HARPER

I wake up with my head on Sebastian’s chest. His arm is curled around me, his hand on my shoulder. My cheek feels too good against the soft fabric of his shirt. I nuzzle against it, pulling in a breath that smells like him.

My room got chilly overnight, and the heat of our bodies trapped under my heavy blanket feels so good that I never want to get up.

Wait a minute.

My room got chilly overnight …

Sebastian fell asleep in my bed and forgot to sneak back into his room. And now it’s morning, and my parents are notoriously early risers, and my mom never knocks before she opens the door to a room …

My mood sobers and I snap awake.

“Sebastian,” I whisper, shaking him, “you need to wake up.”

His eyelids pop open, his expression immediately looking wakeful. “I am up. What’s wrong?”

Was he just lying there wide-awake with me sleeping on his chest? For how long? My stomach does a loopy twirl.

“It’s morning,” I say.

“Uh, duh. I know that.” He gestures toward the window, where my curtains are made bright by the square of sunlight shining through the glass.

He gives me an obvious look, and I knit my brow.

“You forgot to sneak back into your room,” I say. “My mom might have already realized your room is empty, and …”

He cuts me off with a tiny chuckle, shaking his head. “No, I snuck back into my room last night. After you fell asleep. Wasn’t easy to do, but I did it.”

Wasn’t easy to do . Is he saying that it was hard for him to pull himself away from me, after I dozed off first?

Wishful thinking. He probably meant that, for some reason, scurrying across the awning back to his room was harder than coming in the opposite direction.

I lift an eyebrow, giving him a look that begs an explanation for how he’s here, in that case.

He grins. “I woke up a little while ago. Went downstairs. Your parents were up. Told them I was going for a morning run, went outside, and climbed up to your window to sneak in.”

My heart squeezes. He did all that just to come back to my bed and cuddle me?

We may have crossed the finish line of this fake relationship last night, but maybe I’m not the only one for whom this is feeling less and less fake …