Page 54 of Last Breath

You’re getting too close.

You can’t get comfortable. We don’t get comfortable. We don’t stay.

Then how the fuck do you explain the past 15 years?It had been like coming out of a trance, as soon as she left for Perth. As soon as he’d woken up, drenched in sweat, two days after she’d left, hard as a fucking rock, the feel of her imaginary lips around his cock burning as the shame of his uncontrollable dream washed over him. The things they’d done, the things he’d whispered, the sounds she’d made. Sick, deranged fantasies that had leaked through his air-tight attic like carbon monoxide.

Coming out of that illicit dream, fighting against every primal urge to get in the car, drive to Perth and drag her back, to this town, to his own bed, terrified him to the point where he’d started to put his keys in Greyson’s freezer.

He’d thought she’d stay in Perth, where she’d be safe from his dreams, his sickness. But the lawsuit had changed everything. He knew she’d come back, knew no matter what. She couldn’t stay away from Bindi Bindi Cove, however much pain it caused her.

He was the problem. He was the one who had to leave.

‘How did you not know your licence was expired?’ Was she too drunk to register his erratic subject change?

‘Urghmmph.’ She headbutted the pillow again, her lower body bouncing with the force.

He dragged his eyes away from the tight curves of her black pants. ‘I still don’t know how you passed your practical test. Despite all my help, you had the coordination of a drunk Daddy Long Legs.’

‘I think Grey had something on the instructor,’ she mumbled. ‘Because I distinctly remember hitting at least three kerbs during my test. And maybe one pedestrian.’

‘You haven’t been driving on an expired licence, have you?’

‘Why? Because we can’t afford that scandal too?’

‘Because it’s illegal, because you could get hurt ...’

‘I think you’re mainly upset because even you, Car Yoda, couldn’t teach me.’

‘I just don’t understand.’ He shook his head, but he couldn’t stop the upward pull of his lips.Car Yoda.That one wasn’t going in the attic for a while. ‘You’re the smartest person I know. How was it so difficult to learn?’

‘Why did I need to learn to drive when I had you?’ She was still talking into the pillow, her words filtering through silk and hair, so he couldn’t be sure he was hearing correctly.I had you.

‘That’s a very off-brand comment for you.’

‘Well, it’s true, isn’t it? Guess I was just too comfortable, toospoiledandselfishand assumed you’d always be around. Besides, I don’t like to waste my time with things I’m not good at or with things that don’t like me. Or people. Which you know.’

‘I’ve never called you those things.’

The pillow smothered her sarcastic laugh. ‘But you’ve thought them.’

Why does it matter what I think?

‘Do you mean it?’ she said after a couple of beats.

‘Mean what?’ He kicked an old pair of underwear under the bed while her head was still down on the pillow. For Christ’s sake, this was his haven, the one space she couldn’t infiltrate.

She turned and flashed a feral smile. ‘That I’m the smartest person you know?’

‘That depends on whether or not you’ll remember this conversation in the morning.’

‘I’ll remember how good these sheets feel.’ She wiggled her hips deeper into the mattress.

Lord. Have. Mercy.

‘Oh my god.’ She went rigid. She propped herself up on one elbow and stared at the pillow she’d just been making out with. ‘I’m Oliver.’

‘Right.’ Definitely drunker than he’d thought.

‘He came into my bed.’ She went on, as though he hadn’t spoken. ‘Second year uni. He and Clarkson were friends with my roommate. They were playing video games or whatever, drinking. I stayed up for a few, but I went to bed early because ... well, I can’t remember anymore. You were there.’