Page 9 of The Pretender

“As you should.”

Deo leans in and quickly kisses my cheek. “Stay there. Be right back.”

He crawls out of bed and disappears into the bathroom while I do as instructed and lie quietly, staring up at the ceiling. After the stress of the last week, this was definitely a nice way to blow off some steam.

Deo returns a minute later carrying a cloth in his hands. He proceeds to clean me up, wiping his spilled release off my chest with the warm washcloth. Okay, that’s pretty fucking adorable.

“Thanks.”

Deo smiles, nodding. “I like to take care of the messes I make.” He tosses the washcloth on the nightstand and thenslides under the blanket. “I also like to cuddle. Hope you don’t mind.”

I raise my arm to make room for him and he scoots closer, pressing his cheek to my chest.

My eyes grow heavy and I find myself oddly relaxed.

“Are you asleep yet?” Deo asks after a couple of minutes.

“No.”

“We should come up with a good story for my family. Maybe on the flight over. You know, how we met and shit.”

“Good call.” I drag my fingers up and down the smooth skin of his back. “We should also get some sleep.”

“I set the alarm on my phone for five so we can check in with the airline and hopefully get out of here.”

“Excellent.”

Deo tilts his head back, gazing up at me. “I’m really glad I met you.”

A slight pang of guilt stabs my chest, but I nod and smile. He doesn’t know what I am or what I’m running from, but for now it doesn’t matter. In a few weeks, we’ll go our separate ways with a nice memory of what we had to hold on to. “I’m glad I met you too.”

FOUR

amadeo

“We havethree first-class seats available on the flight leaving at 6:20, sir. Will that work?”

“First class? Is that a higher price?”

The airport employee clicks on her keyboard, her long nails impressively not in her way. “For your ticket, yes. Mr. Cassiano already had a first-class ticket.”

“Oh.” I scrunch my nose, glancing over my shoulder at Balt, who is staring at his phone with a frown on his face. “No other spots?”

“No, sir.” She looks past me at the growing crowd. “Would you like to get on this flight?”

Balt glances up at that point. “What’s going on?”

“All they have is first class left. I can’t afford the upgrade.”

“Oh.” He steps up to the desk. “We’ll take them. We need to get to Wisconsin. What’s the fee?”

“No, Balt. I can’t?—”

“Deo, I got it.”

The authority in his voice shuts me up but sends sparks of heat skittering across my skin. Gah, this man is heaven and hell wrapped up in one gorgeous package.

I stand awkwardly behind him while he pays the upgrade fee and we get new boarding passes printed. We only have to wait about twenty minutes until boarding, and the sky outside is clear and sunny.