Goldilocks - Jay Crownover Page 0,37

made a strangled sound when her eyes landed on me, but her teeth were locked on the piece of fruit, so the noise was muffled. I lifted an eyebrow at her and reached past her shoulder to shut the fridge, which brought our bodies very close together.

“What are you doing up so late?” I’d told myself to keep my tone friendly and flirty, but it still came out slightly accusatory.

She crunched down on the apple, chewing slowly, and narrowed her eyes at me in the darkness. It seemed like it took forever for her to swallow so she could answer. “I have a quiz tomorrow. I wanted to study before bed but lost track of time. I didn’t even realize how late it was until I heard you come home. I’m headed to bed now. I’ll get out of your way.”

I shifted my weight just slightly to keep her from moving around me. “You’ve been busy lately.”

She cleared her throat and pulled her gaze away from mine. “I’m surprised you noticed. I’m trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. I know you don’t want me in this house, so I’m doing my best to make it seem like I’m not even here.”

I leaned closer to her, forcing her to lean back against the fridge in the dark. “I thought you worked so hard to get under the same roof as me because you wanted to show me how sorry you are for what you did to me. How does that work if you’re never around?”

She made a face and nervously fiddled with the apple in her hand. “You made it pretty clear you don’t want to hear any excuses for why I did what I did. I fought a losing battle for most of my life, Huck. If I learned anything, it’s when to know it’s time to cut your losses.”

When she put the apple back to her mouth for another bite, I moved quickly and grabbed her wrist so she couldn’t pull the piece of fruit away. I bent down and bit the other side. I heard her gasp as I got close enough that our noses almost touched. She went still as stone as I put a hand on her hip and guided her body even closer to mine. I pulled back after taking a sizable chunk from the opposite side of the apple and grinned at her after chomping it down.

“It’s too sweet.” My voice was twice as raspy as it normally was, and I couldn’t stop a shiver when I felt her body quake underneath my hand.

When I let go of her wrist, the apple fell to the ground with a thump and rolled away. Ollie lifted shaking hands to her open mouth and blinked wide eyes at me.

“What are you doing?” She sounded completely bewildered and baffled, but even in the dark, I could see the way her gaze locked on me, skimming my face and the rest of my barely dressed body. It was about damn time she realized I was missing most of my clothes while standing close enough to touch.

I lifted a hand to my mouth and used my thumb to wipe my bottom lip. “I just wanted a bite. I was curious how it would taste.”

The double entendre was cheesy and as thick as maple syrup, but Ollie didn’t seem fazed by it in the slightest. Instead of saying something sassy or silly back, she scurried away, chasing after the fallen apple and muttering that it was past time for her to go to bed.

I didn’t stop her when she ran away, but I did grin at how fast she fled. I took it as a good sign that she was far from unaffected, even if she didn’t respond in the way I’d hoped. I supposed there was simply too much history between us for her to fall fast and hard, no matter how high I turned up the charm. It was bound to take some time to get her to stop seeing me as her childhood friend and protector and make her see me as something… someone else.

If she was going to run from me now, I was going to have to chase her.

It was anyone’s guess what kind of disaster was going to happen when I finally caught her.

I was egotistical enough to want to believe I could walk away unmoved after I ran Ollie off. I’d learned how to live without her once before. Only, the way my

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