He’d reclined on the couch and I was tucked into his side, my back against the couch, my head on his chest.
“Bed,” Luke said.
I nodded.
We got up and he walked to the door taking me with him, arm around my shoulders. He stopped at the door, kissed my nose and looked at me a beat. I bit my lip.
“Jules,” he said.
“Yeah?” I asked.
He stared at me a moment before answering. “I was playin’ a game,” he told me.
It was my turn to stare at him. Somehow that hurt and I didn’t need any more of that. I had way, way too much of that.
“Now,” he went on, “I don’t know what the f**k I’m doin’.”
Oh my God.
Neither of us said anything. There wasn’t anything to say.
Then without another word, he was gone.
I locked the door behind him, armed the alarm and got ready for bed in the bathroom.
I settled in bed, Boo curled into the small of my back.
I felt sadness seep through me, no anticipation, no hope. I knew Vance wasn’t breaking in.
I worried about Luke and me. I liked him, he was cool and he was funny and in an alternate universe I knew something would have happened.
It couldn’t, not now.
I was in love with Vance.
How did that happen?
I lay in bed knowing I was hugely f**ked. Somehow my life had gone totally out of control. The Fortnum’s gang of Rock Chicks had adopted me. The Nightingale Investigation Team had accepted me. Luke wanted me. And all of this had Vance tied up in it and that hurt me.
I definitely needed to round up Roam and Sniff and get my ass to Nicaragua.
I pulled a pillow to my stomach, hugged it close and tilted my head to stare at the moonlight.
With effort I forced my mind to still.
Then I fell asleep.
Chapter Nineteen
Hush
I was certain I was awake though I hadn’t opened my eyes and I knew with a sleepy body scan that I couldn’t be.
There was heat at my back and a weight on my hip. It was full-on heat, definitely not Boo. I snuggled backwards into it figuring if I was going to have a good dream, I was going to go for the gusto.
The weight at my hip moved, slid up to my waist then down, curling around my belly. The heat behind me was solid. Both I knew were no dream.
My eyes opened.