“Go to sleep, Ava.”
“Uncuff me!”
“Settle down and go to sleep,” he ordered, settling himself on his back.
“Un… cuff… me!” I pulled hard at the cuff.
He jerked it again, harder, and I toppled into him, br**sts to chest and his other arm went tight around my waist.
“Settle,” he said low.
I glared in the general direction of his face, knowing I would never win but not about to give in gracefully.
“I hate you,” I declared.
“You don’t.”
“I do.”
“Okay, maybe whoever this new Ava is does but she’s a bitch and I don’t give a f**k if she hates me. The old Ava doesn’t hate me and she’s in there somewhere, I saw her five minutes ago and that’s who I’m keeping safe.”
That knocked the breath out of me and cut me deep.
So deep, to hide how much it hurt, I did as he told me to do and settled into his side, my body mostly on him because my right wrist was cuffed to his left and his arm was thrown out wide to keep me there. Without anywhere else to put it, I rested my head on his shoulder. Still, I held myself tense because I was totally freaked out.
Woo hoo! We’re in bed with Luke! Bad Ava crowed.
Oh, this feels nice. His chest is so hard and his body is so warm, Good Ava breathed.
If Good Ava and Bad Ava could get close, I was certain they would high five.
Jeez.
I lay there, trying to relax. I couldn’t relax.
So I started talking. “I won’t get shot at again,” I muttered into his shoulder.
“I’m not taking any chances.”
“I certainly won’t get kidnapped, the idea is ridiculous.”
He was silent.
“And a car bomb, what on earth?” I mumbled.
“Babe.”
“What?”
“Please be quiet and go to sleep.”
“Fine,” I snapped.
His arm around my waist tightened and his other hand came close to rest on his chest, forcing my hand to rest on his chest too. I slid off his body but he held me close to his side.
I figured I’d never in a million years, snuggled up next to Luke Stark, man of my dreams, wearing his t-shirt, lying in his big bed, in his huge loft (and handcuffed to him for God’s sake), get to sleep.
It took, like, five minutes and I was dead to the world.