his eyes. There was something vaguely feline about the way he was sitting, and I couldn’t help wondering what he’d do if I walked over and rubbed his stomach.
I laughed. I’d tried that once with Frog, and only barely escaped with my life.
“What?” Gus asked, turning his head to look at me.
His eyes sparkled with curiosity and his lips parted slightly. Christ, I couldn’t stop thinking about how they tasted.
I’d kept firm on my no sex policy, even though he thought it was dumb. We hadn’t so much as touched since the night on the balcony, when he’d hugged me instead of saying he hated me.
It would be wrong to sleep together again. And even if it hadn’t been morally dubious, it was still necessary to keep him at a distance. I was falling for Gus. Correction—I had fallen. And it was going to hurt like hell when he left. Sleeping with him again, getting even more attached, would only make it hurt worse in the end.
Unless it doesn’t have to end, whispered a small voice somewhere inside me. I pushed it away.
“Nothing,” I told him, feeling my smile turn a little sad. “Just something I read.”
I gestured to my laptop screen. It was actually black, having gone to sleep several minutes ago while I stared at him. But he didn’t need to know that.
Gus arched an eyebrow. “Care to share with the class?”
He tilted his head then, and the angle made his face look vaguely fox-like. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. I’d be comparing Gus to every woodland creature I could think of if I weren’t careful.
There was something a little wild about him, though. And magnetic. Something untamed. I felt like I’d lived more in these past few weeks with him than I had in the seven years before he arrived.
“It’s really not that funny,” I said. My phone buzzed then, which saved me from having to come up with an answer if Gus pressed.
It was Hadley.
HADLEY: Dude, are you dead?
HADLEY: I’m assuming you got my Yule care package by now
HADLEY: You usually text to yell at me for sending one, so if I don’t hear back from you in a couple days, I’m considering filing a missing persons report
Fuck. In everything that had happened over the past few days, I’d never texted her back. Since the last thing we needed right now was police involvement, I typed out a quick response.
HOLDEN: Hey sorry. I got it, and yes, please consider this me yelling at you. But thanks
HOLDEN: And you should definitely not buy those slippers and that lamp, by the way. They’re hideous
She responded immediately.
HADLEY: Okay, number one, you’re way too late on the slipper and lamp front, you know I have no impulse control when it comes to reptiles, and number two
HADLEY: Fucking finally! Where the hell have you been, man?
HADLEY: You’re never the most communicative of friends (by which I mean I know brick walls that talk more than you do), but even for you, you’ve been quiet these days
I scratched behind my ear, trying to think of what to tell her.
Sorry, this gorgeous guy washed up on my beach a couple weeks ago with no memory and even after he found out who I was, he didn’t tell me to go to hell, and also we hooked up, and it was mind-blowing, and I think I might be falling for him, and AHHHHHHHHHH.
Yeah, no.
HOLDEN: Just busy with work and stuff
HADLEY: When you say work, you don’t by any chance mean that you talked to your old agent and are thinking about doing the Infinity Falls reunion special, do you?
I grimaced.
HOLDEN: Uh, no. Definitely not
HOLDEN: Why would you even think that?
HADLEY: I didn’t really
HADLEY: But a girl can always hope, right?
I shifted, setting my laptop down on the coffee table so I could use both hands to text.
HOLDEN: I’m guessing this means you’re doing it?
HADLEY: Um, getting an easy paycheck for a few hours of masturbatory work, talking about how great a show I was on 7 years ago was?
HADLEY: Who would turn that down?
HADLEY: Aside from you, that is
HOLDEN: You make it sound so enticing
HADLEY: I do my best
HADLEY: Seriously, though, the producers asked if I could try to get you to change your mind. I told them what your answer would be, but FWIW, I’m pretty sure you could name your price and they’d pay it, just to get you to join