Until Alex - J. Nathan Page 0,103

and didn’t bother to clean up. I just needed to be out of the one place I associated most with my parents. I just needed to breathe.

Hayden and I stepped inside my suite. Clothes hung off my desk chair. The down comforter on my unmade four-post bed hung on the floor. Shoes were kicked into the corner of the room. And the pillows from my sofa in the sitting area were tossed all over the floor.

I fell back onto my messy bed and giggles erupted.

“What’s so funny?” Hayden asked.

I looked up at him towering over me and shook my head like the crazy person I appeared to be. “I don’t even know. It just feels so good to be here and not feel like I can’t touch my own stuff.”

His brows furrowed.

“We had this ninja housekeeper,” I explained. “If I left my room for more than two minutes, she’d sweep in undetected and clean anything I left out of place.”

The bed sagged as Hayden sat down beside me. “Ninja, huh?”

I grinned, the recollection bittersweet.

He glanced around my room, taking in all the girly accessories strewn about. “Is it weird being back?”

I nodded.

His eyes flashed to mine. “Is it weird having me here?”

I shook my head. “It’s like bringing my two worlds together.”

He picked up a framed picture from my nightstand. “Who’s this?”

“My ex.”

He examined the picture of Preston and me at his frat’s formal last year. Me in my strapless green dress and Preston in his tux, complete with the dorky bow tie. I begged him to wear a normal tie, but he didn’t listen. “Looks like a tool.”

I snorted, which lead to a long cleansing laugh.

Hayden placed the picture face down on my nightstand, then reclined beside me. We both stared up at the ceiling. “Why don’t you have a picture of us next to your bed back home?”

I glanced over, expecting to see amusement in his eyes. Instead I found sincerity. “We’ve never taken a picture together.”

He contemplated the thought. Then pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen a couple times. He leaned his head into mine and held his phone out above us. “Smile.”

I did. A big goofy smile because I was home. In a place I never thought I’d step foot again. In a town I never thought I’d return to. And I was surviving. Because Hayden was by my side.

He snapped the picture then checked it. “Your eyes were closed.”

“Were not.” I grabbed for the phone, but his long arm held it away from me.

“Let’s try again.”

Instead of staying still when he snapped the picture, I turned my head and kissed his cheek. He laughed, but it didn’t deter him. He took at least ten more, claiming something was wrong with each one. I assumed he was trying to lift my spirits, but a small part of me hoped he just wanted pictures of us together. And since he didn’t have a single picture in his apartment, the thought elated me.

“You’ve got enough for both of us to have a collage by our bed,” I teased.

He didn’t laugh. He just turned on his side with his head in his palm. “If you stay with me, then we’d only need one.”

Wha-huh?

The way he stared down at me with those smoldering eyes, I would’ve thought he was serious.

“You know…I have an aunt who’ll have your neck if she thinks you’re coercing her niece to live in sin. You sure the two of you never—”

I squealed as Hayden rolled on top of me, pinning me to the bed. “What’s it gonna take, woman? I swear to you, since you showed up, you’re the only one I’ve thought about.” He brushed his lips below my right ear sending tiny shudders surging through me. “You’re the only one I’ve dreamt about.” He brushed his lips below my left ear eliciting the same tiny shudders. “And you’re the only one I’ve been naked with.” He leaned down and brushed his lips to mine.

I slipped my arms around his back lost in the sensation of his lips now nibbling their way down my throat. “Is that your way of avoiding the question?”

He laughed, but when he lifted his head and his eyes met mine, I could see his exasperation. “Yes, Alex, I had a life before you showed up. But I never touched your aunt.”

“But you’ve been with older women?”

He closed his eyes and growled. “Why do girls do this? Why do they insist on torturing themselves with their