Until Alex - J. Nathan Page 0,40

They started the second I left Hayden’s apartment. I tried to be strong in front of him. But the truth remained. I needed my parents. I needed my friends. I needed to understand why terrible things kept happening to me.

I didn’t know Cameron. From our first encounter, he seemed nice. Why would he drug me? Did he plan to rape me? Hayden told me my clothes were undone and inside out when he found me. Maybe we’d been interrupted.

And what about Taylor? Why didn’t she stay with me? She must’ve been the one to drop me off. Didn’t she realize what happened? Was she the one who interrupted? The one who initially saved me? If so, why hadn’t she called?

It was all too much.

Too much on top of everything else I’d been dealing with.

When the hot water cooled and my body began to shake, I knew I needed to get out. Besides, if I didn’t make it over to Hayden’s apartment soon, he’d probably come looking for me. And finding me falling apart on the shower floor would be a glaring contradiction to the tough façade I tried to assume.

With pruned skin and a wet head of hair, I padded across the hall to his apartment a few minutes later.

Outside I hesitated, wishing I didn’t feel uneasy approaching his door. I needed to get over the hurt I’d felt. He’d swept in when no one else had. He’d comforted me with butterfly kisses in the hospital. He’d held my hand through the test results. And he’d carried me to his apartment and demanded I stay. What more could I ask for?

With one last breath, I tapped on his door and twisted the knob. Thanks to the open pizza box on the coffee table, the spicy smell of marinara sauce filled the room.

Hayden lounged on the left end of the sectional with his bare feet up. His hair was wet from a shower, and he’d changed into gray basketball shorts and a white T-shirt. As he bit into his slice of pizza, his eyes followed me to the opposite side of the sofa where I sat down, tucking my feet underneath me.

“Feel better?” he asked with his mouth full.

I shrugged, noncommittal.

He gestured to the pizza on the table. “It just got here. Have some.”

I watched his slice disappear in three giant bites. When had he last eaten? He stayed with me all night at the hospital. And never left my side once I woke up. He must’ve been starving. “I’m not really hungry.”

He studied my face, long and hard. Like the longer he stared, the more he’d understand me.

Good luck with that.

“Don’t make me come over there and force you.”

I held up my palms. “I promise. I’ll eat when I’m hungry.”

“Fair enough.” He reached into the box and grabbed another slice.

Being in his apartment, surrounded by him and that amazing aloe scent, made me feel better. At least better than my pitiful shower display.

“You wanna watch a movie?”

“Whatever you want.”

A sexy smile spread from ear to ear. “I like the sound of that.”

I couldn’t help but grin as he put down his pizza and jumped up, scanning his movie collection on the shelf below his flat screen.

With his back to me, I drank in his muscular form. I knew what lingered beneath that T-shirt, so broad and ripped. Like nothing I’d ever seen before. And even after all I’d been through, I couldn’t stop my mind from wondering what he’d feel like. Taste like. Be like behind closed doors. “Hayden?” His name slipped out before I could stop it.

He glanced over his shoulder, his blue eyes popping thanks to the white T-shirt. I’d always been a sucker for blue eyes and his put all others to shame.

I gnawed on my bottom lip, knowing I couldn’t turn back now that I’d opened my big mouth. “I don’t want you to sleep out here.”

He arched a brow. “Where should I sleep?”

My eyes flashed to the twin doors to the side of the living room.

Hayden’s eyes narrowed. “Alone?”

After breaking down in the shower, I knew I shouldn’t be left alone for a very long time. So I shook my head slowly.

HAYDEN

Thank God.

The credits scrolled across the screen after the longest fucking movie in the history of movies.

Knowing Alex wanted to share my bed played with my head and wired my body. Sure, we stayed on opposite ends of the sofa, but a two-hour movie gave me more than enough time to focus on the