X by Mandy Lee

Author:Mandy Lee [Lee, Mandy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mandy Lee
Published: 2019-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

I’m up early the next morning, nursing a dry mouth and a sore head. After brushing my teeth, I creep downstairs and survey the living room. With the curtains still closed, it’s gloomy, but my eyes quickly readjust and I’m relieved to find him fast asleep on the sofa. Still fully dressed and sprawled out on his back, his left arm is draped above his head, his right arm dangling to the floor, a finger touching the mobile he must have dropped there last night. I waver for a moment, ploughing back through the evening’s confusion and wondering yet again who the hell to believe: a man I hardly know and can barely stand; or a man who has some sort of strange, magnetic grip on me.

There’s only one way to put an end to this, I tell myself. I shuffle forwards, kneel on the rug and inspect his face. Currently free of care and totally at peace, it’s oblivious to the world...and this is an opportunity I need to grab. Before I know it, I’m staring at his right wrist, wondering if I could just move that sleeve a little. After all, it wouldn’t be too difficult: the cuffs are unfastened. And then I’ll be able to check for the tattoo, satisfy my curiosity for once and for all...

Carefully – and with my heart well and truly in my mouth – I take hold of the sleeve, shift it slightly, and check his face.

‘Oh.’ My stomach lurches. His eyes are open now, and he’s looking at me.

‘What are you up to?’ he asks with a squint.

‘Nothing,’ I squeak, pulling back.

‘Seems like you’re trying to undress me in my sleep.’ Bleary-eyed, he pushes himself up. ‘Should I be worried? Are you some sort of pervert?’

‘No. I...er...just thought you looked uncomfortable.’

‘And you thought adjusting my shirt might help?’

Incapable of landing on a decent answer, I simply shrug. If there’s no tattoo on that forearm, then he must think I’m completely nuts by now.

‘You didn’t need to stay the night,’ I say, desperate to swing the conversation onto another path.

‘We went through that.’ He runs a hand through gloriously dishevelled hair, and yawns. And then he gives me the warmest smile I’ve ever seen. ‘Any chance of a cup of tea?’

‘Tea?’ A rush of blood through my veins. ‘Of course.’

I push myself to my feet, suddenly self-conscious because I’m still in my pyjamas, with no bra underneath. Why on earth didn’t I put on a dressing gown? God, I’m a mess. But it’s too late now to scoot back upstairs and correct an embarrassing situation. Deciding I’ll just have to brazen it out, I shamble off to the kitchen, fill the kettle and switch it on. It’s while I’m washing out the mugs I realise I’ve been an ungrateful cow. Abandoning the mugs, I return to the living room to find him on his feet, opening the curtains.

‘Thank you,’ I tell him. ‘I should have said that. Thank you for staying.’

He turns and gives me a knowing smile.

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