His gaze narrows. “That depends.”
“On?”
“Do you snore?”
My bark of laughter echoes through the entire downstairs and I bury my face in the cushions until I calm down. When I look at Sebastian, he’s grinning widely, like he’s proud of the fact that he made me laugh like that.
“No one’s mentioned it to me either.”
But that’s probably because I haven’t slept with anyone in over a year.
Not something I want to disclose at the moment.
“So you’re saying we should go upstairs, and if we’re caught, we let everyone think we’re sleeping together and having sex,” he clarifies.
“Exactly.” Then I hold my breath and wait for him to tell me I’m crazy.
Instead, he stands, stretches, makes my mouth water, and then holds out his hand to me.
“I’m in,” he says.
When I put my hand in his and he gently tugs me to my feet, I let out a soft gasp because he’s stronger than he looks too. His hands are large and a little scratchy, and I am on sensory overload from that one touch.
“I’ve got your laptop and pillow. Do you want to grab some more water before we go up?”
I shake my head because I’m tongue-tied.
Wordlessly, we quietly make our way to the stairs and climb up to the third floor, and I’m a little embarrassed at how breathless I am. But I have a feeling it’s not all about the climb.
His room has a king-size bed, and I can see where he had tried to fall asleep on the left side. He lets go of my hand and places the laptop down on the dresser as I walk around to the right side. It feels weird to slip my robe off because it feels like I’m purposely exposing myself to him, but I do it quickly and get under the blankets as fast as I can.
After closing the door and shutting off the light, I can hear more than see him moving around before he gets in bed beside me.
“Are you okay?” he whispers. “Would you like another pillow or an extra blanket?”
“Nope,” I squeak. “I’m good.”
I lie there stiff as a board, staring up at the ceiling as the enormity of the situation hits me. I’m in bed with Mr. Handsome from the plane.
That’s when a giggle escapes and I’m mortified.
“Liv?”
“Hmm?”
“Something funny?”
Me and my stupid mouth.
Rather than fighting it, I roll onto my side so I can face him. My eyes have adjusted to the darkness, and I can faintly see him. “Okay, here it is—it just struck me as funny that I’m here with the guy I met on the plane. I don’t know why I think it’s funny enough to giggle, but I couldn’t help it. I thought you were really cute when we were on that flight, and it’s a little surreal that we’re here together now.”
“Oh.”
Then I wait for him to maybe return the compliment, but he doesn’t and I’m wildly disappointed. Would it have killed him to say that he thought I was cute, too? Or maybe that he had regretted not asking for my number? I’m not asking for a declaration of love or anything, but a simple reciprocal compliment would have been nice.
The silence stretches on until it becomes awkward, so I roll over and shut my eyes. “Goodnight, Ash.”
I use that name because it weirdly helps me keep the two identities separate. Sebastian is the guy I just embarrassed myself in front of. Ash is a guy I just met.