Diamond
“Gem?”
The masculine voice is but an echo in my head.
“Gem?” Someone is shaking me.
My eyes are heavy, feeling almost screwed shut, and I can’t scrape up the energy to open them.
“Gem, wake up.” His voice has a certain urgency to it.
My brain trapped in a thick fog, I open my eyes a crack to see Finn leaning over me in the darkness of the library, his hand planted on my shoulder.
Shit, I passed out, didn’t I?
How long have I been asleep?
“What time is it?” I sit up straight and realize a blanket is covering me.
Did I fall asleep with a blanket?
I can’t remember.
“Almost five,” Finn answers.
I don’t think I had a blanket before.
Does that mean… Finn put it on me?
“It’s been fun having you play bodyguard and all, but I’m going to hit the sack. Thought you’d like to spend the rest of the night in your bed,” Finn adds.
His kindness is nothing short of a miracle. You mean to tell me he’s been nice to me for two consecutive hours? I should buy a lottery ticket.
“I… Thanks,” I say, still out of it, and start to rise off the sofa. My blood pressure drops from the moment my feet touch the ground, and a sudden tide of dizziness scolds me for getting up too fast.
Thankfully, Finn catches me at the last minute, his hands flanking my waist with a grip so tight my knees buckle for an entirely different reason.
We stand there for long seconds, his hands on my hips, our gazes fused together, and our bodies too close for my brain to comprehend. We’re both breathing harder than we were a second prior, and I catch myself zeroing in on his mouth.
He’s usually despicable, but right now, he’s nice, and I hate that it’s making me blind to all the times he wasn’t.
“You can let go now,” I say, even though my body is dying for him to hold me like this for two more minutes. I expect him to listen and back away, but he only holds on tighter, directing his focus onto my lips.
“I could.” He shrugs without a fuck given, and I’m pretty sure my heart skips a beat for every extra second he keeps my chest flush with his.
It’s the darkness of the night.
The quiet of a town that’s sleeping while we’re awake. It’s dangerous. Alone in this library, it’s easy to forget that we have to get up tomorrow and go back to hating each other.
“Why don’t you?” The answer terrifies me.
He usually has an answer for everything, but this time, he seems hesitant to share. I wait and I wait for him to drop it on me, but he never does. Instead, he releases his grip on my waist and starts to leave.
“Don’t ask questions you can’t handle the answers to.” He’s back to his cold self in the blink of an eye.
Every fiber of my being screams at me to do something as he approaches the door.
“Who says I can’t handle it?” I call behind him.