He pulled me to him, kissed my head and whispered, “Not tonight Lil Bit.” He closed the door behind him as he left.
“Well, that’s that,” I said to no-one. I had no choice really, so I walked over to the dresser and opened the top drawer. There was a range of underwear, all new. The next drawer was sleepwear, all in my size. I didn’t even want to know how it was here, but it was definitely for me. Turning on the side lamp, I turned off the main light.
Sighing, I pulled out a pair of sleep shorts and top. I put them on the bed and went into the bathroom. I found a new toothbrush and toothpaste. After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I took off Corey’s borrowed clothes. In her borrowed underwear I exited the bathroom and went back into the bedroom, where I found Colton sitting in a chair in the corner of the room.
“Holy shit Colton!” I jumped. He grinned at me, his eyes raking over me. I grabbed the shorts and top and hastily scrambled into them. “What are you doing in here?” I muttered.
Colton leaned back in the chair. He was still just looking at me.
Checking my clothes, I finally just gave up and sat on the bed. “What?” I sighed; we may as well do this.
“You kissed him.”
My eyes snapped to him. Shit. I felt guilty and immediately defensive. “He kissed me first.”Wow, mature comeback Elle.
“So, if anyone kisses you first, you just kiss them back?” Colton sat back and crossed his legs. The challenge was in his eyes and he seemed like he was more than ready for a fight.
“Don’t be stupid,” I muttered as I looked away from him. I was finding the lampshade all kinds of fascinating.
“I’mbeing stupid?” he questioned softly. “You just made out with a guy you don’t know infront of everyone!”
“What? I’m only supposed to kiss people inside? Fine, next time I’ll make sure the bedroom door is closed!” Why was I having this conversation? This was ridiculous. I jerked back as Colton stood abruptly. He took two strides towards me and I leaned back to look up.
He was angry, I could tell from the tightness of his shoulders and the sheer fury radiating from him. I wasn’t brave enough in that moment to meet his eyes.
A finger was placed under my chin and he tilted my head up, I didn’t go easy. He muttered my name as I tried to keep my head down. No, notdown, I wasn’t weak – just lowered. Lowered was perfectly ok.
I exhaled as I gave in and met those green eyes. I felt my chest tighten. He stood there looking down at me, his gaze giving nothing away. His face was inscrutable. His finger moved from my chin and his thumb brushed my cheek. His hand cupped the side of my face and before I could stop, I had leaned into his palm. His thumb ran lightly over my bottom lip and he sighed.
“I’ve had too much to drink. I shouldn’t be in here.” He took his hand away and shook his head. He seemed defeated, the anger from a moment ago completely gone. “Matt is going to be furious.”
“Why?” I looked up at him, confused – I didn’t know what was happening anymore.
Colton ran his hand over his head. “Shit Ari, don’t look at me like that, I’m trying to be a good guy here.”
I snorted, very unladylike. “Too bad you weren’t thinking that earlier,” I said somewhat waspishly. I decided to stand, I swayed a little – the alcohol I had consumed making itself known – but he had too much control over me, standing over me. Unfortunately, Colton didn’t think it was necessary to stand back to give me room. I ended up flush against him staring into his chest. To be fair, it had a steadying effect on my swaying but did nothing to strengthen my legs.
His sharp sudden intake of breath made me freeze. Very lightly he ran his hands over my shoulders and down my arms. He curled his fingers round mine, then he leaned forward and put his forehead against the top of my head.
“I’m sorry for earlier. It’s hard...” He stopped himself.
“What’s hard?” I whispered and then realising the innuendo of what I had said, an inappropriate giggle threatened, but darn, the heat coming off his body was so enticing; I wanted to step even closer, wrap myself around him.
You’re no better than me…
I went to move away but his hands caressed my arms again and I stilled. I looked up at him and he held my gaze then he very gently but firmly pushed me back. I looked up reflexively and my breath caught. Good God he was beautiful. My hand was on the side of his face before I even knew I had moved. Like I had mere moments before, he leaned into my palm, his eyes closed. With more bravery than I thought I had, I traced his bottom lip with my thumb. His teeth snagged the fleshy part of my thumb and I felt my heart skip. He opened his eyes and looked at me, the emotion in his eyes took my breath away, his eyes closed briefly and then he stepped away.
“Go to sleep Ari.” With that he walked out of the room, leaving me standing there, gasping for breath and wonderingwhat the fuck just happened?How many times were they going to leave me wondering this? I was constantly confused and never closer to any answers. I threw myself onto the bed in frustration.
They were officially driving me insane.
I slept terribly, when I was able to sleep that is. I spent the rest of the night analysing, dissecting and just really confused until I had exhausted myself. I had wanted to go after him, but I didn’t know what room was his and I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of what I would say to him. Hell, the way he had left me, I wasn’t really suretalkinghad been on my mind.
Eventually I heard bedroom doors opening and footsteps in the hallway, the house must have been coming awake. I didn’t know what time it was, and I wasn’t ready to face anyone. The room had been lightening for a while, so it must have been early morning. I lay there in the huge bed looking at my surroundings. I hadn’t had time the night before, too many emotions had been swirling through me. I had no recollection of the wall colours and it was still too dark to determine, despite the morning light leaking through. There was a chair in the corner of the room, beside the wall length window, the chairhewas in last night. There was another chair across the room in the corner beside the door. I wondered briefly if it was for Feng Shui. There was a dressing table with a triple mirror and a chair. The dresser had lights, I squinted, I think it was lights. There was a double wardrobe and a chest of drawers. Simple but classic furniture. Under different circumstances, I would have loved it.
Colton had messed with my head – he made me feel things I didn’t want to feel, he was Connor’s brother. I wasn’t supposed towanthim, and I had kissedJaylast night. I mean I wasn’t the kind of girl who ran around just kissing guys. But as of this morning, I had kissed three men, two from the same family. That wasn’t a good statistic nor something to use to defend my honour either really.
A knock on the door a while later roused me. I must have nodded off again. With no sound from me, Matt entered the room. He grinned at me when he saw I was awake and then stole my duvet.