Chapter 44 Sleeping Over
Andrea opened her eyes to pitch blackness. For a moment, she started to panic again, but then she realized she had her sleep mask on. She pulled it off, and the bright lights of her bedroom blinded her. Blinking, she vaguely remembered what had happened—the storm, hyperventilating, Case carrying her to her room.
He was still there—asleep, propped up on the pillows beside where she was half lying, half sitting. He had his arm behind her, loose around her waist. He didn’t look very comfortable, nor did it appear as if he were having sweet dreams. His forehead was wrinkled in concern, and his mouth was a thin line.
She had overreacted. She should’ve known better than to listen to rumors. But what Kelsey’s friend of a friend had said was alarming. Coupling that with her lousy day on the set of Dyan’s show and her unease about the storm, she’d pushed too hard. If he didn’t want to tell her what had transpired between himself and Sarah, who was she to demand that he did? Just because things had ended badly between the two of them, that didn’t mean the same thing would happen if she were to officially start dating him. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have secrets of her own.
Carefully, she unwound his arm from her and slid out of bed to the adjoining bathroom. She noted it was two o’clock in the morning. She’d been asleep for hours, and Case had just sat there with her until he’d finally fallen asleep himself. She imagined he had to be hungry—and bored. If she needed further proof that he was a good guy, she’d found it.
The rain had stopped. The only noise coming from the windows in the bathroom was the regular nightlife of the city. Traffic, horns, a far off siren, the occasional loud music that found its way up here from a passing car. That was it. She took some deep breaths, washed her face, brushed her teeth, and headed back to bed.
Case was awake. His eyes were open anyway. He looked almost as lost as she had been when she’d opened her eyes to darkness. “Hi.”
“Hey.” He stretched and yawned. “What time is it?”
“So late it’s early. A little past two.”
“Just about time to head out to the clubs,” he joked.
“Yeah.” Andrea sat back down on the bed, pulling her legs up and crossing them. “I’m really sorry… about all of that.”
“About what?” He brushed her hair back off of her shoulder, his fingertips grazing her cheek. “You don’t have to apologize about the storm, Andrea. I just wish I knew why you were so upset.”
“It wasn’t just the storm. And that’s not what I’m apologizing for. I asked you to come over so I could interrogate you, and that wasn’t fair of me. If you don’t want to tell me what happened between you and Sarah, then you don’t have to. It just make me nervous. You’re so perfect… I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Case snickered and sat up all the way, moving closer to her. “Perfect? I’ve never had anyone say that about me before.”
“You haven’t?” She arched an eyebrow, finding that hard to believe. “Well, you are. You’re always a gentleman. You know exactly what to do in an emergency. You’re hot as hell.” He chuckled, and she felt her cheeks flush, even though she meant it. “There has to be something about you that will make me say, ‘Oh, yep. There it is.’ I just can’t find it.”
“So you’ll just keep digging until you find something to sabotage what would otherwise be a good thing?” Her eyes widened. She hadn’t been thinking about it that way. He reached for her hand. “Listen, Andrea, nobody is perfect. We all have flaws and insecurities. I’ve done some things I’m not proud of. I’ve broken some hearts and played around with people’s emotions. But I left all of that behind me. What happened between Sarah and I was one of the most painful experiences of my life, and I’m just not ready to talk about it. To anyone. That doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you. It certainly doesn’t mean the same thing will happen between you and I. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that it won’t.”
The feel of Case’s thumb tracing circles on the back of her hand was calming, and Andrea couldn’t help but fall back into his embrace. Case kissed her temple, and she breathed him in. The fact that he was in her bed hadn’t escaped her. They weren’t ready for that, and they both knew it, but that didn’t prevent her from turning her face to find his lips.
Case kissed her, slowly at first, his warm lips melding into hers. His tongue teased her to open her mouth, which she did, welcoming him in. Each kiss intensified in passion and length until Andrea found herself breathless and wanting more.
She pressed her hand to his chest, slipped the other around his neck, wanting desperately to pull him down onto the pillows with her. But Case’s resolve was stronger than hers. He pulled back. “We should go back to sleep, Andrea.”
He was right, and she knew it. With a nod, she scooted away from him. He got up to turn the lights off, and she pulled the blankets around her in hopes that she would find a way to sleep in the same bed with him but keep her hands to herself. It wouldn’t be easy.
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