“We have two episodes left. I won’t be able to sleep until I know how this ends. Stay with me?” I meant to say stay and watch it with me, but somehow the other words got lost on the way out.
Wes is standing above me, with the light from the TV illuminating his back. He’s so big and so tall, and with his long, messy hair hanging around his handsome face, it’s like I’m sitting before Thor himself. I swallow hard, lips parting, preparing myself for him to go up to bed.
Alone.
Which would be a good thing. The right thing.
For him.
For me.
And for Jackson.
But I’ve never been good at doing the right thing.
“Sure,” Wes says, and I watch his beautiful lips curve into a smile. My body is reacting hard to him, and I have to reel in my libido. Trying to convince myself his physical attraction is the only thing that’s pulling me to him, I put a pillow in my lap and tuck my legs firmly underneath myself.
Wes settles back onto the couch, and the TV show cuts to a scene of a bright and sunny day, contrasting with the dark and gloomy mood of the rest of the show. The light illuminates Wes’s face, and I take a few seconds to study him.
It’s the middle of the night. We’re both tired, and if he’s anything like me, he’s questioning the existence of ghosts and demons right about now, and feeling very vulnerable.
Very human.
He rests his head against the back of the couch, and this is the most relaxed, the most real I’ve seen him with the exception of the moments he’s with Jackson. Right now, sitting here in the dark, the walls have been lowered, and he’s not resisting the fact that I’m here. I get not wanting to admit you want help, but what I don’t get is why Wes seems resentful of the fact that he needs a nanny.
Maybe it has to do with Jackson’s mother, who walked out on them?
“I didn’t see that coming,” Wes says, pulling my attention back to the TV. I look away from his face and it takes me a few seconds to catch up to the twist that was revealed.
“That’s fucked up,” I mutter, shaking my head.
“Yeah, it is. But it explains why the shadows always followed her.”
“Ohhh, it does.”
Tiredness grips me and if I were to lay down and close my eyes, I’d be asleep in minutes. I want to see how this show ends because I know once I get up and walk up to my room, I’ll be awake enough to lay there terrified the shadows cast by inanimate objects will manifest into dark spirits.
And I like being here next to Weston.
It’s weird. It doesn’t make sense. We’re not talking. Not touching. Yet his presence is calming, and the faint scent of his woodsy cologne clings to his muscular body, and I know if I were to inch close and snuggle up, resting my head on his chest so I could count his heartbeats, the smell would fill my nostrils and I’d be a goner. There’s something about an attractive man who smells good that makes them irresistible.
I’m so comfortable right now and feel so safe around him. I close my eyes for just a minute.
“Scarlet,” Weston whispers. “Scarlet.”
My eyes flutter open and I realize I’ve fallen to the side, drifting to sleep. Wes is looking down at me, his face dangerously close to mine.
“You’re falling asleep,” he says with a chuckle. “Go to bed.”
“No way.” I stretch out, moving closer to him. “We’re too far in to give up now. I don’t take you to be a quitter.”
Wes laughs again. “I’m not, though I never looked at turning off the TV because it’s now almost four AM as quitting.”
“We’ve got, what, one episode left? It’s quitting in my book.”
“Well, I guess we have to watch until the end.” The smile is still on his face as he leans back, but the second he relaxes he gets up again, moving in between the couch and the coffee table, reaching over to get the blanket that fell onto the floor. He grabs it and spreads it over me.
My heart speeds up and suddenly I feel like I’m in a rickety boat, being tossed about in stormy water. Not because Wes scares me, but because he does the exact opposite.
You’re walking the line of dangerous territory, I remind myself. He’s my boss. Sleeping with your boss is never a good idea.
“Thanks.” I smooth out the blanket and sit up, fixing the pillows. “Is it just my imagination or is it colder in here now?”
“It’s colder. I have the heat set to go down a few degrees between midnight and five AM. It goes back up at six-thirty, around the time Jackson gets up.” His brows furrow. “Though I suppose I can change it to seven-thirty now since he doesn’t have to get up so early anymore.”