Page 82 of Nothing to Tell

“Are you okay?”he asked.“Tired?”

“A little.”

Concern erased his dimple.“We can go if you want to—”

“No, the party is still going—”

“I was the headliner,” he said.“Now I’m done, nothing else will measure up.”

“I could do with taking my shoes off though.”She raised one foot, then the other.“They’re new.”

“You should never be uncomfortable in this house,” Carolyn said.“There are dozens, maybe hundreds of shoes in this house.”

“There are hundreds in one section of Keely’s closet,” Bastian said, backing her up to perch her on a stool.“She wouldn’t even know they were gone.Take your shoes off.”

She toed off one and then the other.“I won’t raid your sister’s closet.”

“Then home it is.”

“No.”She tucked her head against his chest.“We should stay.”

“Whatever you want, Sweet.”

The rhythm of his hand moving from her hair, down her body loosened every muscle.On a yawn, her eyes closed.Forget the shoes, this was by far the most comfortable she had ever been, and she already regretted the minute they’d have to part.

Staying like that, curled against him, wouldn’t last, but for just a minute, she wanted to live in the illusion.

“Bastian…”

His name passed her lips in a whisper of its own volition.

“You are tired, Sweet.”

Somehow, he knew that.Was it the sound of her voice?Her breathing?The way her body begged his to keep it upright?

May not be tiredness, not entirely.Being near to him intoxicated her mind, her heart, every cell of her being.

“If we stand here much longer,” she murmured.“I’ll fall asleep.”

As a joke, it was meant to be a joke.Though she’d be the first to admit she hadn’t sold it.

Bastian stroked her hair.“Time for us to say goodnight.”

“And you can rest right here,” Carolyn announced.“You don’t need to go traipsing out into the night.Bastian’s bedroom is upstairs, get comfortable there.No one else shares that hallway, you’ll be alone.”

That piqued her trepidation.

“We’re staying here?”Harper asked before she’d fully processed Carolyn’s wily smile.

Carolyn had a way of conning her and Bastian into intimate situations.In her sleepy haze, had she walked into another of those setups?

“Do you want to stay here?”Bastian asked.“I can just as easily get the car—”

“Nonsense,” Carolyn said as Thomas joined them.“You pair go up to bed.We’ll see you at breakfast.”

“Mother,” Bastian warned.

Harper’s feet slid from the stool’s crossbar.She was too tired to fight the matriarch.Carolyn was a strong woman who didn’t give up easily.And if there was no one else in that hallway, Bastian wouldn’t have to share space with her.