Page 114 of Shattered Silence Duet

I smile up at Tucker, touching his cheek with my right hand, and he leans into it.

“Here we go!” Jasper says, and I look up as we enter a room on the second floor. My eyes widen in shock.

The room is huge. It has two large windows that look out tothe backyard and the forest beyond. One has a desk under it with a computer, notebooks, and a bunch of other stuff on it. The other window has a nook for sitting, covered in pillows in different shades of green. One side of the room is basically its own sitting area with several comfortable-looking chairs. One wall has a fireplace with a rug in front of it and an inviting pile of pillows and blankets. There are two doors, and Tucker walks toward them.

Inside one is a huge bathroom with a glass shower and a separate tub big enough for three. There are gold fixtures and white marble tiles everywhere. It’sgorgeous. He takes me to the other door, which leads to a large closet.

It has a lot of clothes in it, and when I start to notice pinks and purples on some of them, I reach out to take a look. These are definitely girls’ clothes. I gasp and let go.

“Tucker?” I whisper to him.

“Yeah, Sug’?”

“Whose room is this?” I keep my voice low so the others won’t hear.

He laughs and walks us out of the closet and back to the main part of the bedroom. That’s when I take a good look at the bed. It’s huge, probably like two kings pushed together. It has a canopy draped over it from the ceiling and is covered in green pillows and blankets.

“She wants to know whose room this is,” Tucker announces.

“Tucker!” I hiss at him in embarrassment.

He laughs and I notice all the guys are in here now, some standing, some sitting on the edge of the bed, but they’re all watching me.

Dom decides to answer my question. “It’s yours. We wanted you to have your own space, somewhere you could feel comfortable and safe. Somewhere you could kick us out of if you need alone time.”

“Or invite us in to when you don’t,” Max adds, flopping backward on the bed with his arms wide.

“That’s… big,” I whisper to Tucker, but the others hear me too and smile, which makes me blush for some reason.

“Yes, and you’re going to lie in it and recover,” Tucker says as he carries me over.

Max crawls up and pulls the covers down for me to be placed into, then recovers me when I’m lying down. He lies on his side with his face propped up in his hand.

“Sweetheart, have you ever… cuddled before?”

“Max! No!” Gideon says, pointing his finger at him.

I laugh thinking Gideon sounds like he’s reprimanding a dog.

“Max, you know the rules. No touching until her wounds are healed, and there’s no risk of reopening any of them.”

What does that mean?Will there be cuddling after I’m fully healed? I can’t help but suddenly hope I’m a fast healer.

“Get some sleep, Princess, text us if you need anything,” Ben tells me as he places my phone on my nightstand. They each take a turn saying goodnight, but nobody touches me, which surprises me.

Dom exits last, and when he switches off the main light, a small light starts glowing by the bathroom door. It’s some kind of nightlight in the shape of a moon that reflects stars on the wall around it. I wonder if one of them picked that out for me or if they already had it here.

That makes me look around the room, my room, again and question where everything came from. I hope this wasn’t one of their rooms and they’re giving it up for me. But it didn’t seem to match any of their personalities. No… the person it best fit was… me.

It seems even the nicest room in the world isn’t enough to get me to sleep soundly. I find myself tossing and turning all night, aggravating my injuries. I’m uncomfortable and restless and can’t seem to shut off my mind. How long could I really stay here for? What was I going to do? Do I have to go back to high school? Do I even want to? What if my mom finds me here? What if Simon does?

The sound of my door creaking open has me sitting up with a gasp as I clutch the blanket to my chest.

“Mina, are you alright?” The sound of Dom’s voice has me deflating, the fear creeping out of me as I drop my hands to my lap and breathe heavily.

He steps inside and closes the door behind him before coming to sit on the edge of the bed, placing his hand on top of mine. He’s wearing a pair of blue plaid pajama pants and a tight black tank top that shows off the skin on his shoulders and arms.

“Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”