Page 284 of Safe With You

“I was saying important things.”

“And I wasn’t?”

I turned my head and caught the twitch at the corner of his mouth.

“You know what I meant.”

“I don’t know. Sounds like you don’t value my contributions.”

I laughed and reached for the remote. “This is exactly what I’m talking about.”

I shook my head, still smiling. “Just pick something.”

He took the remote from my hand. “Now you trust me?”

“With movies.”

“Progress.”

I rolled my eyes, but somewhere between him scrolling through the options and arguing that I’d rejected the last three without giving them a chance, I shifted closer to him.

It happened without much thought. One second I was sitting beside him, and the next my shoulder was tucked against his chest while his arm settled around me.

No hesitation. No question about whether I was taking up too much space.

I just fit there.

Ellis kept scrolling until The Equalizer came up.

“This?”

“Sure.”

“You didn’t even read what it’s about.”

“I know what The Equalizer is.”

“So you approve?”

“I said sure. Don’t push it.”

He laughed and started the movie.

For the first few minutes, I actually tried to pay attention.

Somebody did something they probably shouldn’t have, Denzel Washington looked entirely too calm about it, and somewhere along the way, I lost track of why any of it was happening.

Ellis shifted beside me, and his hand settled against my thigh.

Not high enough to turn the touch into something else. Just there. Warm. Familiar.

My body relaxed against him before I realized it had.

He looked down at me. “What?”

“Nothing.”

I narrowed my eyes. “That’s my line.”