Conviction by Amanda Lance Read Free Book Online

and bought the best one she could find.”
    I groaned into the pillow case. “I wish she wouldn’t have done that. I’d be happy to sleep on a futon. ” I rolled to the other side and stared down at Charlie below. “You don’t have to be on the floor. There’s more than enough room for both of us up here.” I patted the comforter conspicuously.
    Charlie tucked his arms behind his head as if pretending not to notice. “Nope. I’m good.”
    I growled in aggravation and threw myself back against the memory foam pillows Elise had also taken the consideration to purchase.
    Tapping my fingers impatiently, I waited for him to give in, waited for him to realize the lack of logic in his decision and make a judgment based on practicality instead of his stubborn sense of honor or whatever it was keeping us apart.
    But then a few minutes went by, and a few minutes more. It entered my mind that he was actually going to stick with this compromise we had thought up involving him and I staying together as long as we remained separated. Charlie had expressed some concern for our newfound privacy and what it might mean for his lack of self-control (or mine, for that matter). I innocently suggested we forget the entire concept of restraint and go to the place he rented on the other side of town.
    He called me a vixen.
    “Fine,” I declared. “If you won’t come up here,” I rolled myself in the feather-down comforter, turning myself into a human burrito, “then I’m coming down there.”
    I rolled off the bed and crashed onto Charlie. He and the comforter made for a sufficient landing. He circled his arms around me, coughing at the sudden loss of air.
    I pushed myself away. “Yikes! Did I hurt you? I’m sorry!”
    Charlie’s breathing returned to normal, and he chuckled, tucking my hair behind my ear. “Only about one way you could hurt me, Addie. That definitely ain’t it.”
    I rolled my eyes and grabbed a pillow from the bed. “You don’t have to touch me if you don’t want to, but I just want you close. Is that okay?”
    I lay down on the floor beside him in my comforter cocoon and closed my eyes. While it was fun to tease Charlie, the last thing I wanted was to make him truly uncomfortable. If he began to associate me with negative feelings, then he might not want me around at all, even in a platonic arrangement.
    The blanket pulled a little tighter, and I felt myself being yanked around in the opposite direction until I was being rolled over within the blanket itself. Charlie laughed. “It’s like unwrapping a present.”
    “Hey, I liked my cocoon!” Before I could protest further he pulled me back to him, into his sleeping bag, and zippered it shut behind us as best he could. The sudden warmth of him pressed against me startled me into silence. Like so many times before when he was around, I couldn’t breathe properly.
    “The problem,” he whispered into my ear, “is that all I wanna do is touch you.”
    I regained my vocabulary and the use of my tongue long enough to speak coherently. “So why don’t you?”
    Pulling away slightly, he laughed a little. “‘Cause you’re still young and I don’t want you to do something and then have you hate me for it later.”
    I squirmed out of the sleeping-bag halfway. “Excuse me, I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but I am very able to make my own decisions. So far, I’ve made some decent ones…” I briefly remembered my time in the hold and winced at the memory.
    “You know I can’t hate you.” I wiggled myself back into the sleeping-bag so I was comfortable and rested my head against his chest. “But if you really want, we’ll do things your way.”
    He sighed into my hair but said nothing.
    I leaned forward and kissed the serpent on his neck, making him shiver despite the heat of our bodies. “I love you, too. I just hope you know that when my birthday comes, I’ll be taking advantage of everything adulthood has to offer. Including