Well, aside from the fact that I’ve been lying to him about staying here really late and continuing to refuse a ride home from him before he goes to work. That part kind of sucks, especially when he’s being so sweet in his own brusque way, and he’s continued to bring me food every night.
“Once again, I’m not grabbing my shit. I’m working. I’ve got a lot of work to do. Go away and let me do my work.”
I sound so rude right now, but I can’t help it. He might be irritating, but the way he’s staring at me makes my body tingle in all the right places, just like always.
“The library is closed. Lock up, grab that ridiculous makeshift bed you’ve got stashed under the counter, and your bag of clothes you keep hidden in the bottom drawer, and let’s go.”
My mouth drops open in shock and my face heats with embarrassment. Not even Mrs. Potter, who spends all day, every day in this library, noticed my bed shoved into the far corner under the desk, or my duffle bag in the bottom drawer. How in the hell does he know this? And why do I feel like it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if Mrs. Potter figured it out, but I’m mortified beyond belief that he knows?
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I whisper, my voice cracking with the words as my eyes fill with tears of humiliation.
Pulling his hands out of his pockets, he rests his elbows on top of the desk and leans across the counter until he’s just a few inches away from my face. I can feel his warm breath against my lips when he lets out a deep sigh.
“And I’m not gonna let you spend another night sleeping on the floor of this fucking old, drafty library all alone. Get your shit and let’s go, or I’ll pick you up and toss you over my shoulder.”
“How . . . when . . .” I stutter, unable to form the questions I want to ask him because I feel like an idiot.
“I figured it out the first night I showed up here. I called off of work and stayed here until three o’clock in the morning, and you never came out. Let’s go.”
With that, he pushes away from the counter, turns around and starts walking towards the front door while I wait for a hole to open up in the floor and swallow me up. Every night when I refused his ride home and told him I was working late, he knew I was lying. And every night he came back, and he never called me out on my lie—until now.
When the bell chimes above the door and Beast disappears out into the parking lot, I finally let out the breath I was holding when he leaned in so close to me. Over the last week, even though he’s barely strung more than a few clipped words together, I’ve come to really, really like the sound of his voice. It’s deep and raspy and, dare I say, sexy. You know, if he wasn’t making me feel like a horrible, lying person and ordering me around.
I take a few minutes to calm my nerves and blink away the unshed tears, glancing down at the floor by my feet.
I don’t want to spend another night on the floor of this library, tossing and turning and trying to get comfortable. But should I really go somewhere with a man I barely know? I mean sure, he’s been hanging out with me for the last week, but I’m the one who’s done all the talking. I still don’t know anything about him other than the fact that he’s incredibly chivalrous, reads a lot, and is very concerned with my eating habits. The only warm meals I’ve eaten lately are the ones he’s brought me every night. Not wanting to waste the small amount of money I make on real food, I’ve been living on granola bars and peanut butter and jelly. But he’s friends with PJ, and PJ definitely isn’t the type of man who would associate with someone unsavory, let alone let him work at his club. Beast doesn’t know me very well, but he wants to make sure I’m okay and really doesn’t like the idea that I’ve been sleeping here. It almost feels a little bit like the start of a fairy tale. You know, if the prince was maddening and gruff and ordered the princess around. He probably just wants to drive me to a hotel or something. I’ll have to dig into next month’s book budget to pay for it, but I’d rather do that than be embarrassed any further by telling him I can’t afford it.
The bell above the door chimes again, and I look up to find Beast hovering in the open door, looking incredibly pissed off.