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“Yeah, Saylor,” Jed chuckles. “I’ll make you a grilled cheese. As soon as you wake up.” I barely register the end of his words. The only thing I can really feel is his hands on me, running up my side to cup my jaw lightly. His thumb runs along my lip, and he pulls me closer against him. “Go to sleep, perfect girl. Everything will be here for you when you wake up.”

I don’t need any more encouragement than that. My consciousness escapes when I take another breath of Jed’s scent, and within seconds, I’m asleep.

Chapter

Eighteen

Ican feel him watching me when I finally wake up in earnest. Somewhere in the back of my brain, I remember inhaling two immaculate grilled cheeses that could make angels weep with their perfection. But I’m pretty sure halfway through the second one, I fell back asleep on Jed’s chest.

“Please tell me I don’t snore,” I mutter, not bothering to open my eyes. He chuckles, knuckles stroking my cheek as he pushes a lock of hair back behind my ear.

“I can’t tell you that,” Jed purrs in my ear. “But it’s cute how enthusiastic a sleeper you are, Saylor.”

I groan and bury my face against his chest, glad for the warmth. “That’s embarrassing.” But that’s not the only problem, or even the worst one.

In the light of day, everything feels so much different from last night. My fears eat at me, and the terror that I’ve felt around him for days is back to prickle at my fingertips. After all, dreaming of his slaughter-shed had brought that particular fact right back to the forefront of my mind.

And suddenly I don’t know how I’d forgotten it.

“You’re thinking very hard.” He sounds…nervous. Terse, short, and like he’s unsure of where we stand with these thoughts running around my skull. But then again, that makes two of us. I’m also not sure where we stand in the light of day that’s impossible to hide behind.

“I know,” I agree, finally opening my eyes. “I wish I wasn’t.”

He sighs and shifts against me. “Yeah, I wish you weren’t either.”

But I am. And it’s impossible to stop now. My eyes crack open and I sit up, hair falling around my shoulders as I stare down at Jed, who looks amazing in the morning light. But then again, he looks amazing in any light, or in the shadows at night. He just looks…gorgeous.His blue eyes are wide and calculating as he watches me, though he doesn’t say anything. Not even when I reach down to stroke my fingers along his jaw, relishing the feel of his skin.

“I know,” he murmurs at last, turning to kiss my palm. “I get it, Saylor.”

“Get what?” I whisper, reveling in the stillness of the cabin that’s nothing like my apartment. Sure, the trepidation and fear make my heart beat against my ribs like a trapped bird. I remember all the things he’s done, and what he told me last night.

Jed is a cannibal.

Or, well, according to him,wasa cannibal. But how can I be sure, when he so very clearly still has a taste for…

Me.

“Things are different in the morning.” He gives a slow, languid shrug. “I can see the way you look at me now versus last night. But at least I know something for sure.” He continues leaning into my hand with eyes full of trust and no lines of tension in his body.

I know it too, when I look down at him like this.

Hetrustsme. Jed doesn’t need to say it. He doesn’t need to utter any of the words that make up that sentence, and I’m pretty sure he knows it too, since he just watches me with that steady, blue gaze. He knows I can see it in him.

Just as he can see the opposite in me.Fuck.

“While you were asleep, I got your things ready for you.” I can feel the heaviness of his words. I can feel the reluctance in them, even as they leave his mouth. My heart sinks, but a part of me is relieved. Isn’t this what I’ve wanted all along? To be set free to go the hell home?

“I did your laundry, and everything is on the dresser over there.” I follow the flick of his eyes and see a pile of familiar clothes…along with a familiar set of keys. “You’re not my hostage, Saylor. It kind of feels like you never were, but I have to remind myself you might not see it?—”

I kiss him. Hard. With my lips slanted against his and my eyes closed, it’s easy to fall back into the feelings from last night.

Almost.

He kisses me back with the same enthusiasm, and doesn’t chase me as I lean away from him, tucking my hair behind my ear.

But he watches me. The entire time I take to get dressed and shove my things in my pockets, Jed watches me without taking his eyes off of me once. It should feel threatening. I should move faster because of it, I know. And yet, that’s not the case at all.

I love the weight of his gaze on me.