Free It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover Page B

our family.
    I make a quick glance around the room, just to make sure nothing embarrassing will catch his eye. He takes a seat on my bed and I watch as he scans the room. I stand in the doorway to my
bathroom and try to give him one last out.
    “You say this will make it stop, but I’m warning you right now, Ryle. I’m like a drug. If you have sex with me tonight, it’s only going to make things worse for you. But
once is all you’re getting. I refuse to become one of the many girls you use to—how did you word it that night? Satisfy your needs ?”
    He leans back on his elbows. “You aren’t that kind of girl, Lily. And I’m not the kind of guy who needs someone more than once. We have nothing to worry about.”
    I close the door behind me, wondering how in the hell this guy talked me into this.
    It’s the scrubs. The scrubs are my weakness. It has nothing to do with him.
    I wonder if there’s a way he could leave them on during the sex?
    • • •
    I’ve never taken more than half an hour to get ready, but it’s almost an hour before I’m finished in the bathroom. I shaved more parts of me than was probably
necessary, and then spent a good twenty minutes having a freak-out, and had to talk myself out of opening the door and telling him to leave. But now that my hair is dry and I’m cleaner than
I’ve ever been, I think I might be able to do this. I can totally have a one-night stand. I’m twenty-three years old.
    I open the door and he’s still there on my bed. I’m a little disappointed to see that his scrub top is on the floor, but I don’t see his pants, so he must still be wearing
them. He’s under the covers, though, so I can’t tell.
    I close the door behind me and wait for him to roll over and look at me, but he doesn’t. I take a few steps closer, and that’s when I notice he’s snoring.
    Not just a light— oh I just fell asleep —snore. It’s a middle of REM sleep kind of snore.
    “Ryle?” I whisper. He doesn’t even budge when I shake him.
    You’ve got to be kidding me.
    I drop down onto the bed, not even caring if I wake him. I just spent an entire hour getting ready for him after busting my ass today, and this is how he treats this night?
    I can’t be mad at him, though, especially seeing how peaceful he looks. I can’t imagine working a forty-eight-hour shift. Plus, my bed is really comfortable. It’s so
comfortable, it could make a person fall right back to sleep after a full night of rest. I should have warned him about that.
    I check the time on my phone and it’s almost 10:30 p.m. I put the phone on silent and then lie down next to him. His phone is on the pillow next to his head, so I grab it and swipe up the
camera option. I hold his phone above us and make sure my cleavage looks good and pushed together. I snap a picture so he’ll at least see what he missed out on.
    I turn off the light and laugh to myself, because I’m falling asleep next to a half-naked man that I’ve never even kissed.
    • • •
    I can feel his fingers trailing up my arm before I even open my eyes. I force back a tired smile and pretend I’m still sleeping. His fingers trail over my shoulder and
stop at my collarbone, just before they reach my neck. I have a small tattoo there that I got in college. It’s a simple outline of a heart that’s slightly open at the top. I can feel
his fingers circle around the tattoo, and then he leans forward and presses his lips against it. I squeeze my eyes shut even tighter.
    “Lily,” he whispers, wrapping an arm around my waist. I moan a little, trying to wake up, and then roll onto my back so that I can look up at him. When I open my
eyes, he’s staring down at me. I can tell by the way the sunlight shines through my windows and across his face that it’s not even seven a.m. yet.
    “I am the most despicable man you’ve ever met. Am I right?”
    I laugh, and nod a little. “Pretty damn close.”
    He smiles and then brushes my hair off