Poles Apart
Page 54

I nodded, blinking my heavy eyelids.
“I haven’t even showed you upstairs yet, have I? Mason called while I was giving you the tour…” He frowned, turning off his laptop and standing.
I shrugged, pushing myself up to my feet, too. “It doesn’t matter.”
I followed behind him, watching as he checked the front door was locked before tapping in a code on the house alarm and signalling for me to go upstairs. When we got to the top, he stopped and pushed open a door. “I thought Rory might like this one. If not then there’s another one down the hall he could have,” he said, motioning for me to look in.
I gasped when I surveyed the room. The place was probably almost the same size as my whole flat. There was a little sofa area with an enormous flat-screen TV at one end and a bed at the other. Rory was definitely going to love it. It was plain, like the rest of the house; white walls, cream carpet.
“You don’t go much for colour, huh?” I asked, still shocked at the size of the room.
“He can change it to whatever he wants. No one stays in there; I don’t think I’ve ever used that room. It’s probably a little boring for a teenager,” he admitted. “Come on, I’ll show you Sasha’s room next.” He took my hand and, before I could snatch it back, pulled me down the hallway.
He stopped outside another door and pushed it open, flicking on the light. The room was smaller than Rory’s but, even so, was bigger than the lounge and kitchen in my flat. He followed me in and stopped behind me, his chest pressing against my back. “We’ll decorate it and make it more girlie. What kind of thing is Sasha into?” he asked. He was standing so close to me I could feel his chest rumble against my back as he spoke. I gulped and willed my voice to come out normally.
Why does his body still affect me when I’m trying so hard not to forgive him?
“She likes anything really. The Fimbles and Charlie and Lola are her favourite things to watch on TV.” I shrugged. She was too young to be into one thing, she just liked colourful cartoons at the moment.
“Not heard of either of those,” he admitted sheepishly. “Maybe we could choose something together?” he offered hopefully.
I shrugged, forcing a smile. “Sure.” I stepped away from him, wanting to get some personal space.
He smiled the dimpled smile that made my heart race. I put my hand to my mouth to stifle my yawn, and he smiled again. “Come on then, I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.” I nodded and followed him out of the room. He pointed toward another set of stairs that led to a third floor. “There are another couple of rooms up there. I use it as a games room, then there’s another bedroom. Rory could use that for studying if he wants, or maybe he’d prefer his own lounge or something up there for when his friends come over? If he wants that then I could order new sofas and stuff…” he trailed off, frowning thoughtfully.
I sighed, trying not to let how sweet he was being to my brother affect me. “I don’t think he’ll need his own lounge,” I muttered, shaking my head in rejection. Carson was clearly trying to make me feel at home here, but it was never going to happen.
He smiled and walked to the room next to Sasha’s. I breathed a little sigh of relief that her room was so close to mine. I’d been so used to her sleeping in the room with me that it was going to be a little hard to get used to being separated now. The expensive baby monitors Carson had just ordered would obviously come in handy.
I stepped into the room after him and felt the smile twitch at the corner of my mouth because there was actually a little colour in this room. One dark-red wall sat behind a gigantic, mahogany four-poster bed. There was an L-shaped brown leather sofa grouped around a fireplace, with a huge TV above it. Everything looked beautiful and expensive, like some sort of show home. The red duvet set matched the curtains. It was cute.
“Bathroom’s there,” he said, nodding to a door on the opposite wall.
“What’s the other door?” I asked, pointing to the door next to the bathroom he’d pointed out.
“Walk-in wardrobe.” He smiled casually and I nodded absentmindedly, already knowing my meagre clothes would look out of place in there.
“Okay. Well, I guess I’ll see you in the morning.” I nodded toward the door, signalling for him to leave so I could slope off to bed.
He smiled and rolled his eyes. “This is my room.” He gripped the back of his shirt and tugged it over his head, tossing it on the chair by the side of the bed.
I gulped, and tried – unsuccessfully – to keep my eyes off his body. I needed to be strong. Sure, I still wanted him physically, but I just needed to remember what he’d said to me. What he was making me do, what he threatened to do to Sasha if I didn’t marry him. Once I thought about that again I gritted my teeth angrily.
“So, where is my room?” I snapped, frustrated. I just needed to go to bed so I could sob myself to sleep like normal.
“This is your room,” he replied, wrenching open the buttons of his jeans and sliding them down, kicking them onto the chair, too.
I frowned in confusion. “But you said this is your room.”
He nodded. “It is. We’re getting married, remember?” he replied sarcastically as he turned down the bed, ready to get in it.
Shock made me recoil. I glared at him with as much hate as I could muster. “If you think I’m sleeping in here with you, then you’ve got another thing coming!”