My Online Boyfriend Lives In The Next Room Chapter 04

My Online Boyfriend Lives In The Next Room Chapter 04

I pulled myself together and climbed out of bed.

I opened my door, heading for the bathroom.

Alistair was just stepping out. Shirtless. A single towel slung low around his waist.

He usually wore a robe around the apartment. Tonight, apparently, he’d skipped it.

Up close, his abs looked exactly like the photo my online boyfriend had sent me. Except in person, the raw

definition was impossible to ignore.

Maybe it was the lingering heat from our call. Any woman with a pulse would’ve stared.

I risked a glance.

The tips of his ears were still flushed. His expression was controlled, but something dark and heavy burned

behind his eyes.

His lips were slightly swollen, like he’d been biting down on them.

And just like that, the memory of his tight, ragged voice echoed in my head.

My face was on fire.

I forced my eyes away. “Bathroom free?”

“Mm.” Barely a sound, but the raw hoarseness in it was unmistakable.

I felt the heat climb up my neck all over again.

I moved past him toward the door. But as I squeezed by, my arm grazed his.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

Every nerve lit up at once.

His cologne hit me, cool and clean. It smelled exactly the way he looked. Untouchable.

We both stopped. Our eyes met.

There was something in his eyes that paralyzed me. Dark, bottomless, and intense.

Like a pool you could drown in without ever feeling the cold. Something dark and tangled guarding the

edges, pulling you in the second you got too close.

I forgot how to move.

I’d seen a post once. [Eye contact is a silent kiss.]

I hadn’t understood it until right now.

One look, and it felt like he’d kissed the air right out of my lungs.

The man was lethal, and he wasn’t even trying.

If he were my boyfriend, I would devour him.

The comments exploded. [Are you sure?]

[Does she even hear herself right now?]

[Same energy. When I’m starving I think I could eat a whole pizza, and then I tap out after two slices.]

Okay-maybe I was getting ahead of myself.

“Sorry. Accident,” I mumbled.

Alistair’s voice came out low, almost lazy. “It’s fine.”

The second the bathroom door clicked shut, gravity crashed back into me.

I pressed my back against the door and tried to get my heart to stop hammering.

The comments screamed. [Ahhh, can the two of you please stop flirting with each other?]

[You both like each other, just say it already!]

[Please. Alistair isn’t into Laurel.]

[He’s intense and possessive. He’d never go for someone like her.]

[A quiet, low-key girl like Laurel couldn’t keep up with him.]

[Alistair wants someone like Sloane. Bold, confident, experienced.]

[Laurel is returning the account to Sloane tomorrow.]

[Alistair’s been dying to meet his online girlfriend face-to-face.]

[Once they meet, they’ll hit it off and go straight to a hotel.]

[Alistair’s never dated anyone before. This is his first relationship and he’s all in.]

[Laurel needs to get out now, before he finds out the truth.]

[If he finds out she was pretending to be Sloane this whole time? He’ll lose it.]

[Girl, RUN. You do NOT want to be on Alistair’s bad side.]

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my spaghetti-strap nightgown in the laundry basket.

Small droplets of water clung to it. It must’ve gotten splashed while Alistair was in the shower.

But it didn’t look accidental. It looked deliberately suggestive. The kind of image that dragged your mind

straight into the gutter.

I was done. Completely, thoroughly, wrecked.

I washed my face with cold water.

By the time I dried my face, I’d made up my mind.

I stepped out and knocked on Alistair’s door. “Alistair? You awake?”