Now it's my turn to freeze. When he doesn't move again, I carefully rest my cheek against the top of his head to reassure him this is okay.
As Raf and Phoenix keep talking, my hand comes up without conscious permission. Finds his hair. The strands are soft beneath my fingers, somehow softer than I expected. I card through them gently, finding his scalp, scratching lightly the way you'd pet a feral cat that's finally decided to trust you.
Rex makes a soft sound, not much more than an exhale, and his body goes loose against mine.
Phoenix is staring now, jaw hanging open.
I catch his eye and give a tiny shake of my head.Don't say a word. Don't draw attention. Just let this happen.
He closes his mouth. Nods once.
The conversation dies a natural death. No one seems to know how to fill the silence, and I'm too focused on the steady rhythm of my fingers through Rex's hair to try. The handcuff chain pools on the cushion between us, forgotten.
Minutes pass.
Rex's breathing slows. Deepens. Evens out into something that sounds almost like…
He's asleep.
Rex, who doesn't trust anyone, is asleep on my fucking shoulder.
He must be fucking exhausted. I know he didn't sleep last night. When I opened my eyes, he was just… watching me.
His arm shifts. Slides forward across my thighs, his hand curling loosely around my waist. The touch is light, almost accidental, like his body is seeking contact his conscious mind would never allow.
I think it might be an accident. Reflex. Something his sleeping brain did without permission.
But he doesn't pull away. And neither do I.
My phone buzzes with an email notification. Phoenix and Raf's phones follow suit a second later. Rex doesn't stir. He's out cold, his weight heavy and warm against my side, his arm still draped across my lap like an anchor.
"Carmine," Phoenix says, reading from his screen. His voice is barely above a whisper, like he's afraid of waking Rex. "Emergency meeting at the studio. Two hours."
We don't have to discuss it to know what this is about. The leaked photos. The Internet shitstorm. The fact that Rex's unmasked face is currently trending on every social media platform with comments that make me sick when I think about it.
"Guess we'd better get ready," Raf says, running a hand through his hair. "Face the music and all that."
Phoenix manages a snort at the pun. "Did you really just?—"
"I'm coping with humor. Just let me have this."
I look down at Rex's sleeping form. At the way his fingers have curled into the fabric of the hoodie—hishoodie—at myhip. At the slow rise and fall of his shoulders with each breath whispering against my skin.
"We should probably..." Phoenix gestures vaguely at us, at the handcuffs, at Rex's current state of using me as a human pillow. "I mean, Carmine's going to expect?—"
"Rex shows up," I interrupt. "That's all that matters. We get him there, we deal with whatever comes next."
Rex's arm tightens fractionally around my waist. Even asleep, some part of him is holding on.
I keep stroking his hair. "We'll figure it out."
CHAPTER 16
REX
Iwake up wrong.
Not in a bad way.