“I can handle the reporters.”

“It won’t just be reporters. It might come down to private investigators if someone on the board of any of the companies decide that they don’t think I’m fit to inherit my position still.” He sighed. “Plus, there’s the obvious.”

“The obvious apparently isn’t so obvious,” I told him.

“We’re married. We should be living together.”

“Remember when I said that Luna was counting on me, and I didn’t want to disappoint her? Then there’s the thing where we were supposed to take it slow, get to know one another, and see if we even wanted to stay married.”

“What if I told you that I already know the answer to that?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “You couldn’t possibly already know the answer.”

“I could,” he argued. The huge grin that was plastered on his face as he did so was almost too charming to resist. If I hadn’t been coming down off a major flashback and panic attack, he might have won his argument then and there.

“How about we make it clear that I am staying here until I graduate because it’s convenient and that sometimes you stay with me, sometimes I stay with you, and other times we sleep apart because it’s what is best for us, for right now. There are plenty of couples who are geographically separated for whatever reason. It’s not that weird. Besides, you already gave the best excuse anyway. We’re looking for a house, and don’t want to keep disrupting our routine until the perfect place is found.”

Tucker sighed and I knew he was about to relent. “Fine, but just until graduation.”

I nodded my head in agreement. Then I felt the panic bubble up in my guts again. Graduation wasn’t that far away in the big scheme of things. A lot could happen between now and then. “Can you stay here tonight?” I asked, not even knowing where that came from. Part of me needed him, because for some reason he made me feel safe. The other part of me felt like we needed to get used to being a couple before we messed everything up later on.

“I’ll stay, but you absolutely can’t molest me in my sleep,” he teased.

“I don’t think I’m the one with the problem being handsy in my sleep.”

“Maybe not, but you certainly didn’t seem to mind benefiting from it,” was his comeback. The asshole waggled his eyebrows at me too, which was just comical.

I glanced around and realized Wes was gone. “Where is Wes?”

“He left once we got you settled inside. Said he had some shit to do.”

I hung my head, not wanting Tucker to see the shame I felt. “He can’t handle seeing me freak out, huh?”

Tucker shook his head. “He likes you,” he admitted. My eyes rounded out in surprise. “Not like that. He wouldn’t step a toe over the boundaries of our friendship, beyond the occasional joke about how he’s going to steal my wife.” I laughed at that, because Wes had definitely gone there on multiple occasions. “He likes you, as a person, as a friend. I can’t tell you how much shit I’ve taken from him about how I need to treat you right.”