Waking Up in My Enemy's Bed

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I woke up in my mortal enemy's bed.

The catch? I was in love with someone else.

And later, playing truth or dare with the whole table watching, that same enemy picked up my phone, in front of the guy I actually wanted, and texted himself. From me.

Me: [Coming home tonight to kiss you to death.]

Chapter 1

I woke up in my mortal enemy's bed.

And the guy I was actually into? Not him. Not even in the building.

The ceiling was wrong. The sheets were wrong. Expensive-wrong, a thread count I definitely didn't own. It took me three full seconds to place the room.

Caspian's apartment.

Oh, no.

I turned my head slow, like if I moved carefully enough the whole situation might un-happen. He stood by the bed with his back to me, buttoning a shirt, unhurried, a stretch of long leg under the loose hem. I looked away so fast my neck cracked.

He finished dressing. Turned. Looked at me with something dark sitting behind his eyes.

"You're up," he said.

"You" I couldn't meet his eyes. "Last night. Did we"

"Kai." He said my name like he'd been saving it for years. "You're going to take responsibility for me."

"Take responsibility?" My voice cracked up an octave. "For what?"

He tipped his chin down and tapped one finger against his collarbone, where a red mark was blooming. Then he lifted the hem of his shirt, slow, and showed me the scratches raked down the side of his waist.

Four of them. Deep.

My handiwork.

I said nothing. My brain, helpful as ever, chose that exact moment to serve up highlights. My hands. His mouth. The specific, damning way I'd

Nope.

Great. Fantastic. Not only had I struck out confessing to Bennett, I'd gotten wrecked and rounded every base with the one person on this planet I'd sworn to beat. Life, fast-forwarded straight to hard mode.

He watched me spiral. Then he leaned in, locked onto my eyes, and said it again, slower, one word nailed to the wall after another. "Kai. You have to take responsibility."

"That's not fair. It was you who"

He cut me off. Leaned down. His lips brushed cool against the shell of my ear.

"Does it matter?" he murmured. "You seemed to enjoy yourself just fine last night."

His breath went hot against my ear and my whole scalp prickled. I shoved him off, face burning. "That's a lie. I didn't"

"No?" His mouth twitched. "Then let's settle it. Round two. We'll find out if you did."

And he moved, climbing toward me like he had all the time in the world.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry, I'll take responsibility, I'll take it, just get off, man."

That did it. He climbed off me, unhurried, and looked down from a height that felt deeply unfair.

"Phone," he said.

"...For what?"

"Changing my contact name."

I unlocked it with shaking hands and passed it over, and watched those long fingers move across the screen. In my contacts, he went from The Mutt to

Cas.

A cold little prickle crawled up the back of my neck.

He handed the phone back, skimming one hand over my abs on the way, casual as anything.

"Pin me to the top of your messages," he said, like he was reading off a grocery list. "Make us public. Post it where everyone can see." A beat. "And Bennett. The stone-faced econ boy you've been trailing after like a lost puppy for two years. You're going to stop mooning over him."

My jaw went tight. "Says who?"

"Says your boyfriend." He bent slightly, bringing us eye to eye, that not-quite-smile on his mouth. "I don't share. Any other questions, dear boyfriend of mine?"

I ground my teeth and bit each word off. "...Not. For now."

"Good boy."

He straightened, satisfied. Then, out of nowhere, he hooked a hand around the back of my neck and bit down.

"There." His voice dropped, low and even. "Now everyone who looks at you knows you're mine."

Pain flared. "Ow. Caspian, were you raised by wolves?"

He laughed under his breath. "You'd better pray that mark fades fast, Kai. Otherwise you'll have some questions to answer."

I slapped a hand over my neck, shaking with it. "You absolute snake."

He snorted, turned, and headed for the door. Landed one last hit on his way out.

"Pack a bag and move your stuff in. I can afford to keep a freeloader."

I said nothing.

There are things a man does not take lying down. I got up seething and started shoving my things together to get the hell out of this nightmare.

Then I checked my pockets.

Emptier than my dignity.

Chapter 2

So there I was, out front of his building, choking down every last shred of pride to make the call.

"Hey. Send me some cash. I need a cab home"

The line went dead before I finished.

A second later my phone buzzed. A Venmo notification. Plus a text.

Cas: [Sent. Come over tonight.]

My thumb hovered. Then hit accept.

Caspian, I swore to myself. This is not over. Not by a long shot.

I chanted bide your time about a hundred times in my head, channeling every wronged general who ever plotted a comeback, and marched off his property with my chin up like I'd won something.

That night I stood outside his door with a suitcase and had a quiet crisis.

Why was I actually doing what he told me?

I turned it over for a long time and came up with nothing. Defeated, I dropped my head and rang the bell.

The door opened almost before the sound faded. Like he'd been standing on the other side of it. Waiting.

"Come in, my" He stopped. Tilted his head. "Boyfriend."

"Temporary," I bit out.

He didn't rise to it, just took the suitcase out of my hand, easy. "Call it whatever you want. Get inside."

I'd been to his place a few times. Almost none of it pleasant. Either he was throwing shade or I was throwing hands. Every visit ended in smoke.

Now I was moving in. As his boyfriend. The wrongness of it itched under my skin.

To distract myself I pulled out my phone. A message was already waiting.

Bennett: [Heard you and Caspian are together?]

Bennett. The guy I'd been quietly, pathetically into.

Cold as a server rack, the kind of STEM major who talked to everyone, online or in person, like a chatbot with the empathy setting switched off. That icy shell was what hooked me in the first place. Turned out he wasn't playing hard to get. He was just like that. He'd end a conversation in one word before he'd spend a second on a second one.

Which is why, after six-plus months of knowing him, fine, of me orbiting him, our entire text history read like a time clock. A good morning. A good night. The occasional dry line about coursework or a game.

Meanwhile Caspian and I could rack up three hundred texts in one night fighting over whether pineapple belonged on pizza.

Something hot kicked up in my chest. I typed back, furious.

Me: [So what if we are?]

Bennett: [Congrats.]

Two words. My temple twitched. My eyes cut to Caspian on reflex.

He was already looking at me. Our eyes collided and the corner of his mouth curved, at what I couldn't tell.

Damn him. Why did that look go through me like a splinter?

I threw the phone down, crossed the room in two strides, grabbed him hard around the waist, and snarled straight into his face.

"What are you smirking at? Listen. I agreed to play boyfriend for now, fine, but I've got someone I actually like. So don't go getting ideas that I'll ever catch real feelings for you."

One corner of his mouth ticked up, watching me like I was the best thing he'd seen all week.

"This person you like." A beat. "It wouldn't happen to be Bennett, would it?"

Chapter 3

"How do you know that?"

He let out a soft, insufferable laugh. "A certain someone spent last night hugging a lamppost, crying, screaming Bennett's name into the dark. Very memorable."

He raised a brow, something pleased buried under his voice. "I got it on video. Want a replay?"

My face went up in flames. I lunged to clap a hand over his mouth. "Shut up. You do not get to say that."

He peeled my hand off and kept hold of it. "Kiss me and I'll stay quiet."

I hesitated. Under that smug stare I leaned in slow, aiming to peck his cheek and be done with it.

I didn't make it. He hauled me in by the waist, locked me against him, and turned it into something deeper.

The soft press of his mouth. The warmth of him, lemon and something darker underneath. The thumb he set just under my jaw, tilting me exactly where he wanted. It short-circuited me for a second. When I came back online I shoved him against the wall, not about to lose this.

I had half a head on him.

So I braced one hand on the wall, caged him between my arm and the plaster, and used the other to grip his chin and tip his face up.

"Caspian. I am never going to like you."

He laughed against my mouth, breathing hard. "That's fine. I'll do the liking for both of us."

"Who said you could?"

He lifted his head until our noses touched. "My heart beats for you." Steady, quiet, like he was reading me a fact off a page. "My body knows you. I was made for one thing in this life, Kai. Loving you. I always have been."

Heat crawled up the back of my neck. My ears went hot, itching, and something under my skin caught and started to burn.

I let go of him and stepped back. Fast. Put a wall of air between us.

"Ears a little red there, hm?" He reached up, unhurried, and fixed the hair I'd wrecked, amusement threaded through every word. "So innocent. And here I thought, after last night