Page 5 of Make Me Stay

If he kept touching me, I was going to do something stupid. And I’d filled my quotient of stupid already this year. “If you live with me, then you won’t be late to work.” I grinned and eased away from him, taking my glass. “I’ll set up a schedule for us for cooking. I wouldn’t mind the help.”

“Schedule? Do we need to get that serious?”

“What do you think?”

He laughed. “Fair point. I’ve seen your schedules.”

“Damn right. I’m going to go take a shower.”

“With your wine?”

“Definitely.” I laughed and headed through the doorway to the dining room and to my bedroom.

I needed to get away from him for a few minutes and recalibrate. We had a shared bathroom, which was going to be another problem.

An image of Kai in a towel popped in my head. Nope. Not going there right now.

I grabbed my caddy of girl supplies that reminded me of my college days. I was too high-maintenance, and it was easier to keep all my junk to myself. My brother was well-aware of my evening ritual and usually kept himself busy in the garage.

The long, hot,everythingshower settled me and emptied my brain. Skin care came next, and I was squeaky clean and dewy with all my serums.

When I opened the door, Kai stood there in just a pair of jeans with the top snap open.

All the hard work to clear my brain went right out the window.

How could he be that damn attractive? Especially since I knew he’d done a full day on one of the larger properties.

“Finally. I was beginning to wonder if you fell in.”

I laughed and cinched my robe a little tighter. It was a silky kimono-style robe that suddenly felt far too flimsy and short with him standing in front of me.

His gaze drifted down to my chest then to my legs before lasering to my eyes. The gray of his were intense and his usual grin was missing.

“Sorry. There’s a tiny bathroom in the basement if you really needed one.”

“You smell like a fucking peach.”

“Sorry?”

He swallowed and the Adam’s apple in his neck bobbed, making my mouth dry. His neck was so long and flowed into his shoulders, with all sorts of delicious muscles in his shoulders and then just got better when it reached his chest. It was lightly furred with golden hair that disappeared into his jeans. He was so golden brown and didn’t have a hint of a tan line at the deep vee of his zipper.

“Eyes up, Lex.”

My eyes snapped up to his. “Right. I’ll get out of your way.”

He didn’t move, but his jaw tightened.

Thatcouldn’tbe for me. Absolutely not. He was probably angry that I’d given him a once-over. I was only human, dammit.

I tried to slip past him, but the space was small and the hallway almost non-existent. Then remembered my caddy of stuff and had to back up. “Sorry. One sec. I just need to get my stuff.” I picked it up and turned to find him. He snatched the bottle of body-wash and flicked the top to sniff it. “Hey.”

“Delicious.”

“I know, it’s my body-wash.” I took it from him and tucked it back into my caddy. “You can have the bathroom now.” I zipped around him, but the doorway was narrow enough that my robe caught and pulled it off my shoulder, flashing a lot of skin.

His gaze dipped then bounced right up to my face.

I pulled it together and darted into my room, hoping he didn’t see how hard my nipples were. He was still staring at me when I shut the door.

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