And he held a bag that smelt delicious.
‘Thai.’ He put it on her table. ‘I was betting you hadn’t had dinner.’
She recognised the sticker on the brown bag. He’d found her favourite. Her mouth watered. Then she looked at him and her mouth watered more. There was stubble on his jaw, slight shadows beneath his eyes.
‘You look tired,’ she said softly. He looked fit for bed.
‘I’ve been burning the candle to get some work done. Had to travel a bit.’ He frowned. ‘While you look fresh as a daisy.’
She didn’t feel like a daisy. She felt like a firecracker—filled with wild, endless energy that couldn’t get release without ignition. But the spark had arrived and that familiar fizzing inside had begun.
‘Have you got your work done?’ He opened the bags and lifted out a couple of containers.
‘Pretty much.’ She grabbed a couple of forks. ‘At least, enough of it done to be able to get away.’
Oddly, his frown deepened. ‘No problems concentrating?’
‘I can block everything out when I need to.’
But now she realised she was famished. She reached for the first container instead of him. But he didn’t take the fork she’d put on the table for him.
‘You’re not having any?’
‘I already ate.’
She wasn’t sorry—all the more for her. ‘You chose well.’ She licked her lips.
‘Uh-huh.’ A self-mocking smile curved his lips and then he groaned. ‘I should probably—’
‘Lie down on the bed,’ she said.
His eyes widened.
‘I mean, you barely fit in here,’ she explained as if it was simple. But she couldn’t hold back a playful smile. ‘Lying down will probably be the most comfortable place for you in here.’
‘Comfortable.’ He released a low huff of laughter.
Good. She much preferred it when he smiled.
‘I didn’t come here for—’
‘Yeah, you did,’ she said. ‘And I’m quite okay with it.’
He toed off his shoes and vaulted up there. She shimmied out of her shorts and tee.
He opened his arms and sighed as she worked her way up his body—loosening his clothes as she went.
‘You like appreciation.’ She trailed her fingertips across his skin. ‘Thanks for dinner,’ she breathed.
‘You had three bites.’
‘I’ll have more later. I’m hungry for dessert now.’
Zane had fallen asleep mere moments after she’d ravished him. Stayed asleep for hours. The minx was a fast learner.
He’d wanted to make sure she’d had least had dinner. There was no actual kitchen in her place and he felt hungry at the mere thought of that, and yeah, he knew she ordered in, but he was also sure than sometimes she got too buried in her work to remember. So he’d brought some to her. Turned outhe’dbeen the dinner. And he was not complaining.
Hewassurprisingly comfortable in her tiny space, even though, when he stretched right out, his feet hung off the end of her mattress. So he curled up, spooning her. He appreciated the underperforming air-conditioning unit even if it was noisy. It was a calm cocoon in the middle of the sleepless city. He’d been sleepless all week in his quiet, perfectly air-controlled palace.