Page 20 of Bloom

Everyone but me, and the man directly across from me. Staring at me. Who spoke to me with real, complete sentences for I think the first time ever.

And I swear, I swear on my freaking life, that one corner of his mouth lifts in what could almost be considered a smile.

7

He catches a dozen men eyeing the short hem of a yellow dress.

Thirteen, including himself.

He irrationally, inexplicably considers it a triumph when he’s the only one who sees it the next morning.

I wakeup on the sofa in Lux's living room.

Stretching out with a groan, I rub my eyes, itchy from the mascara I never took off, heavy from the sleep I barely got. I’m not sure what time I passed out, but I know it was late. It was well past midnight when people slowly started to filter off the property, and another hour or so later until those spending the night sloped off to bed, and then there was no way my brain would let me sleep knowing the mess that lurked in the kitchen just a few feet away. By the time I collapsed on the sofa, too tired to make it to the trundle bed on Lux’s bedroom floor, I was out like a light. Even though that was likely only a couple of hours ago, my biological alarm clock still wakes me up with the sun.

God, It must be awful to be tiredandhungover. I can’t imagine morale will be great around the ranch today, and Imentally applaud whoever’s responsible for the coffee I smell brewing, the bacon I hear frying. Stomach rumbling, I follow the smell of breakfast, coming to an abrupt halt in the kitchen doorway when I find a tall, broad body stationed in front of the stove.

A tall, broad,shirtlessbody.

Suddenly, the drool pooling in my mouth has nothing to do with food, and everything to do with Hunter’s naked back. He looks bigger without clothes on. Maybe because I can see the softly defined muscles, earned from all the hard labor I see him doing every day, in all their glory. My gaze dips, my cheeks flushing as I zone in on the dimples indenting his lower back, and the pale, shiny stretch marks creeping up from the sweats slung obscenely low on his wide hips.

Despite my best efforts, I don’t quite have the willpower to prevent a quick glance lower at the firm, round ass contained by dark gray cotton.

I close my eyes. Swallow hard. Take a second to compose myself before making my presence known in a scratchy, high-pitched voice. “Good morning!”

Hunter glances over his shoulder—an enormous shoulder with some kind of soaring bird delicately etched across it—and dips his head in greeting. “Mornin’.”

“Morning!” A third voice echoes as Lux saunters into the kitchen, Alex already attached to her boob. Careful not to jostle him, she reaches around Hunter to snag the coffee pot. Pouring herself a mugful, she raises a brow at me. “Did you sleep here?”

“Uh-huh.”

“In that?”

I glance down at my wrinkled dress and grimace.

“Too wasted to ask for a change of clothes?” Lux teases over the lip of her mug.

I laugh. “Second-hand drunk from Nova? Absolutely.”

Lux snickers, snatching another coffee mug from the cupboard and dangling it at me. I take it, reaching for the coffee pot only to be beaten by a freaking bear paw of a hand.

I barely manage to choke out a thank you as Hunter fills up my mug.

“Milk?”

He has to ask twice before I realize he's talking to me, and even then I glance up to confirm that those pretty eyes really are aimed in my direction. “Yes, please.”

I expect him to just hand me the carton of oat milk sitting on the kitchen counter, but no. He grabs it himself, angling the open lip towards my coffee. “Tell me when.”

Don't look at his chest.

Do not look at his chest.

I look. Just a little. Just long enough to note the smattering of dark hair, and to realize that I have a thing for pectoral muscles. Huge freaking barrel-esque pectoral muscles that look the perfect place to rest a girl’s weary head.

My coffee is practically white by the time I remember to say, “Stop.”

Either oblivious to my gawking or nice enough not to mention it—personally, I lean towards the former—Hunter regards my questionable beverage with a raised brow. “Sugar?”

---