Page 29 of Hensley Manor
My face heated. I didn’t know what to say other than, “Thanks.”
He chuckled. “How about breakfast in bed this morning?”
“Careful.” I squeezed his shoulder blades, loving the muscle beneath my fingertips. “Keep saying and doing nice shit like that and you may spoil me.”
“Maybe you deserve to be spoiled.”
“Nah. I’m nothing special.” Nothing good.
Ian shifted his weight to the side and propped his head up on his arm, staring down at me. “We never see ourselves as clearly as other people see us.”
“Oh yeah? And what do you see when you look at me?”
There was a pause, my question hanging in the air.
“I see someone who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.” Ian smoothed a hand across my chest and dropped his gaze to a patch of freckles at the base of my neck. Lightly touching them. “Someone who used to love life and laugh a lot, but somewhere along the way you forgot how.”
A lump wedged in my throat. He was more perceptive than I’d thought.
“I’m starving,” I said, gently moving out from under him and sitting on the edge of the bed, my back to him. The pie I’d dropped last night laid on the floor, and a shudder went through me when remembering what came after I’d dropped it. The intense pleasure and lust mixed with a feeling of home.
But this isn’t my home. It’s only temporary.
I grabbed my boxers and jeans from the floor and was about to put them on when a pressure came around my midsection. Ian’s arm.
“Please don’t leave,” he whispered near my ear. “I’m sorry I said anything. I just…I want to help you find your smile again. Your laugh.”
“Why? You don’t even know me, Ian.”
“But I want to.”
I closed my eyes. “This is why I try not to get close to people. They end up asking questions I don’t want to answer.”
“I’m not asking you to answer them. I’m just asking you to…to stay for breakfast.”
To tell the truth, I didn’t want to leave. Ian made me feel things I hadn’t felt in alongtime, if ever. I just had a stupid habit of running when things got too serious.
I didn’t want to run anymore.
“Okay.” I slumped back against him, finding the feel of him way too comforting. It was dangerous, feeling so strongly for someone I’d just met. “Can I clean up first?”
“Of course.” He kissed my shoulder before pulling away. I stared at his naked ass as he grabbed his sweats from the floor and put them on. “I’ll call down and have food sent up. Anything specific you’d like?”
“Surprise me.”
We shared a smile, albeit a semi-awkward one, before I walked into the bathroom connecting to his room. Unlike mine, which only had a bathtub, Ian’s had a stand-up shower in the corner, as well as a large bathtub. Soaking in hot water sounded great, but baths took too long. I opted for the shower and turned the handle, letting the water warm before stepping inside.
After standing beneath the hot water for a while, I finally reached for the bar of soap. It smelled like pine, and I held it to my nose, softly smiling as I did. Funny how I’d never really paid attention to the scent of pine, not caring for it one way or the other, but after meeting Ian and associating the smell with him, I realized how much I liked it.
When I got out and changed into my clothes from the night before, I left the bathroom and found Ian sitting in the armchair near the window. He stared outside as if in a daze. At my approach, he blinked and turned his head, flashing a smile that warmed my chest much more than the hot water had.
“Feel better?” he asked.
“Yeah. Thanks for letting me use your shower.”
He nodded. “Food should be up soon.”
As if on cue, a knock sounded at the door. I recognized Benji’s voice on the other side.
