Page 23 of Hot Response
And,shit, just like that, she could feel the heat turning her neck and cheeks red, and she looked away. Taking a sip of her beer, she cursed silently at the predicament she’d gotten herself into.
Tony had been right. Shedidwant Gavin Boudreau to rub her the right way.
* * *
With Cait’s pale skin framed by her dark hair, Gavin couldn’t miss her blush and his own blood heated in response. Of course, he was probably blushing a little himself, since he wasn’t used to joking about porn collections with a woman.
He realized she’d had her hair up at the market the same as when she was working, so this was the first time he’d ever seen her like this, with her long hair down. It was thick and straight, and he was tempted to bury his hand in it to see if it was as heavy as it looked. He didn’t, since they hadn’t reached that point yet.
And he was still coming to grips with there even being ayet—that he really did want to get to know Cait that well.
He was sincere in his offer. He’d let her chill in his apartment for a night and he’d crash at Grant’s. It was no big deal.
But he already knew he’d be lying awake tonight, imagining showing her around his apartment. Then, when it was time for him to go, she’d wrap her arms around his neck and whisper that maybe he should just stay instead. And he’dfinallyget to feel that soft mouth of hers under his.
“But seriously,” he said, wanting to get the conversation back on track before he went too far and said something stupid. He didn’t want to give her an excuse to leave. “If you need some peace and quiet, just let me know. I mean it.”
“Thanks.” She took a deep breath, the pink fading from her skin. “Am I keeping you from playing pool with the guys or anything? I’m sure you came here to hang out with them.”
He hadn’t, actually. He’d practically sprinted there when he got a text telling him she was there. Alone. At the bar.
But if he told her that, he’d have to explain why the guys in the pool room would think he was interested in knowing Cait was there. And he still didn’t know if she was aware of the Snapchat incident. She hadn’t mentioned it at breakfast or tonight, but it would probably be as awkward for her to talk about as it was for him.
“I’d rather sit here with you, if it’s all right.”
She smiled, her eyes crinkling with warmth. “Of course it’s all right. And we’ve talked about my family, but you haven’t told me about yours yet.”
“I live within walking distance of the house I grew up in and my parents still live there. My sister and her husband and their two kids live a couple of miles away. We’re all close, so there’s not much to say, I guess. There’s enough distance so we’re not in each other’s business unless we want to be, but close enough so we can have a family dinner when the mood strikes us.”
“And how often does the mood strike?”
“Whenever my mom says it does.”
She laughed and he let himself drink in the sound. If he had his way, she’d laugh a lot more often.
In his peripheral vision, he saw two heads pop out of the pool alcove like nosy groundhogs. It looked like Aidan and Scott, but he didn’t turn his head to get a better look. Cait didn’t seem to notice them and, after a few seconds, they went back to whatever they were doing. Probably talking about him and Cait, and planning whatever harassment they were going to throw his way next tour.
He didn’t care. Putting the guys out of his mind, he focused all of his attention on the beautiful woman sitting next to him.
They talked about music—country was her favorite, while he’d rather listen to nails screeching down a chalkboard. But she listened to a lot of different music and conceded his classic rock wasn’t so bad. He liked horror movies. She liked comedies and disaster movies. They agreed action movies were a good compromise.
She loved books. He didn’t, quite so much, maybe because he’d been better at math in school, while reading had been a struggle. But he liked finding odd and interesting articles online to read on his phone, and they shared some of the more bizarre things they’d read on the internet.
When the conversation slowed and her second mug of beer was almost gone, Gavin knew Cait would probably leave soon. And he didn’t want to let her go without having some kind of a plan for seeing her again.
“I’ve been racking my brain since we had breakfast,” he finally said, “and I can’t come up with a good excuse for asking for your contact info other than I’d really like to be able to call you or shoot you a text.”
Her mouth curled into a smile. “That’s generally why most people ask for somebody’s contact info.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have a valid reason for needing to call or text you, other than...you know.” He didn’t usually suck so hard at this. At least he didn’tthinkhe did.
“I’ll give you mine if you give me yours,” she said, and his brain had all kinds of fun with that one.
Luckily, nothing stupid or super cheesy came out of his mouth, and he unlocked his phone to pull up the contacts.
“It’sC-A-I-T,” she said, and he deleted theK-Ato fix it. “Trust me, I get that a lot.”
“I like it.”
