Page 31 of Hot Response
They laughed together, and then Grant left. Gavin had never seen his friend like that. They both dated. They’d had some girlfriends that came close to being actual relationships. But he’d never seen Grant nervous about a girl before.
He was a little nervous himself, he thought as he did a last sweep of his apartment. The toilet was clean and the seat was down. Fresh towels. Fresh sheets, which he was trying like hell not to think about.
It wasn’t working, and he suspected it would be a lot worse when he was stretched out on Grant’s couch, imagining Cait sliding between his sheets and resting her head on his pillows. He’dreallylike to know what she wore to bed.
When the buzzer sounded, he almost jumped. But he got ahold of himself and hit the button to open the glass door downstairs. He was on the third floor—by choice because he couldn’t stand people above him—so he had a couple minutes before she knocked on his door.
“Hi,” he said, standing back to let her in.
“Hi.”
She was wearing black yoga pants with a long red sweatshirt over them, and her hair was up in a messy knot on top of her head. With no makeup on and an overnight bag slung over her shoulder, she looked like she was on her way to the gym.
And it turned him on. At this point, he wasn’t sure she had a look thatwouldn’tturn him on. All she had to do was look at him.
“I feel weird about this,” she said, standing just far enough into his kitchen so he could close the door.
“You won’t once I’m gone. Think of it like a hotel room, only I won’t charge you for opening the fridge.”
She laughed and it seemed to ease her tension a little. “Nice hotel room, I must say.”
Gavin looked around the apartment, trying to guess what she might think of it. It was probably cleaner than she anticipated, since most women assumed bachelors lived like frat boys their first year away from their mommies. It was open-concept, which was a nice way of saying it was all one living space. They were in the kitchen, which had an island separating it from the dining area. He had a table with chairs there, and it had a double closet where he hung coats and kicked his shoes. That space was open to the living room, which had a small alcove for a desk, on which his computer sat. There were two doors in the back wall. One went to the bedroom and the other to the bathroom, which also had a door into the bedroom.
There were only windows down one wall in the living room—behind the couch—and two walls in the bedroom because it was the corner of the building, but they were big and let in a lot of natural light. He had light drapes, so they gave him privacy while letting the sun shine through. The sofa and recliner were brown leather, and the bedding was tan. He wasn’t much in the decorating department, but he also didn’t lose sleep over it.
It wasn’t big, by any means, but it was a fairly recent rehab of an old industrial building, so he was the first and only tenant in this unit so far.
“It’s really nice,” she said.
“Put your bag down and I’ll show you around.” When she did, he grinned and held out his hand. “So this is my apartment.”
Maybe it was cheesy and said for the easy laugh, but he liked her laugh and he wasn’t about to pass up any opportunity to hear it.
“There’s a bunch of stuff in the fridge. There’s a Keurig, but I’m pretty boring with the flavor choices. There’s just coffee flavor.”
“As it happens, I’m a fan of coffee-flavored coffee.”
“You’re in luck, then. I should probably be embarrassed by how many frozen pizzas are in the freezer, but you won’t starve. If you don’t like meals out of the microwave, I put the delivery menus on the counter.”
“Okay.” She laughed and put her hand on his upper arm. “I’m pretty sure I’ll survive twelve hours alone in your apartment.”
He knew she was right and he was being ridiculous. But he didn’t open his mouth to agree with her because he couldn’t focus on words while she was touching him. The heat of her hand burned through his T-shirt, and he wanted to shift sideways until her hand slid down far enough to cover his bare skin.
But he didn’t want to give the impression he was pulling away from her, so he stood still. Maybe it was wishful thinking on his part, but the touch seemed to linger and her fingertips trailed over the thin fabric to the bottom of his sleeve as she moved away.
Gavin had to concentrate on keeping his voice and body language relaxed as he led her toward the bedroom. “I put clean sheets on the bed, and the towels in the bathroom are fresh.”
He’d stepped across the threshold into his bedroom already before he realized Cait wasn’t with him. She’d stopped halfway across the living room.
“I figured I’d just sleep on the couch,” she said when he turned around. “I think it would be super strange to sleep in your bed.”
“Well, there’s something I’ve never heard before.”
That made her laugh again, and he wanted nothing more than to sit on his couch with her and say funny shit for the entire night.
“You know what I mean,” she said.
“I told you, think of it like a hotel room.”
