Been There Done That (Leffersbee #1) - Hope Ellis Page 0,72

This extreme of a reversal was unlikely.

It was hard to reconcile the previous version of her with the chaos I stood in.

What had Adesola said, what had she hinted at? Something was going on.

I took a few steps into the room, taking care to avoid the papers strewn across the floor.

Dark curls stood up from one end of the couch.

I eased closer. She was asleep on the couch, legs curled into her chest. It was the first time I’d seen her face completely free of tension. Limp curls obscured the top half of her face. One hand loosely held the dark blanket draped over, under and along the valley of her hips and waist while the other hand propped up her head.

I stood, frozen, trapped in a million memories, remembering all the times I’d snuck into Zora’s room and been greeted by this very sight. I wished I could once again run a finger along the rounded curve of her nose, past the generous turn of her lip and down the length of her neck.

If I woke her, we’d resume our current farce of being polite strangers. I’d likely never have an opportunity to see her this way again.

Soft. Unguarded.

I took a moment to drink in the sight, allowed my traitorous thoughts to engage in a dangerous game of “What If.” What if my mother had done something different that night? What if I’d responded differently? What if Zora hadn’t sent her ring back? What if I hadn’t given up? Was there any alternate universe in which it might have been possible for me to wake to those same curves against me, in our own bed, every morning?

Jesus, Nick.

Enough. There was no value in musing about alternative universes; there was only this reality. Where she hated me.

I needed answers, but the last thing I wanted to do was wake her. This had all the signs of a late night work-a-thon: empty bottles of Coke in the trash, a nearly depleted bottle of an energy drink on her desk. There was no point in waking her. The meeting, the focus groups would be just fine without us in attendance. My team was there, and more than capable of running things.

I’d wait, I decided. And then we’d get to the bottom of everything. Once and for all.

Nick

“Nick?”

I froze at the sound of Zora’s sleep-rasped voice and checked my watch.

Three hours.

In that time, I’d cleaned out my email inbox and reviewed all outstanding reports while sitting at Zora’s disaster of a meeting table. My team had assured me the focus group sessions were well underway and completely under control. We were expected to attend the next session in two days.

Now, it was time for Zora and me to have our reckoning.

“What are you doing here?”

She pushed curls out of her eyes and pushed to a sitting position. The blanket drifted down, revealed a good three inches of caramel skin below her rumpled shirt.

My breath caught, eyes trapped on the rise of her breasts as she stretched. The shirt stretched higher . . .

What was I reduced to, begging God for just another sliver of that honey skin?

“The better question is, why am I here?” The blood in my head rushed south. Thank God I was sitting.

“Answer whatever question you want.” She knuckled her eyes, smearing black makeup above her cheeks. “Start with how you got in here and why you decided to sit your happy ass at my table.”

“Your door wasn’t all the way closed. My being here probably has something to do with the fact our ‘happy asses’ were supposed to be in Green Valley for focus groups over two hours ago.”

“Shit!”

“Yep. It’s all in the emails you obviously didn’t read.”

She threw her blanketed legs to the floor, eyes wide. “What emails? Why didn’t you wake me up? God. They’re going to kill me!”

I studied her, and the very real fear on her face. Interesting.

“Who’s going to kill you, exactly? I’m here with you. We’re fine.”

“But the—”

“I took care of it. It was more important for you to sleep.”

“You can’t do that.” She pounded her fists against her thighs. “That wasn’t your decision to make. You should have woken me up—”

“You were going to be asleep on that couch, dead to the world, if I hadn’t wandered by to check on you anyway. This way both our teams think you’re showing me something important here on campus. You needed the sleep more than you needed to be there.” I allowed a few