deserve the same. So, it’s like this: I never do sleepovers. I’m usually gone before morning. This morning-after is new to me, too. So let’s just enjoy this while we’re both still here.”
“Oh,” she says. “I guess we’re morning-after virgins.” She looks down briefly, a smile touching her mouth. “I think I might like that.”
I chuckle as my heart bangs a little faster, feeding off her happiness. “Come on. Let’s get you to your room before anyone wakes up.” I open the door quietly, listening for noise. When silence reaches my ears, I take her hand in mine and we pad softly down the hall. In her room, she jumps in her bed. With her hair a tumbled mess, she looks so warm, cozy, and inviting, it takes everything in me not to climb in there with her. How can I want her again so fast? I step into her bathroom, but the trap is intact.
“No mouse,” I say.
She frowns. “I was sure I heard it.”
“Maybe you just wanted to hear it so you could sneak into my room,” I tease and get a pillow thrown at me in return.
“Ego much?”
“Only because I can back it up.”
She rolls her eyes, and I laugh and toss the pillow back. “You don’t have to get up early, do you?”
She thinks for a moment. “Realtor is coming at noon.”
“Try to get some sleep, then. I’ll make sure the house stays quiet for you.”
Her smile of gratitude squeezes my heart, and okay, fine, I want to take care of her, even though she’s capable of caring for herself.
Shit.
“Night, Nate,” she says and snuggles into her bed, a warm, satisfied smile on her face, one I put there. Christ, I feel as smug as I did back in high school when I made that touchdown that won us the game.
I close her door and go back to my room. No way am I going to get back to sleep. Not with the way my brain is buzzing and my body is aching. You’d think after a couple of rounds, I’d be sated, but nope. Good thing we’ve got more time together. I’m sure by the end of the fishing season, we’ll both have slayed the tension between us. Because when the season is over, this is done. Christ, she still doesn’t even know who I really am, although it doesn’t appear that she wants to, or that it matters—a good indication that she doesn’t want more, either.
I flop into my bed and bring Kira’s pillow to my nose to inhale her sweet vanilla scent. I really wish I could close my eyes for another hour. The extra sleep would do me good. A day out on the fishing boat is exhausting at best, and today I scheduled myself to go with Albert McMurtry’s crew.
Every now and then I have to get out of the office and go with the guys to hear their concerns and to connect with them on another level. Unlike my father and brothers, I don’t rule with an iron fist. I’ve always lived by a quote I read when I was getting my MBA. “A boss invokes fear, a leader inspires confidence.” Lame? I don’t know. My family would certainly think so. But as long as I get the string of cottages purchased and the facility built, with profits to show for it, differing philosophies shouldn’t matter. It’s the end result that counts.
I lie down and stare at the ceiling, thinking about Kira until my alarm finally goes off. I slip from my bed and make my way to the bathroom. I shower quickly and meet Sam in the hall as he waits for his turn.
“Kira came to get me to check on the mouse trap late last night. She didn’t get much sleep, so let’s keep it down this morning.”
He mumbles a reply and quietly closes the bathroom door. I tap on Jason’s door, and relay the same message. I glance in Cody’s room, but he’s already up. I don’t dare wake Izzy before her time. She’s a total bear, and it’s possible she’d go straight for the gonads with her steel-toed boot.