Jake poured two mugs, then brought one to me after I relocated Cat off my lap and jumped down to the floor. “Not at all. I’ve got sugar and…” He went back to the cabinet, obviously searching for something. He pulled out a container and held it up. “Non-dairy creamer.”
“That works,” I replied, carrying the mug over. I doctored my coffee and then followed him into the living room.
“Well, I have to say, if you’re hoping to find inspiration in this place… I don’t see it.”
When he stopped in the living room, doing a three-sixty, seemingly surveying the place, I wondered what he was thinking. I wasn’t trying to be rude, and I hoped I hadn’t come across that way, but I knew what it took to get inspired. And although this place was nice and it certainly reeked of wealth, he just didn’t fit in here.
“You said you’ve been here a year?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Maybe that’s what the problem is.”
“That you live here?” I watched him, trying to figure out what he meant.
“No, that it doesn’t feel like me. Maybe it sucked out all my inspiration.”
“It certainly did mine,” I teased.
“You know, you’re the first woman who has—”
Waiting, I lifted a brow, expecting him to continue.
“Forget I said that.” Jake jerked his head toward the hallway. “Come on. Let me show you something.”
I won’t lie and say that my nerves didn’t instantly riot when he led me down the narrow hallway, my body warming several degrees—none of it due to the coffee cup in my hand. I couldn’t help but wonder whether he was taking me to his bedroom, although somewhere deep down, I knew he wasn’t. If he’d wanted to get me naked and beneath him, he’d had his chance in my bed, but he’d been the one to call a halt to it before we could get that far.
Still, the thought brought back the memory of that kiss we’d shared just a short while ago, and the way he’d gotten me off like a teenager in heat. A surge of heat ripped through my veins. Had he not put the brakes on, I honestly couldn’t say that I would have.
I still remembered the warmth of his body, the weight of him against me, the way his thick erection had nudged against my sex in a way that’d had me moaning with need. Another shiver danced down my spine.
Yeah. The man had it going on, all right, and I feared I was going to jump him at the first opportunity. Next opportunity. The first had clearly passed me by.
He stopped at a door, reached inside, and flipped on a light.
“Well, at least we found some of the personality,” I said, grinning as I stepped into the room that was obviously his office.
It was huge, possibly half the size of my condo.
In the center of the room was a large mahogany desk with a laptop and the journal he’d been writing in, both closed. On the far side of the room, bracketing two huge floor-to-ceiling windows, were two dark bookshelves filled with books and a few knickknacks and framed pictures interspersed. On one wall there were poster-size prints of his book covers, hanging above a long, brown leather sofa. The opposite wall held a huge flat-screen television and a whiteboard.
“This suits you, though it could use some color.”
Jake was leaning against the doorjamb, holding his coffee cup as he watched me. “That’s my next step.”
“From your list of things to do instead of write?” I asked. I knew where he was coming from. I was the same way. When I couldn’t draw, I filled my time doing mundane tasks, too. Not that it always helped, but it did fill the time.
Jake grinned, those sexy, full lips curling in such a way that made my body tingle. “What color?”
For a moment I was too distracted by his lips to figure out what he was asking, but then I remembered we’d been talking about paint.
“For this room?” I looked around, assessing the furniture and the other odds and ends. “I’d go with something dark.” I nodded toward the windows. “You obviously get a lot of light, so it’d help to tone it down some, make it feel a bit homier.”
“And the rest?” Jake glanced out into the hall.
I shrugged, took a sip of my coffee.
Jake raised his eyebrows at me, then turned and left me standing in his office. I followed as he headed back to the living room.