me, and the figure wasn’t moving, so if nothing else, I had options. The open plan didn’t give me a lot of places to hide, the thing I loved most about my apartment also the most dangerous.
Oh.
Hell.
I hadn’t even fully debated whether I should go lock myself in my bathroom and call 9-1-1 when I remembered exactly who that figure was. And had yesterday not been such a shitshow between Scott’s early morning wake-up, Lorena’s follow-up and then an intense night at Diablo, I’d have remembered I was expecting a house guest. Might have reminded myself to put on pajamas as well.
Jared. Leighton.
My body flushed hot without even saying it out loud, the idea that the only thing between us was a couple of feet, making my pulse race again.
I’ll admit, the thought of sliding out from my covers and confronting him naked, was appealing. Wondering if he’d push aside that duty/honor bullshit and cave like he did the other night in his car. Or if he’d think it was some tragic and desperate attempt at attention.
And he probably wouldn’t be wrong.
No.
No, I wasn’t tragic or desperate, and there was nothing wrong with having a healthy sexual desire. No one made my brother feel like a freak when he couldn’t keep a steady girlfriend, or when he was dry humping random women in the corner of Diablo.
Deciding to compromise—rejection when you were naked would sting like no other—I slithered silently from my sheets and grabbed the nightie I hadn’t put on after my shower. It was still hanging off a chair where I’d left it, the pale pink satin more like a slip than sleepwear, pulled over my head and smoothed down my body.
Underwear was an issue, my collection of panties sitting in a dresser drawer I didn’t open as I crept on my toes out to the living area. Sneaking around in my own apartment was ridiculous, and yet, there I was, doing my best not to make any noise so I maintained the element of surprise. It reminded me of being sixteen again, cracking the door open early in the morning when he’d sleep over, his big, sexy passed out figure sprawled over the spare mattress in my brother’s room. I fantasized about crawling under those covers more than just a few times, my brother being less than two feet away in his own bed stopping me every single time I wanted to be brave.
My feet hadn’t even made it all the way to the couch when his eyes cracked open, and then went wide.
“Fuck,” he coughed out shifting himself back up the couch.
His long legs had hung over the edges, my generous three-seater comfortable, but still not big enough for his large frame.
“You look pathetic on that couch.” My hand anchored on my hip as I switched on a small table lamp. “You should make it a point not to piss off your future wife, I’m almost positive you wouldn’t be able to afford the back care.” I pointed to his hand which was rubbing the back of his neck.
His legs shifted, two socked feet landing on the floor and accepting his weight as he stood. “Yeah, well, I’ll be sure to remember that when I get married, thanks for the tip. I must have dozed off. And isn’t it early for you to be up?”
From his vantage point he could see straight down the top of my nightie. I wasn’t wearing a bra, the tiny ribbon straps doing their best to keep everything contained. And if the heat from his gaze was anything to go by, they’d have burned my nightie right off, his eyes roaming across my body like they didn’t know where to look.
“Yeah it is, but I forgot you were coming, and I was three seconds away from calling the cops.” I tried to ignore there was literally a slither of satin between me being naked, acting like his eyes all over me wasn’t turning me on.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, the swallowing looking like it was causing him actual pain. “I checked on you.”
“Did you?” He was clearly better at sneaking around than I was because I hadn’t heard a peep. “I’m surprised you were able to see anything, it’s so dark in here.”
He moved closer, his hands curling into balls at his sides. “Yeah, I was able to see enough to know you weren’t wearing that a few hours ago.”
“You want me to take it off?”
“Yes.”
I wasn’t even sure I’d heard him