The door was closed.
Since she’d stayed with them, he’d not come up the stairs to see the door closed. Of course now the kids were out of the house. It was just Prentice and Elle.
Which meant she closed the door.
His jaw grew tighter and his resolve grew firmer.
He didn’t bother to knock, just opened the door to the darkened room.
The door to the bedroom wasn’t closed and he walked straight to it, seeing her clearly in the moonlight lying in bed.
She was on her stomach, her head facing him, her hand on the pillow in front of her face. The covers were down to her waist and the nightgown she was wearing was satin or silk. He couldn’t distinguish the color but he could tell it was one or the other from its sheen.
“Elle,” he called loudly.
She didn’t move.
He sat heavily on the bed by her hip and put a hand to small of her back, repeating her name.
Her body jerked, her head twisted to look at him and she jerked again.
Then she came up on an elbow and whispered sleepily (and disbelievingly), “Prentice?”
“Get up, we need to talk,” he replied, his voice curt.
She didn’t move.
“Up. Now,” he ordered, speaking to her like he spoke to his children when they resisted his commands.
“What?” she breathed.
He stood. “Elle, up.”
Then he walked out of the room.
He meant to turn on a light but before he could he glanced her way and saw she was out of bed, reaching for her dressing gown which was thrown over the armchair in the corner.
He also saw the nightgown was a light color and it was edged in lace at the bottom, the lace a far darker color.
It was also very short and, with Elle bent to reach for her dressing gown, it had ridden up, exposing her thighs all the way up to the very edge of her ass.
Prentice felt his body respond to that very alluring sight.
He gritted his teeth.
She walked in, shrugging on the dressing gown.
When she hit the room, she pulled her hair out of her face, keeping her hand at the top back of her head, her hair bunched in her fist.
Her eyes were on him in the moonlit room.
“Are you drunk?” she asked softly, dropping her hand and the heavy fall of her hair settled around her face, on her brow and even in her eye.
He watched this.
He liked it
And when he responded, he didn’t lie.