Mine - HelenKay Dimon Page 0,72
one ever stayed in there.
Gabe knocked once then threw open the door. He caught Natalie in mid-squeal as she made up the bed. He asked anyway. “What are you doing?”
She glared at him as she held a folded sheet to her chest. “Getting ready for bed.”
She still had her clothes on. She’d only managed to wrestle the bottom sheet on. There was still hope he could turn this around.
“Not in here.” Gabe didn’t bother lowering his voice. He wasn’t really in the mood for this or for hiding. He was a grown-ass man and he paid the mortgage on the place. He got to say who slept in which room, and she was with him.
“Excuse me?”
She could save the indignation and grumpy tone. They’d moved on from that, at least he hoped so. “You’re sleeping with me.”
She got up on her toes and looked like she was trying to peek around him. “Close the door.”
He ignored the order and kept staring. “What?”
“What do you mean what?” She shifted around him and closed the door for him.
He thought that amounted to a waste of energy since they’d be leaving the room soon. Or that was the plan. Since they clearly had a communications problem he was no longer so sure. “I have a big bed. It will fit us both.”
The argument seemed reasonable enough to him. He didn’t even understand why they were having it. She’d become a bit shy. Okay, he could adjust to that. For now. No screaming. No tying to the bedpost. All that could wait. Holding her, touching her. Nope, he wanted that back on the agenda immediately.
“Your son is right there.” She pointed in the general direction of the hallway behind him.
“So this is a proximity issue?”
“You can’t be this clueless.”
Apparently he could be. “He knows we’re having sex.”
She dumped the sheet on the bed. “That doesn’t mean we need to rub his nose in it.”
“I’m not sure you’re using the right metaphor, or whatever that is.”
She actually growled. Made a rumbling sound and sounded ready to launch a smackdown. “My point is that we can wait until he’s gone.”
Damn kid. “No.”
“Whatever happened to me getting the choice?” She laid it out there then raised an eyebrow at him.
That shot landed. Gabe could feel it all the way to his gut. “That’s not fair.”
She shrugged as she held her hands out to the sides. “Your words.”
If she wanted to fight dirty he would join. She could not win this game. Not against him. “Fine, we’ll stay in here.”
The amusement left her face. “You’re not getting this.”
Oh, he absolutely was. He stepped up to the bed and tucked the end corners in. Snapped open the sheet she’d left in a pile and threw that over the mattress. “There.”
Admittedly it was not the most inviting bed he’d ever seen, but it had a mattress. Unlike the cabin, it also had an inch of breathing room around it. Even being the smallest bedroom, this one measured sixteen by sixteen. Hardly small, and the perfect size for what he had in mind.
“Go back to your big bed.” She whispered the comment, but those sexy eyes widened.
He had her intrigued. Exactly as he wanted.
He kicked off his shoes and sprawled across the bed on his side then patted the open space in front of him. “Have a seat.”
She took a step closer. Her knees actually knocked against the side of the mattress now. “Your son will hear us.”
Brandon wore headphones half the time and kept his music cranked up to deafening levels, so Gabe doubted it. Still, if she needed the reassurance, he’d reluctantly give it to her. “We’re not going to have sex.”
“No?” She almost sounded disappointed.
That made two of them. “We’re going to sit and then I’m going to head back to my big bed for a lonely night of sleep.”
“You poor thing.” The tone suggested she thought he needed to get a clue.
He refused to take the bait. She was an expert at sidelining them into a conversation he didn’t want to have. One that postponed what he actually wanted to do with her. “I know, right?”
“You could go now.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” He reached out and ran a hand down her outer thigh. Felt her lean in, just a bit, to his touch.
“What are you planning?”
Now who was clueless? Rather than keep her guessing or risk having her be wrong, he gave her a pretty big hint. “It involves striping your pants off and touching and