her body and tucked under her arms but he could see the spaghetti straps of the pale green nightgown she wore underneath. He really wanted to know how far down that nightgown hit on her thighs. And if she was wearing panties.
She looked just-out-of-bed, adorably mussed, and… a little pissed. Her cheeks were flushed and she was not smiling.
Still, he couldn’t stop staring. Not even when the one, very tiny, part of his brain told him that this was not playing it cool.
Of course, texting her about licking cookie dough off her nipples wasn’t really cool either.
Speaking of her nipples… Surely she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath that nightgown either. Women didn’t wear bras to bed. He knew that much. His entire body reacted to the thought, the way the sheet molded to her breasts and the smooth pale bare skin of her shoulders.
She didn’t cross her arms. She didn’t move closer so that the breakfast bar on the other side of the kitchen island would block his view. She didn’t even fidget. She just let him look.
So he did. He drank her in.
This was not the pretty, thin, young innocent girl whose virginity he’d taken down by the river.
This was a gorgeous, trim, curved-in-all-the-right-places confident woman.
Who was calling his bluff by showing up in the kitchen after the texts he’d sent.
His gaze found its way back to hers and he could see the challenge there.
“I never kid about nipple licking,” he finally said.
She sucked in a quick breath but it was hard to tell if it was surprise or lust. “You have to stop.”
“Why?”
“You can’t tease me. And flirt. And get… dirty. Not when you’re living here. That is all kinds of inappropriate.”
Inappropriate. Maybe. With anyone else it would be. But it did not feel inappropriate with them.
Cam reached for the bag of dark chocolate chunks and dumped them into the bowl. He folded them into the dough, then set the bowl down, and tossed the spoon into the sink.
He braced his hands on the counter and met her eyes.
“I know I should say I’m sorry. I’m not.”
She took a breath and let it out. “Cam, I understand that you’re teasing. But I have to be able to be comfortable here in my own home.”
“I make you uncomfortable?” He frowned. He didn’t quite believe it, but he hated the idea that might be true.
“You… could very easily make it difficult to sleep,” she said.
Oh, well that was different. He grinned. “Dirty dreams never hurt anybody.”
She lifted her chin in that sexy, stubborn way that he didn’t remember but kind of loved and kind of hated at the same time. “They will if they keep me from being fresh and sharp at work tomorrow.”
He shouldn’t like the idea of getting her so wound up she couldn’t sleep.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, clearly noticing the small grin he was trying to hide.
“I shouldn’t say. It would be inappropriate.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Is it something about helping me work off the pent-up energy and play out the dreams so I can sleep peacefully?”
He let the grin go. “Yep.”
She sighed. “Cam, this isn’t going to work.”
He straightened. “It will. I promise. I’ll be good.”
It was clear that she didn’t believe that, but she didn’t quite roll her eyes. She drew herself straighter and wet her lips, then said, “You’re my boss. And my ex. Having you here is weird. Having you sexting me is even weirder. We have to have some rules.”
“First, that wasn’t sexting.” That wasn’t even close to the things he’d say and ask her to do if they were sexting. “Second, having me here shouldn’t be weird, Whit.”
“But it is. Because…”
He lifted a brow. “Because?”
Her eyes dipped to the bowl of cookie dough then back to his. “Because it’s all tempting.”
Damn right it was. “Well, good.”
“No,” she said it with force and with a frown. Then she pulled in a breath and said more calmly, “I’m sorry, but I think that if you’re living here we need to work on the friends part of this whole… situation.”
Their relationship was a situation? And why did she keep taking those breaths and changing her tone of voice while they were talking? “I told you that I want more than that. That’s partly why I’m here.”
“You’re pushing.”
He gave her a nod. “A little. I need to push with you.”
She frowned. “I don’t like that.”
“I think you do.” He crossed his arms. “I think that you don’t like that you like it. But