He rocked forward. “Who?”
“No, I can’t tell you, but…” I dragged my hand through my hair. “Let’s just say there’s a pro football player out there who wants to punt my ass through the uprights right now.”
His eyes widened, and so did his grin.
“We have a deal, right? You’ll get me all the rigs at the price I need them.”
He extended his hand. “Consider it done.”
“Good.” I wish there were an audience because I deserved a fucking standing ovation. Normally I’d have more time to work the angles to make this a trade in my favor, but with my ass to the flames, I’d take him feeling like we were even when he’d gotten me something I needed that would’ve cost an arm and a leg to source from elsewhere.
I drove us back to his warehouse office, no longer needing to put my life in Trevor’s hands now that we had our deal, and headed back to the city. Back to my apartment. Back to Sabrina.
I’d kiss her again. Any thoughts I’d had about chalking the first time up to a fluke were blown out of the water when I couldn’t keep myself from touching her.
Her comment about the drinks had made me feel like a dick. I wasn’t someone who liquored a woman up and then went in for the pounce. She was a temptation beyond any I’d faced before. I’d never wanted anything as much as I wanted to feel her against me.
It rocked me to my core. My fingers gripped the wheel even tighter. This was about denial. We’d been doing the denial dance for so long, of course all I could do was think about her. She lived in my apartment.
I saw her every day and she was forbidden fruit.
There was only one way to keep myself from going off the deep end. Indulge, but not too much. Just enough to take the edge off. Satiate myself and her, then back away into normalcy.
My sleep wasn’t as bad anymore. The tub situation wasn’t ideal, but at least it helped me get my head on straight for long enough to sort through the wheelbarrows of paperwork I needed to complete.
Maybe the two of us could work out an agreement. She’d be here until the end of the year according to her. Two more months.
From the moment I stepped inside the apartment, I could tell she was here. I peeked into the dining room, but from the silence I knew she wasn’t inside. The puzzle we’d worked on had a few more rows completed but there were still large chunks that didn’t have any connection to the border yet.
Her door was open. I peeked into her bedroom. The computer hadn’t gone to sleep yet. Her bathroom door was open.
My heart rate spiked, thinking back to our conversation yesterday.
“Sabrina,” I called out for plausible deniability in attempting to alert her to my presence.
I checked the laundry room after and found it empty as well. My blood hammered in my veins at the idea of where she was right now and what she was doing. My bedroom door at the end of the hallway was open wider than I’d left it.
All I was doing was going to my bedroom. Maybe getting myself ready for a shower after a long day at work.
The jingle of droplets hitting water sent all that blood rushing straight to my cock.
The bathroom door was open. Her gentle hum filled the silence of my bedroom. There was only one question filling my head.
What next?
19
Sabrina
My application to Apparel & Textile Expo had once again been rejected. Apparently having no revenue in my company I’d spent money to create on paper had been a flag for the organizers. There was still no word from Harper Linens, but I couldn’t exactly eat the sheets they’d sent over and the grocery money would run out by the end of the month. The grind and rejection were getting to me, which meant relaxation was in order.
No longer needing to sneak into Hunter’s room like I was a member of the Mission: Impossible team had taken some of the danger and excitement out of my life, but that had been replaced with the endless thoughts about him.
Sweet Hunter was harder to deal with than Asshole Hunter. He made me want things I’d vowed not to pursue until I had my life together. Or at least wasn’t bumming a place to live off his Grandma.
I lifted my arm, letting the water drip off my fingertips. Resting my head against the tub, I closed my eyes, happy for the dimmer in the bathroom. I wished I could light a few candles to bring on the full spa experience.
But I didn’t want to overstep. Hunter had given me his blessing, but that didn’t mean I could start staking my claim on his space.
The sand under my feet continually shifted when it came to him. It felt like he was avoiding me, sometimes running away from me. Maybe I was less interesting when he thought no one wanted to watch me sleep with random guys. The kiss burned brightly in my mind, the ember of a memory that refused to be extinguished. Our puzzle night of fun hadn’t done much to un-confuse me when it came to what exactly we were doing. But what he did do to me sure as hell felt good. I let my fingers drift down between my legs.
“Glad you’re making yourself comfortable.”
I shot forward, sloshing water close to the edge of the tub, and my arm shot across my chest before I sank back into the water. “Hunter! Hi! I—I didn’t think to ask before I got in. I’m sorry, if you’ll turn around, I’ll get out of here. After sitting at my desk all my muscles felt like they’d seized up, so I thought I could get in and get out before you noticed. I didn’t use the lavender oil.”
He stood in the doorway with one arm propped up against the frame. His black-and-silver cuff links glittered in his double-cuff sleeves, and he held onto a charcoal jacket slung over his shoulder. Built in a way that looked natural, not from hours obsessing at the gym, he was a walking wet dream.
Good thing I was in the bath already.
“I said you could use it.”
“Did you need to use it? I can hop out.” And go into my room, crawl under the sheets, and die of embarrassment. Good thing he hadn’t arrived five minutes later when I’d have been in the throes of a full-on Hunter-inspired masturbation session.
He set his blazer down on the counter and slipped off his cuff links. “You don’t need to hop out.”
Goose bumps rose on my whole body, tightening my flesh even in the warm bath. “I don’t?”
“Only if you want to.” He stared at me, and there was a flicker in his eyes like he’d made a decision.
My stomach flipped, straight into a back handspring. “I don’t?”
The corner of his lips lifted. “Was that a question?” He rolled his sleeve from the cuff, folding the pressed white fabric higher up his arm, exposing the tanned and sinewy forearms. Veins, tendons, muscle.
“No. I just got in, but I wasn’t expecting an audience.” Had the heat kicked on? Because my skin not submerged in the water didn’t feel the slightest bit chilled. It felt closer to super-heated as his gaze swept over me.
“You’re driving me absolutely crazy.”
Standing beside the tub, towering over me, he could see my body beneath the water.
A shiver skated along my skin.
“In a good way?” My body was on high alert, vibrating in a wanton way where the water teased and taunted body parts like I wanted his fingers to.