“You can’t want to stay cooped up here with me.”
“Why not? You’re good company.” The thumb under her chin began a slow caress. “At least you are when you’re not hiding in the other room.”
Hiding. That summed it up nicely. “This is all so different. I’m used to being alone. I don’t know what to do.”
“With me?”
The way he asked that, it sounded sexual. Funny, but it caused a flutter in her stomach that didn’t come close to resembling panic or even discomfort. “I don’t date, Reyes. I don’t sit around having casual conversations with men. I never sit on a guy’s lap.”
“So?”
Right. What exactly was her point? “I do my speaking, I engage with the audience, I answer questions, and then I go home to work on my book.”
“Alone.”
“It’s what I prefer.” Or rather, what she used to prefer. The fact that she was here now, sitting on Reyes’s lap, proved that being alone didn’t appeal as much at the moment.
His gaze searched hers. “Are you saying you’d rather I go out? That you want time away from me?”
“No!” Good God, running him out of his own home was the very last thing she wanted. Unsure what to do with her hands, she folded them together in her lap. He might be casual about their current position, but she wasn’t. “Actually, I was going to ask you something.”
“Shoot.”
It would be better to just get it out there rather than keep agonizing over it. In a rush of words, she asked, “Since you’re staying in, could I sleep with you again?”
The house got so quiet Kennedy could hear the steady thumping of her heart.
He cleared his throat. “You’re ready for bed now?”
It was barely ten, but... “Yes?”
“No problem.” In rapid order, he set her on her feet, moved his laptop to a table and began turning off lights.
Watching him, Kennedy said, “I guess after speaking with Jodi, I’m a little more nervous than I thought.”
“That chick could spook anyone.” He stood beneath the only remaining light near the stairs.
“I don’t think I’d be able to sleep on my own. My brain would just keep churning over problems. But that first night here, with you, I slept well.”
He held out a hand. “I know what you’re saying, and what you’re not. Don’t worry that I’ll take it the wrong way, okay?”
She took two steps toward him before pausing again. “I know it doesn’t make sense for me to tell you to go out, then ask you to sleep with me.”
“Makes perfect sense because I’m not going out, so we might as well share the bed.”
He was the most confounding man ever, the way he just rolled with a situation, no questions asked. Surely, nothing like this had happened to him before.
Could he really know her that well?
She couldn’t resist taking his hand. God knew he offered it often enough.
They started up the steps, with him measuring his stride to match her own.
Part of her shopping expedition had included warm pajamas. She wore the snug-fitting thermal bottoms with a looser matching top. After her shower, she’d left her hair free to ward off the headache trying to claim her. Her teeth were brushed, she’d applied lotion to her skin, and now...now she really wanted her thoughts to settle instead of jumping in a dozen different directions, each one more unsettling than the last.
At the bedroom door, he said, “I need to brush my teeth. Go ahead and get under the covers.” He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.
She knew he’d showered at the gym, and she assumed he wore his jeans out of deference to her. He’d adopted that habit ever since she’d moved into the guest room.
Maybe he thought she’d opted for a different room because his casual near-nudity made her feel threatened.
In truth, she enjoyed looking at him. Sure, she might be forever affected by her experience, but that didn’t make her blind. In many ways, Reyes was like a work of art. A living sculpture of long bones, pronounced muscles and delectable body hair.
The door opened and he stepped back into the room to find her still standing there.
Smile going crooked, he chided, “You haven’t moved.”
“I got lost in thought.”
“Yeah? About Jodi?”
Shaking her head, she asked, “Why are you wearing jeans all the time?”
Coming to a halt, he looked down at his jeans as if he’d forgotten he had them on, then he scratched his jaw. “I figured it was the polite thing to do.”
She gave an exasperated sigh. “Because you think it makes me uncomfortable?”
“I thought it might, and didn’t want to take the chance.”
Heading to the bed, she said, “Well, it doesn’t. But even if it did, I don’t want you adjusting things for me. Your comfort should come first. That’s what I’d prefer, okay?”
“So if I just go naked around the house, you’re okay with that?”
She had the covers lifted in her hand, one knee on the mattress about to climb in, but at his statement she almost fell in face-first. “Naked?” Straightening back to her feet, she dropped her hands to her hips and eyed him with suspicion. “You’re just messing with me. No way do you prance around here naked.”
“Prance, no.”
Her mind conjured an image... “Be serious, Reyes.”
He laughed at her sharp tone. “Sorry. Gotta take my pleasures where I can.” Sporting a big grin, he shucked off his jeans but left on his boxers, turned off the light and got into bed.
Leaving her standing there feeling foolish. “So you don’t walk around here without clothes?”
“Not often.”
This time she rudely huffed, sure that he was only baiting her to get a reaction. She slid between the cool sheets, and immediately Reyes tugged her close, curving his body around hers.
His minty breath teased her cheek. “Get comfortable in whatever way works for you, as long as it’s near me, and then we can get some sleep.”
“I want you comfortable, too,” she whispered.
“So you know, I’m a hell of a lot more comfortable like this than with us sleeping in separate rooms.”
She turned her head enough to face him, but her eyes hadn’t yet adjusted. She had the sense of him being very near, yet she couldn’t make out his features. “You said you’ve never brought a woman here.”