“You can change in there,” he gestured towards the connecting bathroom. “I’m going to go lock up.”
“Okay, thanks.” They stared at each other for another minute. “This is awkward, isn’t it?” Harper blurted out.
Luke smiled. “A little.”
“It’s just for one night.” She wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure him or herself.
“Right.”
“And we’re adults.”
“It would appear so.”
“We’re just being silly,” Harper reasoned. “It’s just sleep.”
She could see his dimple again. At least he was amused. She nodded finally. “Okay, I’m going to go change.”
In the bathroom, she splashed cold water on her face, careful to gently dry the bruised side. She didn’t even look at the rest of her body. Judging from how sore everything was, it was probably just as purple as her face.
It was a good thing this wasn’t some “first time” with someone like Luke. She wasn’t at her best — maybe even hovering near her worst. And if she was going to have a first time with someone like Luke she’d want it to be perfect.
She rolled her eyes and tugged the t-shirt over her head and down her torso. It was ridiculous to be newly homeless and jobless and more concerned with the what-ifs of imaginary sex with the sculpted captain. She wondered what he looked like in uniform.
“Pull yourself together,” she muttered. “It’s one platonic night of sleep.”
She ran a hand over the cotton and took a moment to be grateful for remembering to wear underwear today.
Harper tugged the neck of the shirt up to her nose and breathed deeply. It smelled like him. And she was about to crawl into a bed that smelled like him ... with him. She hoped she could control herself in her sleep.
She was standing at the foot of the bed, fidgeting, when he came back upstairs.
“Everything okay?” he asked, opening a dresser drawer.
“Oh, yeah. I just didn’t know if you had a side,” she said, playing with the hem of the shirt.
He suddenly seemed very interested in the contents of the drawer. “A side?”
“Of the bed. Do you sleep on a side?”
He glanced back up. “I usually sleep in the middle. So you can take your pick.”
“Oh, thanks.”
Luke grabbed a pair of pajama pants. “I’ll be back.”
As soon as the bathroom door closed, Harper gratefully flopped onto the bed and burrowed under the covers. She would just hug the edge and he wouldn’t even know she was there. No inconvenience at all.
She hoped she wouldn’t snore.
The bathroom door opened. He stood in the doorway in nothing but untied flannel pants that rode low on his hips. Harper wet her lips and tried not to stare at his cut abs. Every visible inch of his torso was carved, muscled, and freaking hot. There was another tattoo, a phoenix, over his heart.
Oh my God. She was going to sleep withthat.
No! She was not going to fall down the rabbit hole of crappy life choices again. She had promised herself that she was turning over a new leaf. Starting fresh, focusing on herself.
Harper was failing at not focusing on Luke’s naked chest. Her fingers itched to trail over the tattoo, across his chest and down those abs to the indecently low waistband. She fisted her naughty-minded hands in the quilt. There was no way she was going to sleep a wink. Not next to that perfect body.
He was staring at her, too, but his eyes weren’t bugging out of his head like hers. Harper thought she heard him sigh. But he moved towards the bedroom door and wordlessly flipped the light switch.
