Teagan was a sucker for a woman wearing nothing but one of his old T-shirts after sex. Had to be one of hisfavorite looks. Hot. Simple. Darcy, however, hadn’t bothered to put on even that much and was wandering around the house in nothing but her socks.
Teagan decided that was the very best look on a woman. Bar none. Utterly beguiling to him and any late-evening dog-walkers who happened to pass the open front windows.
Maybe she was a nudist. Maybe he could expect this to be his view every single day that she was in the house. Maybe she’d eat breakfast and brush her hair and study her textbooks in nothing but her skin.
Maybe she’d stay.
That thought was so ungrounded yet unexpectedly hopeful that it hurt when he perceived it. He immediately pushed it away lest his mind begin to list all the reasons why she would not.
Teagan went to the thermostat to check that it was programmed to keep the heat at a level that would accommodate any naturalist tendencies on Darcy’s part.
She had not yet unpacked, but she’d helped herself to the toothbrush she found in his bathroom, and it stuck out of her mouth as she padded up next to him. She brushed his hand off the thermostat and turned it until the little leaf symbol for ecological efficiency appeared on the dial. She looked him over. He’d put on plaid cotton pajama pants, and he felt overdressed.
“I bet you’re one of those guys who wants to cuddle all night after sex, huh,” she said around the toothbrush, dark brown eyes judging his apparel. She had toothpaste foam on her lips.
Teagan was willing to try to be whatever kind of guy she wanted in that moment, as the past month had rewritten his idea of the kind of guy he actually was. He studied hervery casual expression, trying to guess the right answer to that inquiry.
“I... am, yes.” He went with honesty when he couldn’t decide what she wanted to hear. Yes, he wanted Darcy to fall asleep on his chest, preferably without putting anything else on, and if he woke up in the night, he wanted her feet tangled up with his and her hair in his face.
Darcy swung that hair back over a bare shoulder. “That’s fine. I was in the Navy. I can sleep anywhere. If you wanna spoon, though, you better move your stuff to the big bed in the guest room.”
That wasn’t quite an invitation. He didn’t want to impose, if she wanted her space.
How did people do this? He’d never had casual sex in his entire life, if that’s what this was. He didn’t think he was strong enough to decline, but he could already imagine how it would hurt if nothing else changed about their relationship.
But he said nothing and grabbed his shaving kit to follow Darcy back to the guest bathroom. Darcy spat out toothpaste and unself-consciously began rifling through the drawers of the sink console for floss and face wash.
Maybe things would change. Maybe she’d stay.
Teagan opened his shaving kit and took out a new toothbrush for himself. His prescription medicine bottles were wedged behind a bottle of shaving cream and a half-used packet of Benadryl. He zipped the kit back up and stowed it under the sink. He brushed his teeth. He put his old toothbrush on the stand next to his new one. He took a step backward.
“I’ve been thinking about quitting the Lexapro,” heannounced, very proud of the nonchalant tone he managed to impart to that statement.
Darcy was propped on her elbows at the other end of the console, taking off mascara with a wet tissue. She paused and looked over her shoulder at him.
“Because of the dick side effects?” she asked.
“The side effects, yeah,” he said. “And the doctor said I might not need it forever, anyway. I feel fine now.” His heart rate picked up as he waited for her response.
Darcy toweled her face off and tossed it in the bowl. “I’m here to keep you off the sauce, so it doesn’t matter if you quit the pills—is that what you mean?”
“That was my thinking,” Teagan said, relieved. Darcy thought about it longer.
“Don’t do it on my account,” she ultimately responded, sinking his heart into his gut before she amended, “I could order one of those harnesses with the double-ended strap-on attachment. We’d have more dick than you or I would know what to do with.Plentyof it, anyway.”
“I—” Teagan froze, eyes widening. He wasn’t sure if she was serious. She probably was. She was usually both literal and serious about her plans. “Homemade is probably more environmentally friendly?” he suggested, mouth going dry with excited terror.
Darcy slid past him, patting his ass familiarly as she went, which wasn’t quite an answer.
After he picked up the living room and checked the locks on the doors, he found her in the guest bedroom, already drowsy-eyed in the dead center of the bed. She scooted perhaps an inch to the left to make room for him, and he slid in next to her. Darcy authoritatively arranged him on hisback and pressed her face into his pectorals as she curled around him.
“I’ll order something made of recycled materials just in case you change your mind,” she mumbled.
Teagan grunted in what he hoped was a noncommittal fashion. He could quit the Lexapro. He was better now.
Darcy nuzzled in closer, wrapping both arms around his bicep. It didn’t feel casual.
She was asleep and drooling into his shoulder within less than a minute. It took Teagan a few hours longer, but he didn’t regret any of them.
