I hit the button on the remote to turn it back on.
We do that dance another thirty seconds or so before he lunges for me and claims the remote too.
I get a whiff of lemon and fresh-cut grass again and a brush of hot, still-damp skin against my arm.
He’s traveling with his favorite body wash or shampoo or something, and it reminds me of a cold glass of lemonade after a long day working along the road, and I want to sniff him more.
Get it under control, Daphne.
Like I can help it.
This is dangerous.
Boundary-pushing.
I’m slipping into the same old habits, with the same old person who’s…not the same old person I’d subtly test whenever I saw him with my sister.
He’s from my past and a complete stranger at the same time.
So while I might try to act the same, his reactions are anything but.
“I’m going to sleep,” he informs me. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret when I find out about it.”
Little too late for that.
Except for the part where he doesn’t have to find out I’ve suddenly realized he’s a grown-ass man and I kind of like him bossy.
He grabs me by the shoulders and pushes me to one side, strides past me, yanks the blackout curtains shut, and then flops face-first onto the bed.
He doesn’t even pull the covers back.
Simply flops down, the curve of his back and shoulders and gray-cotton-covered ass on full display.
Taking up the entire king-size bed himself.
“Yeah, I wasn’t hungry either,” I mutter.
“You haven’t stopped eating all day. Be quiet and go to sleep.”
“It’s five thirty.”
“It’s midnight somewhere.”
He slaps at the nightstand until his hand connects with the switch that turns off the wall lamp, and the room plunges into mostly darkness.
“Don’t,” he says to me, like he knows I was a hairsbreadth from asking him if he’s going to get under the covers.
I shift to the couch—tiny couch built for two, definitely not a full-size couch—and move my bags off of it.
He audibly sighs again, like the rustle of the plastic bags is irritating him.
“I have this app on my phone—” I start.
Naturally, he doesn’t let me finish. “I haveeveryapp in the known universe for sleep assistance and sound cancellation, and they’re all shit.”
“If none of the apps work, maybe the real problem is?—”
He growls.
