“Sure. I told Brandon he could crash with us for the night. That okay with you?”
She frowned, glancing nervously back at him. “I don’t understand. Isn’t his place closer? I thought it was only a few blocks away.”
“Yeah, but he’s having… a water issue. One of the pipes in his bathroom is leaking. They’re supposed to have it fixed by tomorrow, so I told him he could crash.”
She shifted anxiously from foot to foot, digging her fingers into the silky fabric of Logan’s shirt as she tried to come up with a good excuse as to why he couldn’t stay.
“Please?” Brandon pressed his hands together like a supplicant, his glossy black nails shining. “I’ll be on my best behavior. Scout’s honor.”
She chewed her bottom lip, her spine crumpling under the pressure. She shrugged slowly, and he let out a sigh of relief.
CHAPTER 2
With a sharp clatter,Ophelia dropped her keys in the glass bowl by the door and stepped out of the way of the men as she toed off her boots. They kicked off their own shoes and shuffled past, murmuring too low for her to hear.
An uneasy sensation crawled up and down her spine like a restless spider tapping its legs against her raw nerve endings. She smothered the strange rising panic, rustling around in the closet to open the shoe sanitizer and place her own boots within. After a moment of deliberation, she grabbed the men’s shoes and stuffed them in as well.
Logan never bothered, not as concerned about cleanliness. Neurotic, he would call her, but with a soft tone and loving look in his eye. It was kinder than anything anyone else had ever had to say about her need for hygiene.
It wasn’t as though she liked being the way she was. That was why it meant so much to her that Logan accepted it.
She straightened, finding that Logan and Brandon had taken up opposite ends of the three-seat couch. Clearing her throat, she smiled tightly at them.
“Well… I think I’ll head to bed. It’s late—or maybe early.” She giggled nervously, wringing her hands together. She turned toward the short hall that led to their room and the bathroom.
“Wait,” Logan called, leaning over the arm of the couch to peer into the hall. “Come sit with us a little longer, baby.”
“Oh, I… I don’t know,” she stammered, flailing for an excuse. “I’m so tired.”
“Just a little while. Please?”
Wilting, she nodded, trudging back into the living room and heading for the plush single-seat chair in the corner by the window.
“Where are you going?” Logan asked, halting her in her steps. “What, do you think Brandon has cooties?”
Alarm pricked within her. This was another common complaint. She had contamination OCD, and people were not particularly fond of the realization that she had certain strange limits with them because of it, no matter how much she tried to explain it wasn’t rational or personal.
Begrudgingly, she turned back to them and smiled.
“Of course not.” She sat on the middle cushion of the couch, pressing into Logan as far as she could.
Brandon laughed. “You’re saying that, but you’re practically sitting in his lap. Come on, I don’t bite… unless you want me to, of course.”
Brandon wagged his brows in a way that indicated he was only teasing, but she didn’t think she was imagining the heat in his eyes.
She swallowed hard, easing more toward the middle of the cushion. “Just cold.”
“So,” Brandon said, slinging an arm over the couch so his fingers were unsettlingly close to her. “Tell me more about the glowing flowers.”
She blew out a sigh of relief at the easy topic he was offering. When it came to genomics, she could blather on mindlessly for hours.
“Ah, we’re creating different strains of bioluminescent flowers. It’s mostly just a gimmick, but I like it. It’s… hopeful, you know? There are a few things that are still troublesome about the propagation. For one thing, they don’t tend to breed true, and even in clones, we find that the phosphorescence fades over time. Once blooms are cut from the mother plant, the effect only lasts a few hours. Not great if you’re trying to market glowing bouquets.”
She was babbling, she knew, but it was comforting her to talk about something mundane.
In the midst of explaining how they were trying to prolong the glowing effect, Brandon trailed the back of a finger over her cheek.
She flinched away, darting an astonished glance at Logan, but he was gazing at her with heavy-lidded eyes. “L-Logan?”
