He dried himself and purposefully hung his towel over Lily’s panties. Lily Hart might look like an angel, but she disturbed his peace.
And when he stepped out of the bathroom, toweling his hair, the exact reason why she disturbed him was right in front of him.
Lily was on a blanket in front of the fire, her body folded in half with her head down, ass up in the air. Rush stopped in his tracks.
Jesus.
She wore his flannel, tucked in on one side into his sweatpants, but the other side had escaped to reveal just enough soft,creamy skin around the dip of her waist he had no business noticing. He leaned a shoulder against the doorframe and crossed his arms.
Lily exhaled slowly, her eyes still closed, and stretched her arms forward, the tips of her red hair touching the floor. Her back arched, and Rush felt the same bolt of pure, unadulterated lust shoot through him.
Then she hummed.
Long and deep. Like she was either orgasming or doing some seriously weird ritual. He hoped it was the second one because it would make it a hell of a lot easier to ignore the effect she had on him.
She took another deep breath and said, “I am a still lake. Not a stormy sea.”
Riggs lifted his head from the floor and shot her a sideways look.She’s a nutter,he seemed to say.
Rush’s eyes narrowed. “Are you casting spells over there?”
Lily cracked an eye open and looked at him upside down. “It’s called a mantra.” Her cheeks were a little pink, but that could be from the blood flowing upside down. “For focus and calm.”
“Never heard of talking yourself into being a pond.”
“A lake,” she said, sitting back on her heels. “It helps me to remember I don’t have to get swept up in everything around me. I can just be still.”
He almost sighed in relief. This was exactly what he needed to cool him off. Rush had never put much stock in things not footed firmly in logic and reason. He suspected she subscribed to all those alternative-healing ideas that his sisters were always talking to him about. Luckily, it further cooled his ardor.
She exhaled long and slow and rose to standing gracefully, arms high above her head, breasts thrust out against the worn fabric. “Your energy is bad.”
Rush smirked. “Yeah? Tell me more.”Yes, gorgeous. Tell me all about my energy so I can forget about your body rubbing against mine all night.
She made a noise of disapproval but didn’t stop stretching, rolling her shoulders back before bending forward again, stretching her arms toward the floor.
Rush muttered, “Hell,” and headed toward the kitchen. He needed coffee.
A while later, Lily wandered over, sniffing. “Please tell me that’s coffee?”
Rush set two mugs down and waited for the hiss and gurgle as the water heated before pouring a dark, scalding hot stream of strong black coffee from his grandfather’s old steel moka pot into the mugs. “It is.”
“Oh, thank God.” Lily sighed reverently and reached for the mug. “I was afraid you only had an electric coffee maker.”
He tried not to watch as she inhaled the steam with her eyes closed as if she were having an orgasm. The sooner they were out of the cabin and he could drop her off in Northfield, the better. The cabin already felt too small with the two of them. This place had always been his refuge, a place to get away and find peace and quiet, but now he had a permanent, distracting image of Lily Hart bent over in front of the fireplace.
“You mentioned your sisters last night,” Lily said, breaking the quiet. “Rachel and Sarah, right?”
“Yeah,” Rush said, taking a sip of the scalding hot coffee. “They’re younger.”
“What are they like?”
He leaned against the counter and smiled reluctantly. “Good. Better than me, anyway. Sarah’s finishing up her business degree in Buffalo. Rachel’s a nurse at Northfield General. They’re both smart as a whip and stubborn as hell.”
“You sound like a proud big brother.”
The familiar pull in his chest—equal parts pride and exasperation—made him grin. “They’re a pain in my ass. Now that Gran is gone and Pop is in a nursing home, they’ve shifted their attention to mothering me. Always calling to check in on me and sending texts with all those weird emojis.”
“They sound like my family,” Lily said, smiling. “I love them to death, but there are very few personal boundaries.”
