Emma stood facing me, and we both froze, staring at each other.
Chapter 5
Noah
Iyanked the shower curtain shut again.
“Sorry, I thought you were asking if I was decent,” Emma said at the same time that I said, “Sorry, I thought you were turned around already.”
She let out a tortured groan. “You must think I’m a pervert.”
“Yes.”
The groan turned into a strangled guffaw. “I’m so sorry.”
“Not your fault. It was a miscommunication.Noware you turned around?”
The sound of motion. “I am.”
I peeked my head out just to be sure, and the sight of her standing there, absolutely swamped in my clothes,did somethingto me, made some smug masculine instinct crow with satisfaction.
This is only temporary,I told myself.You don’t get to keep her.
I snagged my towel and quickly dried myself off, pulling on a pair of old gray sweats over my boxers, and a white Henley.
“Good,” I told Emma.
She didn’t move.
“You okay over there?”
“No,” she said. “I’ve put myself in time-out. Three minutes left.”
I chuckled and let her be, going about my normal after-shower routine like this was any other night and not the craziest one of my life. I combed my hair, put on deodorant, and patted some moisturizer onto my face. A decent-looking guy stared back at me in the mirror. Brown hair, brown eyes, three-day stubble. My nose had been too big for my face when I’d been younger, and my ears a tad too large, but I’d grown into both, and now my features looked much more balanced.
“You hungry?” I asked, turning toward Emma.
She swiveled my way, her time-out over. “Starving.”
I reached past her toward the door handle, pausing. “I just realized. If you haven’t eaten solid food in almost a week, we might have to be careful with what we put in your stomach.”
Her face fell. “Oh, you’re probably right.”
“I’ll look it up. Here,” I said, offering my arm. “Hold on to me and the railing on the way down. You still look a little wobbly.”
We made it safely to the kitchen, and I got her seated on a barstool at the center island while I scrolled through an article about refeeding someone after a period of starvation, reading aloud to her the critical points.
Afterward, I went to the fridge. “I have leftover beef stew from last night. I could heat that up and put it through the blender. It has everything you need, low carbs, high protein, nutrient dense.” I glanced over my shoulder at Emma. “Thoughts?”
She sat beneath the glow of a pendant light, towel drying her hair. “Mmm, a meat smoothie. Sounds delicious.”
I grinned. “I got other options.”
She shook her head. “No, that sounds fast, and I’m so hungry I’m starting to get lightheaded, so let’s go with that.”
“Two meat smoothies, coming up.”
“Wait, what? No, you don’t have to drink one, too.”
