“Come on in,” Trent called, not wanting to crowd her at the door.
The hinges squeaked as she entered, and after a moment of hesitation, she closed the door behind her.
She wore a pair of tight shorts that showed off the muscular curves of her pale legs. A tight tank top covered her torso, and it either had one of those included bras or she’d gone without, because she had no bra straps. It made her look impossibly casual in a way he likedfartoo much.
Sometimes she seemed out of reach, like something to be seen but not touched. Ready for bed, though, she looked perfect.
“Got water for you,” he said, pointed. “Also put vitamins next to it.”
“I don’t take vitamins,” she argued.
“You do now.”
Lines appeared in her forehead, but she didn’t complain any more.Good girl. She learns fast.
Trent didn’t much abide arguments. It was one of the things he liked about being in charge. He’d listen, of course, to real feedback or concerns.
If Alison had said pills made her sick, he’d help her find a type that didn’t. If she’d said she had her blood tested and didn’t require some of them, they’d locate brands that only had those things she was deficient in.
However, he suspected Alison’s knee-jerk reaction was to argue. It had nothing to do with real problems with whatever was offered but done out of her desire for independence.
Though…as he watched her, he wondered how real that need was.
The way her pupils would dilate, the flush on her cheeks when he’d hand-fed her, those things all implied that she had a desire for someone to take those reins even if she didn’t know how to accept it.
What happened to make her this nervous?
“You don’t need to stare at me,” she snapped.
Trent blinked slowly, as though woken. “Sorry. I was thinking. Why does it bother you when I do, though?”
She wrapped her arms around herself, not venturing any further into the room. “I don’t like it. It feels like you’re trying to figure me out.”
“Would that be so bad?”
“Yes.”
He huffed out a soft laugh at her insolence and pouting before he gestured at the open door inside his room. “Bathroom is through there if you need it during the night. You were up early this morning—do you always wake up that early or was that special?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said, her gaze on the bed. “I figured there wasn’t any reason to stay in bed if I can’t sleep.”
He nodded, recalling nights like that. Sometimes the best thing a person could do was get the hell out of bed when sleep wouldn’t come. The more he’d lain there, the more frustrated he’d gotten and it had been less likely sleep would actually happen. “You always sleep poorly?”
“I’m a light sleeper. Please tell me you don’t snore.”
“I don’t think I do, but I haven’t slept beside someone in a long damn time, so who knows. If I do, just kick me and I’ll roll over and stop.”
“What’s a long time? Gone a week without one of your crazy exploits you like to talk about from the red cards?”
He laughed as he caught the bottom hem of his shirt and pulled it off. He’d already showered, but he’d be damned if he was sleeping in anything more than he had to. “I never mentioned sleeping in any of those, did I?”
She didn’t quip back, which surprised the fuck out of him. At least, it did until he got his shirt over his head and saw the way her gaze was pinned to his chest.
Well, it seemed there wassomethingshe liked about him.
Not that Trent understood that in the least. He was partial to women, to their softness, to the gentle sloping curves of their bodies. He’d seen plenty of naked men in his life—hell, he knew Daniel and Kyle’s bodies almost as well as he did his own, since they’d taken women together often enough—and they never stirred a thing in him.
The soft scent that left Alison, though, said it stirred something inside her.
