And for a few short moments, time seemed to stand still as Casey lost herself. Those thick dark lashes that surrounded his brown eyes. The dark stubble on his chin. His slightly crooked but extremely perfect-for-his-face nose. The soft deliciousness of his lips...
What!? No! Shit!
“Oh my sweet lord Jesus,” Luc said, just as she threw herself up and off of him, as if he’d suddenly fully woken up and realized that his giant erection was pressed against her wayward thigh.
Casey rolled hard, all the way to the edge of the big bed, very nearly throwing herself off. “Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry sorry!”
Thankfully they both were completely dressed. And thankfully she hadn’t managed to take off her clothes in her sleep, although her shirt had ridden up, exposing her stomach. It was twisted uncomfortably around her ribs and she had to work to wrestle it back down—and nearly fell off the bed again.
“I think I was dreaming about Todd,” she said, even though she’d been doing nothing of the sort—at least not that she remembered. There’d been something about her grandmother’s house from, whoa, she must’ve been around ten—but that dream was just pale fragments that were fading fast. “Seeing Todd is always dangerous,” she added with a laugh, her voice sounding weird and a little too loud to her own ears.
But Luc didn’t flinch or recoil. Of course he was managing his own body’s misbehavior—although that was way not the right word for it. His body had done absolutely nothing wrong but respond to contact from someone who should’ve, by all rights, been Dave. He’d responded, quite rightly, to someone he’d clearly thought was his boyfriend.
Still, he was embarrassed, and he turned away from her, reaching for his phone on the bedside table. He was no doubt checking his messages in hopes for the news that Dave would be returning soon. Luc could then surrender the best-friend-surrogate job and all of the hand-holding, emotional support, and weird bedfellowness that that entailed.
But he made an unhappy face, and crap, that wasn’t good, because come on, Dave hadn’t just popped up to Vegas for the weekend. He was out there in the very real, very dangerous world, and even though Luc insisted he wasn’t even remotely worried about that, a small part of him had to know that Dave might not come home in one piece.
He very well might not come home at all.
Casey used Luc’s head-down moment to grab her own phone and check her messages, letting him know, “Nothing yet from the Air Biscuit—and yeah, that’s one nickname I’m never giving back.” It was, however, nearly five PM. “Wow, we slept for hours—is it possible Jon’s still in that meeting, or is he avoiding me?”
“I think it’s more than possible the meeting’s still going,” Luc said. “I think it’s likely. And...” He cleared his throat. “I’m really sorry—”
“Oh no,” Casey said. “You are not going to apologize. My id was trying to jump you, oh hot-body-in-bed-next-to-mine. And speaking of my baser parts, I am now freaking hungry.” Her stomach growled, as if on cue. “Give me food. Now!”
Luc laughed.
“But do you mind if I shower first?” she continued, already off the bed and heading for the living room where she’d left her suitcase. “I mean, jeez, have you smelled me?”
Rio laughed—she was quoting him from before. Have you smelled me? He took a quick whiff of his pits and okay, he wasn’t too bad. But still.
“I’m gonna need to shower, too,” he called after her. “So be quick!”
But she’d already grabbed her bag and closed the bathroom door behind her.
Don’t think of her in his bathroom, taking off her clothes. Don’t think of her naked, in his shower...
Too late.
Because, had he smelled her, she’d asked?
Yup. Oh yeah. He definitely had.
She smelled like the the brilliant summer-filled promise of the last day of school, like fresh air and freedom from boredom, like the rainbow at the end of a world-shaking thunderstorm, like an impossibly perfect sunset at thirty thousand feet as he jumped into exhilarating, heart-pounding freefall.
And damn, but he wanted to wake up like that, face-to-face with that soul expanding feeling, smiling into this amazing woman’s eyes, every single morning for the entire rest of his life.
Rio flopped back on the bed, reaching over to grab his phone. He scrolled to his currently one-sided message thread with Dave and typed, Please please please PLEASE call me!!!!!
Chapter Fifteen
Friday Evening
All through dinner at the charming little restaurant near his apartment, Luc was subdued, continuously checking his phone.
And okay, they were both hungry—falling on their burgers and devouring them like they’d skipped far more than lunch and walked far farther than the few short blocks from his place.
“Dave was right about Werewulf’s,” Casey mumbled around a full mouth and Luc made an oh yeah sound of agreement. They were there with the early-bird crowd, but it was obvious from the great food, the fun decor, and the constantly running science fiction classic movies—tonight was Plan 9 from Outer Space—that if they’d been even twenty minutes later, there’d’ve been a line in front of them. It was forming already.
