Rip stood up, tall, so freaking tall, and I had to tip my chin back a little to keep making eye contact with him. He stretched those muscular arms over his head and yawned, “You look like you need a good rest too, baby girl.”
I did. I really did.
I also needed to ignore the use of that b-word again.
And I needed to quit being a chicken and sleep wherever.
“Nothing’s gonna happen, you know that, yeah?” he asked in his careful voice, making me focus on him.
I nodded.
His breath was deep but true, and he was looking right at me as he asked, “Why don’t you sleep in here too?”
Too? On the same bed?
I mean…
I said “Okay” before I stopped myself, or even realized what in the world I’d just jumped into.
What the hell was I doing?
Before I could stop myself, Rip said, “Let’s get to bed then.”
Just like that.
Well. Hell.
I was so nervous I held my breath as I went to the wall and flipped off the lights, blindly making my way toward the lamp that had survived these assholes coming into my house. The lamp lit the room just enough, showing me that Rip was on the other side of the mattress—the side I didn’t sleep on—already pulling the white coverlet back like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I wished.
Or at least I would if I was asking for a side of heartache.
“Is this a good idea?” I couldn’t help but ask. Sleeping in the same bed with my boss just seemed, like it shouldn’t happen. At least to me. At least not when that boss was Rip.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked right back before slipping under the sheets I had put on earlier.
Huh.
If he thought there wasn’t anything that would make this a bad idea…
I could ignore that this was something new. That my heart beat just a little faster at the idea of sleeping beside him. There was no reason this wasn’t strictly platonic.
I pulled the covers back and climbed in too. Flicking off the lamp, I snuggled into the covers and felt the mattress beside me moving, saying that Rip was adjusting himself too.
I rolled over onto my side to face where he was and slipped my hands under my cheek.
“Luna?”
I closed my eyes without even trying to. “Hmm?”
“You good?”
“Uh-huh, you?”
“Yeah.”
I yawned. “Thanks for coming over. Give me a poke if I’m moving around too much, okay?”
