I did. Becca’s sweatshirt covered her face and only half of her body, leaving a sizable part of her chest exposed to me. The lacy blue bra teased me. Her nipples strained against the fabric, like the bra was a bit too small. My mouth watered. Yeah, my attraction to her was never a problem. Not even a little bit.
“Sure, I can help.” Shit, my voice sounded gruff.
I stepped toward her and maneuvered her arm into the sleeve and then studied the front of the sweatshirt:Friends, Coffee, Betas, I’m a simple woman.I couldn’t stop the smirk overtaking my face. “Cute shirt.”
“Shut up.” She pushed up from the bed and grabbed the edge of the desk.
Reaching out, I put my arm around her waist before she could fall. She leaned against me, her vanilla scent making me inexplicably hungry for something sweet.
“I got up too fast.” She closed her eyes.
“I noticed. I don’t mind helping you. Seriously. Just drink your hot chocolate and relax. My only plan today was to drink beer and nap. This is better.”
She chewed on her full bottom lip and narrowed her large brown eyes. “It feels weird to just watch you work.”
“It’s not weird. You deserve a break. Rest a bit, okay?” I lowered my voice and gave her my coaching stare—a scowl, my eyes going into slits—the one where players backed out of an argument and submitted to me. She did no such thing. She wasn’t intimidated, and I liked that.Huh.
She nodded but still remained standing. “I need my phone to see what’s next on the list. I think I need to file a claim? Put up a tarp?”
“How to fix a window list?”
“Exactly.” She jutted her chin out just as she shivered head to toe. “Now, should we put up the tarp to stop this cold air?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, hoping to calm my annoyance at her use of the wordwe. “Becca, you just passed out. I will put up the tarp.”
“I can—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re badass, independent, and can do it. I understand. But I’m capable, not minutes from regaining consciousness, and don’t want you to hurt yourself. Sit your cute ass on the bed and watch or get out of the room.”
She blinked three times before plopping down on the bed and crossing her legs in a very sassy move. “Are you always this bossy?”
“When I’m pissed, yes.” I pointed at her. “Don’t get up.”
I got to work, nailing the tarp into the walls on the top and repeating the motion on the bottom, then lining it with duct tape around the edges. The wind still breezed through and, with the blizzard coming in less than forty hours, I double lined it. “There, this should hold until someone can come out and fix it.”
“Thank you.”
“Was that hard to say?” I joked.
She rolled her eyes, and one of her famous crooked smiles greeted me. She used to smile at me like that every time we crossed paths on campus before I promised to call and never did. Definitely my fault that she stopped flashing me those smiles.
“Yes, but it was necessary,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t have done as good a job as you.”
“I’m happy to help.”
She took another sip from the mug and tilted her head to one side, almost like she was studying me. “I’ll get you some cocoa to go. To-go-coa!” She laughed at her joke and bounced out of the room without any modifications to her movements even though she had just passed out.
I chuckled. This woman… I’d avoided conversations with her the past two years for a reason. She got underneath my skin and had me wanting more.
And that was something I just couldn’t do.Again.
CHAPTER THREE
BECCA
Chef Ramirez and Claudia’s House Cleaning got their final checks before the holidays, enough food was stocked so I could survive an entire zombie apocalypse if needed, and all the girls were scheduled to be picked up early to avoid the blizzard. The only blip, if I’d even call it that, was the broken window that couldn’t be repaired until after the snowstorm. After hours on YouTube, I barricaded the window three more times and secured the bedroom so most of the wind and cold would remain tucked inside. After confronting Amanda and interrogating her roommate, they insisted the window broke by accident, but it still concerned me. I prided myself in my house-mothering skills, knowing things the girls thought were secrets.
The sneaking in past curfew.
