When she turned finally, I almost groaned at seeing her low-cut top and soft pajama pants that stretched over her hips perfectly. But she sucked in a gasp and backed up against the counter as her eyes widened. “What are you wearing?”
I crossed my bare arms, shrugging. “What I wear to bed, Darling.”
“But … it’s not a suit. You don’t even have a shirt on.” Her eyes dragged down and then up my body, and I saw how she licked her lips.
She looked positively confused about it, and I held back a smile. “And sometimes I sleep without pants too.”
“You have tattoos everywhere,” she whispered, mostly to herself. Her gaze was hungry across my chest, and I let her look. Fuck, Iwantedher to look.
“I like ink.” I leaned against the island, watching how her hands gripped the counter across from me. “Seems like you like it too.”
Finally, her brown eyes met mine quickly and widened. “Sorry. I just don’t normally see so much of it. It’s … good art.” She cleared her throat as I let her stutter around checking me out. But then she pointed behind her to where I’d rearranged the glasses. “Did you do this?”
No point in denying it. “Can’t have you trying to climb on the counter just because you can’t reach.”
She lifted a brow. “That the only reason?”
I should have lied, but we were already in this deep.
“No. I don’t want another man leaning over you to help you reach it either, Mia.” I knew my jaw was ticking.
“That part of protecting me too?” She mirrored my stance, crossing her arms as she leaned against her side of the counter.
“Among other things.”
“Like what? Archer is harmless.”
The trust she had in that man was infuriating. “Well, for one,it might not be Archer in the kitchen with you all the time, and you in those pajamas are—”
“If someone can’t handle my pajamas, that’s on them,” she snapped, her tone full of anger. Fierce. Real.
Fragile. Like she might have been hiding an emotion much more vulnerable under her lashing out.
“It is,” I answered in a measured tone. “And although I shouldn’t admit it, I’m oddly protective enough of you that they’ll pay dearly for their eyes wandering. I figured you’d want to save them from going blind, but in all honesty, it’d be their fault.”
Her mouth dropped open a little, and I got to see that pink tongue before she rolled her eyes and smirked a tiny bit. “Jameson, you wouldn’t—”
“Mia, I would,” I corrected her as I walked over and then caged her in with both hands on the sides of her hips, gripping the counter so I didn’t press my fingers into her waist again. Restraining myself after yesterday was near impossible.
What we had done was supposed to curb my enthusiasm to fuck her, but instead it had amplified it. The way she moaned my name, the way she spread her legs, the way her pussy dripped for me.
Fuck.
“No man is going to look at you like they want to fuck you in my house.”
“You can’t control a look.” She bit her lip. “Plus, I’m fine. I can take care of myself if I want to.”
“Does that mean you might not want to?”
“Depends.” One small shoulder lifted in a shrug, her answer quiet, honest.
My blood quickly turned from a simmer to a boil at thinking she’d let a man take advantage of her. “On what, exactly?”
Her eyes held fire and fight. She was mad about something,but I couldn’t figure out what. “On if I want the guy looking or not. You don’t get to make all the rules for me just because I’m living here, you know? Just because you’re my boss doesn’t mean you get to tell me how to dress or act in the middle of the night.”
“This about my text?”
“No. It’s … You made it clear where the line is, Mr. Knight. Not me. We relieved our distractions, but I’m still a girl. Could be a girl who wants a guy looking at her for the summer too.” She lifted a brow. “A man to look at me more than once when I grab a glass. And if you don’t like it, I’ve been made aware that you have more than one guesthouse on this property for me to stay—”
