“See you on Monday,” Becker said.
“Have a good weekend,” Max told her.
They turned to leave, but Cooper stayed where he was, studying her with an intensity in his dark eyes that made her squirm. Khaki had no idea what was going on, but she could practically see the gears turning in his head, and she didn’t like it.
“I should probably get back to my bath before it overflows,” she said, hoping to nudge him on his way. “I left the water running.”
“Yeah. Gotta take that long soak in the tub, right?”
She wasn’t sure what he knew, but he knew something. She forced herself to smile. “Right. See you on Monday?”
She braced herself, expecting Cooper to call her out right there in front of the other guys, but instead he smiled and gave her a nod. “See you then.”
Khaki stood in the doorway, watching them walk down the hall. They gave her a wave before getting in the elevator, and she waved back. She let out a sigh of relief. Apparently, her paranoia had been misplaced.
Locking the door, she raced into the bathroom and jerked the shower curtain back to see Xander standing there with a sexy grin on his face, shampoo in his hair, and shower gel slowly running down his naked body. He might smell like he’d been locked in a Bath & Body Works store during an earthquake, but he looked hot covered in all that soap.
She considered teasing him a bit more. She had promised him a big reveal after all. But after making him stand in the shower covered in fruit-scented shower gel for so long, she simply didn’t have the heart. She dropped her bathrobe, then her panties, and climbed in the shower with him.
“Sorry it took me so long to get rid of them,” she said as she helped him rinse off.
“Don’t be. That was some quick thinking.”
He got most of the soap out of his hair, then pulled her into his arms for a kiss. She moaned as she felt his erection press against her stomach.
“I think I owe you big for being so calm under pressure,” he murmured as he kissed her again.
For half a second, Khaki considered telling him about the way Cooper had looked at her before he left, and her concerns that he might have figured something out. But as Xander’s hard-on pulsed against her, she pushed that thought out of her mind.
“Speaking of owing me something big…” she said.
Eyes smoldering, he swung her up in his arms and stepped out of the tub to head for the bedroom.
“Xander, you’re getting me all wet and gooey,” she squealed.
He laughed again as he plopped her on the bed. “And I’ve just started.”
* * *
“Are you sure it’s okay to go out in public?” Khaki asked. “What if someone we know sees us? Won’t they realize we’re a couple?”
Xander grinned. “Becker and Cooper go out together all the time and no one thinks they’re a couple.”
She thumped him in the chest as they drove along Interstate 30 toward Fort Worth. “Very funny. I’m serious. I just told the guys a couple hours ago that I’d be spending the day pampering myself at home. What if they see us?”
He stopped laughing. Khaki was right. This wasn’t something to joke about. And after the near miss at her apartment, it was something they were going to have to address.
He pulled her closer, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make light of your concerns. But it’s not like we can hide in our apartments for the rest of our lives and hope no one ever knocks on the door. This morning pretty much proved that’s not going to work. But Dallas is a big city. We can go out now and then. We just have to be careful when we do. If we go to places outside of the city and stay away from ones where I know the guys like to hang out, we should be okay.”
She glanced up at him, worry in her dark eyes. “And if someone sees us, what do we do?”
Xander pulled off the interstate and turned onto U.S. Route 377. There was an awesome Mexican restaurant he’d found about a year ago down here. He’d never mentioned it to the guys on the team, and it was too out of the way for them to stumble across. It should be a perfect place to have a quiet dinner with Khaki.
“If anyone sees us,” he said, “we’re just two coworkers having dinner. We’re in the same squad. It’s expected we’ll go out occasionally.”
Khaki nodded, but he could tell from the way she bit her lip that she was still apprehensive about going out in public. Until they pulled into the parking lot of the small restaurant and she finally saw how nondescript and out of the way it was. She sat up straight and looked around, some of the tension leaving her body when he drove around back and parked.
When they got inside, he asked for a table in the darkest corner of the restaurant, just to be safe. But as they ordered, Xander noticed Khaki throwing nervous glances at the doorway every few seconds.
