“Yup. Thanks. There’s plenty, if you want.”
He nods and turns back toward the bathroom and I can’t help but shout at his back. “I spent seventy-five dollars last night! On tacos and fancy drinks.”
He keeps walking, spits and rinses in the bathroom sink, and comes back with a little smile on his face. “Lauro didn’t foot the bill? What a cheapskate.”
“Ack!” I’m so mortified over all of this, practically melting down the counter. “What a waste of money.”
“It wasn’t a waste of money.”
“Why?”
“Because I got to see you like that.” He comes up behind me and grabs a pancake off the stack. “I forgot how cute you are when you’re shithoused.”
“Ack!”
This is the sort of mortification people don’t survive. They just, simply, cease.
He’s chuckling, I can hear it, but when I glance at him, his face is serious.
“Hey,” he says.
I flip the last of the pancakes onto the stack and turn off the griddle, turning to give him my attention. “Yeah?”
“I’ll do it.”
“You’ll do what?”
“I’ll be your model.”
I’m leaning back on the counter, and when he drops that bomb, I slip and bang the crap out of my elbow. “Ow! Shit! What?”
He’s there in a second, gently rotating my arm, leaning in and inspecting.
“Are you okay?” His brows are so low they’re practically melting into his beard.
“Yes. Just my funny bone. What did you say?”
He’s still bent over my arm, inspecting, and I get impatient. I poke his shoulder with my free hand. “Vin.What did you say?”
Finally satisfied that my arm isn’t going to fall off, he lets go of me, steps back, and crosses his arms over his chest. His eyes land on mine. “I’m offering, is all.”
“You’d let me draw you?”
“All I have to do is sit still, right?”
“Naked.”
His eyebrows rise a half centimeter.
“Nude, I mean,” I continue.
He clears his throat. “Right. Yeah. I knew that when I offered.”
He’s still got his arms crossed and his eyes boring into me and it makes it very hard to have this conversation.
“Even…even with all this going on, you’d let me draw you naked? Likenaked? In front of me?”
His brows kick up and his arms finally uncross. “Roz, I’d trust you to figure out whether to pull the plug if I were in a coma.” He takes one step toward me and for a diamond-sharp moment I think, no Iknow,he’s going to put his hand against my cheek again, like he did in bed just the other night. But then his hands slide into his pockets and he holds, a few feet from me. “Of course I can get naked in front of you.”
