“Right,” he said, bobbing a nod, his eyes on the floor between them.
“Can you get to bed?”
“Sure.” He stood slowly, using his free arm to take his weight. He took a step and tripped over the chair leg.
She made a dive, throwing herself under his shoulder to catch him. “You good?” she wheezed. He was built like a linebacker and weighed as much.
“I told you. I got this,” he declared and promptly lurched toward the wrong exit.
“You got this, all right.” Slinging her arm around his waist, she propelled him toward the archway leading out into the living room. “Bedroom’s this way, dungeon master.”
He tilted his head toward her. “Did you just lay a D&D reference on me?”
“I did.”
He whistled. His cheek rested against the top of her head. “That’s hot.”
“Okay, you need to stop talking,” she warned, guiding him around the couch. They had to thread the needle through a freshly painted doorway. Her bedroom was to the left. She led him past the hall bathroom to the right into the guest room. “I’m mostly using it for storage until I can get all my projects completed.” She made him sit on the edge of the bed. Riot hopped onto the quilt next to him, lavishing Nick with ear kisses.
If he couldn’t walk to the bedroom, Sassy doubted he could take off his own pants.
Oh, boy.
“I’ll be back,” she said and nearly stepped on Rogue at the entrance to the bedroom. She sought Nick’s overnight bag and brought it and the dog bed to the guest room. She arranged the bed for Riot, adding a blanket on top of it because the room felt chilly. As she pawed through Nick’s clothes in the duffel, she took out what he would need for bed.
By this point, he had sprawled across the quilt, his arms around Riot, who was planted halfway across his chest, sniffing every inch of his uniform shirt. She wondered if this was routine for them.
“Who’s my smoochie?” Nick cooed as Riot licked his chin lovingly. “Are you my smoochie-poo?”
Sassy cleared her throat. “I’m going to take off your shoes,” she announced.
He lifted a hand in acknowledgment before going back to telling Riot what a good smoochie-poo he was.
She pulled each shoe off by the heel, laid them side by side against the wall. His socks joined them.
She eyed his tree-trunk thighs underneath his uniform pants and pursed her lips.Keep your thoughts clean, Haseya, she schooled herself before pressing one knee into the bed. She found the buckle of his belt and started to navigate it.
Nick stopped cooing. He tilted his head to see her around Riot’s large one. “Whatcha doing?”
She gritted her teeth. “Undressing you.”
He raised a brow. “You’ve never done that before.”
“Nope.” She finally worked the buckle loose. Next, she attacked the clasp of his pants. Then the zipper. If she found Marvel superhero tighty-whities under his duds, she was going to tease him for the rest of his life. Maybe that would boot her sudden attraction to him to the curb. Superhero undies would surely make her libido remember that Nick was her friend. Nothing more, nothing less.
Or would they? Her pulse skipped. Her mind whirled. The way he watched her… Damn it, it wasn’t helping.
Ah hell.He could be wearing Sesame Street underwear and she wouldn’t find him any less doable at this point, would she? Her love for Nick had been unconditional when it was platonic. Now that all her adult lady parts were seeing him in a new, inconvenient light, it wasn’t going to be any different.
To put herself out of her misery, she yanked the beltline of his pants down, careful not to take his underwear—thank the maker, he wasn’t goingcommando—with them. “Lift your hips,” she said when the pants didn’t give.
He lifted them in a half-hearted bridge pose, laughing openly and fully when Riot rolled up his chest and landed on his face.
She managed to wrest the pants free from his hips and kept tugging until they were at his knees.
No superheroes and no kid’s cartoons, she discovered. Just midnight-black boxer briefs made of some soft poly material that made her want to touch…
No touching. We arenottouching.Even if said boxer briefs hugged attributes she hadn’t known he was packing… She saw now why Nick’s past girlfriends had found their sexy time with him satisfying. Why they practically glowed around him after nights well spent.
