His lips didn’t move, but his eyes warmed. His fingers rose to the knot of his tie.
She turned away, because she couldn’t stand to watch him undress, and busied herself with rummaging through her markers. When the rustle of clothing stopped, she turned back with a Sharpie. She patted herself on the back for not swallowing her tongue at the expanse of lovely chest that lay before her.
“How are you getting more muscular every time I see you?” she asked, with a touch of annoyance.
“I haven’t been able to sleep. I’ve been working out.”
Her shallow first reaction:Keep doing that.
She hooked her stool with her ankle and kicked it closer to the chair, then adjusted his seat so he was reclining. “Maybe try some warm milk.”
“I’m trying to sleep, not vomit.”
She bent her head over his shoulder and ran her palm over the upper muscle of his chest. His pec tightened. Hot. Hairy. Hard.
She swallowed her drool and uncapped theSharpie. She started on his left side, drawing a large fin coasting over his chest.
“What are you drawing?”
“Shh. You trust me, remember?” In this, at least.
“It took me forever to scrub that naked woman off.”
“She was a naked fairy, thank you very much. Didn’t you see her pointy ears?” Livvy filled in the detail of the fin, drawing each scale carefully. “Besides, this will be under your shirt. People will only see it when you go swimming or want to bang someone.”That’s good. Keep pretending you can think about him banging someone without it bothering you one tiny bit.
Nicholas craned his neck. “A mermaid?”
“Shh. Wait and see.”
She took her time carefully drawing in the scales of the mermaid. On someone else, with her actual needle, she’d do this in iridescent blues and greens so it popped when the person moved. The green marker made her feel a little sad, but this wasn’t the right tattoo for Nicholas.
She cleared her throat once she was half done with the fin, unable to keep silent forever. “So, like, what’s keeping you awake?”
She looked up at him. His eyes were closed, like they had been last time, furrows deep on his brow.
His lips parted, and for one bright, shining moment, she thought he would say it, that he’d confess it washerkeeping him awake, but then the words came. “Work stuff.”
“Oh.” She started to work on the torso of themermaid, giving her a slender physique and small breasts. Not covered by a silly seashell bra, of course. She assumed mermaids didn’t put stock into absurd human concerns like covering lady nipples at all costs.
Livvy couldn’t even stand underwires. Why would a majestic merlady put seashells on her boobs?
A loud vibrating pierced the silence. Nicholas shifted, his chest rippling under her palms, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and silenced it.
“You’re not even going to see who it is?”
“It’s someone who wants something from me.”
She wanted to make a sarcasticheavy is the head that wears the crowncomment, but couldn’t bear to do it. Not when he looked so utterly exhausted. “That’s the job of the guy in charge, isn’t it? To be in demand?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he rested his phone on his leg. “Uh-huh.”
The phone lit up again, and she was in the right position to see the caller.Grandpa.
Pain blossomed in her chest. “You may want to get that.”
He looked at the phone this time, then surprised her by shaking his head. “No.”
“You don’t pick up calls from your grandfather anymore?”
