“No. That was also for security reasons, just different ones.”
“What about Cillian?”
“I was allowed to go to Cillian’s house, but no, I never spent the night.”
“Wow, I get to be your first sleepover. I’m honored.” Jenna beamed, smiling from ear to ear.
Deacon’s eyes narrowed. “Should I be scared?”
“Only if you fall asleep first,” she singsonged as she walked into the bathroom and shut the door carrying the bag of supplies he’d ordered for her while they were at dinner, including toiletries and some clothes.
He heard her in the bathroom turn on the shower, and his entire body groaned. This friend thing was a lot harder than he thought it would be. That was not a pun, it was literal. He was rock hard, and he had been for the last hour and a half. During dinner, sitting across from her, staring into her eyes, watching her face light up with animation as she talked about work, clients, Pilates, renovations she wanted to do on the house she was leasing, his mom’s dogs, that TV show she liked, anything, his body just responded to her by getting aroused. He couldn’t help it.
And then there was the way she ate. It was sensual. There was no other word for it. When the food was good, she made little noises of appreciation that sounded a lot like the noises she made at other times she was appreciating things. It had taken every ounce of self-control not to pull her into the bathroom and fuck her up against the wall. Even that would have only slightly taken the edge off.
Today had left him emotionally wrung out. He wasn’ttrying to make excuses for himself, but he just needed human contact. He was craving connection. And the only person he wanted or had that with happened to be the one person he was stuck in a storm with, who was his friend.
It was like dying of dehydration in a rainforest.
He got right to work building a fire, stripping the bed, and putting on the mattress pad and bedding he had delivered, including the pillows. Next, he disinfected the space using the supplies he’d bought. It’s not that he didn’t trust the cleaning staff, but owning hotels, he knew better than most what people did in them. Thankfully, the room was tiny, and he was able to cover every surface within a very short amount of time.
Once they had a clean environment to spend the night in, he screwed in his safety door lock. It wouldn’t make it impossible for the door to be opened. They’d have to practically break it down.
The bathroom door opened, and Jenna walked out inhalfof the clothes he’d ordered. The top half. She was wearing a v-neck white t-shirt that fell to her mid-thigh, her hair was up in a bun, but she had decided to skip the gray sweats he’d bought to go along with them.
“Your turn,” she declared.
“Did you get the sweats?” he asked.
Her nose scrunched up in the most adorable way. “I don’t like to sleep with bottoms.”
There were two ways to interpret that, and as he stood to walk in the bathroom, he refused to let his mind wander to which one it could be. As he passed her, she lifted her hand to give him a high five, signaling the passing of the bathroom turn-torch.
That was not what he wanted to do with his hand on her body, but he obliged because she was his friend. Honestly, he was seriously questioning if Ava knew whatthe fuck she was talking about. Who in their right mind willingly friend-zones themselves?
“Whoa. You’ve been busy.” She looked around and pointed to the top of the door. “What’s that?”
“A lock.”
Her lips curled up. “Is that to keep me in or other people out?”
“It’s security.”
“Security? Um, there was one other car in the parking lot.”
He didn’t respond. People didn’t want to hear “rich people” problems.
She tilted her head to the side. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“No, tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Tell me what you were just thinking.”
“No.”
