“Uh, yeah. I was wondering if maybe we could stay somewhere else? I don’t mean to be a pain, but this is a one-bedroom.”
“Oh, um, I can check. I’m sorry, I just assumed she was your girlfriend.”
Ha, in my dreams.Literally. “No, we’d like a place with two bedrooms, if you can.”
Jessie walks back to the patio door and looks out at the hot tub. Damn it, she was so excited. There isn’t even a couch I could sleep on.
“Let me call around, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Wait, one more thing. If you can find another place with a hot tub, that would be great.”
“You got it.”
I hang up and move to stand by Jessie.
Greg
Every place within an hour from here is booked. Do you want me to book you a place in the city? The drive will suck getting out here every morning, but I’ll book whatever you want.
Did I do something in a past life to deserve this sick form of punishment? Not only am I living with the woman of my dreams, but now I might very well be sharing a bed withher. And unfortunately, we have a strict no-underwear-touching rule. Underwear I’ve now seen and which is burned into my brain.
“What’d he say?” Jessie asks.
I plop down on a chair in the tiny living space. “Everything is booked. We’re staying here or driving back to the city, and I’ll commute out each morning.”
She sits in the chair next to me and brings her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She glances around the space again before seeming to come to a decision. “We’re both mature adults. We can share a bed for a few nights. The city is too far, and Ireallywant to get in that hot tub.” She grins before adding, “Unless you can’t handle it. We can leave if you don’t want to share—”
“No. We’ll stay, I’m good with it,” I say a little too quickly.
“Okay.” A small smile pulls at her lips.
“Okay.” I release the tension from my shoulders. “I’ll grab our bags.”
“I’ll help with the most important items.” She says as she hops down the steps in front of me and pulls out the bottle of wine we picked up on the way here.
I huff a laugh and grab our bags, following her back inside.
Fifteen minutes later, I’m standing in the small kitchen space opening the wine when Jessie comes out of the bathroom in a purple string bikini, her belly button ring catching the light. And now I have my answer: I am definitely being punished.
I’m not sure I can muster the willpower I need to sleep in the same bed as this woman without trying something. Not with the way she’s been looking at me the last few days. Our little game of strip gin has the sexual tension in the house at an all-time high. Maybe if I roll myself in a blanket like a baby being swaddled so I literally can’t move. That’ll keep my self-control in check.
My eyes are still on the tiny bow holding the two pieces of her bottoms together when she snaps her fingers. “My eyes are up here.” She fights her smile, busting me for checking her out.
“And they are beautiful.” I wink at her, recovering quickly.
She grabs a wine glass, fills it, and disappears out the door.
After changing into my swim trunks, I take my glass of wine and slide open the patio door. Jessie has country music playing softly on her phone on a small patio table. She’s submerged up to her neck, head against the headrest. Her red waves are tied in a messy bun. The only light comes from inside the house and the soft white lights of the hot tub.
Wild beauty. That’s what she is. I want to tell her, but I don’t. Sharing a bed is going to be difficult enough; I don’t need to make it worse. Besides, Knox is probably right—we’re fire and gasoline. Someone is bound to get burned when we finally collide . . . but for a few wild seconds, it would be pure, unfiltered heat.
“Is it everything you hoped and dreamed of?” I ask.
“It’s almost better than sex.”
The look that crosses my face makes her burst out laughing. I shake my head. “You need to have better sex, then.”
I climb into the tub, taking the seat across from her—as far away from her and that purple bikini as possible.
