With Knox’s return, sudden fatigue hit Courtney, and she crashed as soon as she’d eaten half a bag of carrots and two bites of pasta.
Huh. No Knox in the hallway, but Courtney’s door was open.
Bax probably should’ve put pants on before going in, but he wasn’t in the mood to get dressed just to go back to bed and get undressed again.
He knocked on the doorframe. “Court?”
The nice thing about the house was that the rooms were big enough for a bed, some space for furniture, and massive closets. He dug it.
Also, didn’t smell like piss.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
This room came with a white carpet he oddly did not hate, light-gray walls, and lots of art with big white and silver flowers.
“Hey.” Courtney sat curled up on the lounger by the window with a cup of what appeared to be hot tea.
Her long brown hair was pulled into a low ponytail, and her pajamas were the comfy kind. Nothing particularly sexy about the sweatpants and sweatshirt, but the fabric hugged her new curves, and she might as well have been wearing a negligee with the way his heart sped up at the sight.
“Sorry I woke you,” she said, eyebrows furrowing. “I didn’t mean to be so loud.”
Well, she wasn’t making a peep, so she had the quiet thing down.
“No.” He shook his head. “I woke up, saw the light on, came to see what tomfuckery Knox was up to this time.”
“It’s just me.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I can turn off the hall lights. You go back to bed.”
“Are you going back to bed?”
“No.” She shook her head, sipped at the tea, said nothing else.
“Courtney, what’s going on with you?” Something was off with her. Something he didn’t care for one bit. “Can I come in?”
She nodded, gestured for him to enter. “Sure. Do you want some tea?”
“Not so much into tea. More of a coffee with whiskey kinda guy.” He pulled the door closed behind him, just in case he ended up going down on her again.
Not that it was in the plan for the rest of his night, but he figured if the two of them were alone in a room, they should probably close the door in case things got sexy. Otherwise, Knox would probably wander in by accident.
“What’s up?” he asked, heading toward her.
“Nothing’s up,” she straight-up lied to him.
“It’s one a.m., and you’re awake.” He sat on the edge of her bed. Not too close, but not too far either. “There’s no club to dance at. No drinks to drink. And you seem really into sleep these days. So spill it.”
“I always get edgy before a tour.” She lifted a shoulder, and the collar of her sweatshirt fell low. He was like a Pavlovian dog ready to go down on her just because she showed him some biceps. “It’s my normal,” she continued. “The edginess before tour.”
“What about it makes you edgy?” He had a solid grasp of what made him edgy, but he couldn’t speak for everyone.
“Honestly?”
“We’re being honest, aren’t we?”
“It’s too late to go to the pirate ship.” She sighed. He didn’t care for that brand of sighing. “I don’t have it in me to crawl through that door this late.”
“That’s good because the sprinklers are going off out there, and I don’t have any intention of arguing.” He leaned in, steepled his fingertips below his chin. “What makes you edgy before the tour?”
“You.” Her throat moved, and she seemed to stare at the steam of her drink.
