This was a testament to how tense Rachel was, if the sound of his voice wasn’t doing the general calming thing like usual.
“I don’t know.” Rachel slumped farther into the mattress, letting the thick comforter, well, comfort. “Cassie wasn’t happy about it, though.”
Rachel was going to have to give her a discount on her monthly bill. That meant she was going to have to pull into her savings for the mortgage payment this month. And that meant that she’d have to replenish her savings.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Travis asked, sitting at the edge of her bed, running his hand along her leg.
“No.” She rolled over and tried the box breathing thing again.
“Rach.” Travis moved his palm from her leg to her back. “Even you get to mess up sometimes.”
She looked at him then. Really looked at him. Not his abs, not his body, not the way he made her insides flippity-flop with his mind-boggling sex appeal. No, she really drank him in.
He cared about her.
That thought made her throat go dry.
“I don’t get to mess up,” she said.
Then she told him. All of it.
“She’s in the States?” he asked. Rachel nodded.
“And she was up at three in the morning sending you emails with changes for an ad that was supposed to run within hours?” he asked.
Rachel nodded again. “While we were?—”
She gestured to the wall, where they’d had a truly inspired middle-of-the-night romp. It involved inventive use of the curtains. She wouldn’t have thought the position was possible.
Travis’s inventiveness when it came to bedroom antics was one of the many pieces to that smoldering sex-appeal thing he had going on.
“Rach, you shouldn’t have to take calls at all hours of the night.” He sprawled out on the bed beside her, rolling to his side. “No one can possibly expect that from you.”
Except him, of course. He didn’t say it, but she was pretty sure he wanted to.
To be honest, she’d jump when he called because of that thing she’d discovered he could do when they went skinny-dipping at the lake. Let’s just say, she was mighty impressed by his flexibility.
“It’s just part of the service I provide to clients.” A headache was forming just behind her eyes. “I mean, I’d like it not to be.” She rolled, so they were face-to-face. “But it’s what they expect. I’m definitely not the cheapest option on the virtual-executive-assistant market. My clients have come to know that I will get it done and do it right.”
He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Do you charge them extra when they call with last-minute demands?”
She shook her head.
“Have you considered laying out the exact times you’ll be available and when they can expect responses?” he continued.
Given that he was starting to show up at work only sometimes, he really didn’t get to have thoughts on this.
“I’ve considered it,” she admitted. In fact, she’d considered it more than once. She’d even drafted it up in a document. She hadn’t seen it through because she absolutely didn’t want to ruin the relationships already established or—more to the point—admit that she was unable to complete the job as asked.
“I think I just need to do better.” She waved her hand between them. “At managing my time with you, with the kids, and the work.”
“I’d like to spend more time with you, Rach.” He shifted so they were touching, front to front. “I’ve been thinking… we should consider taking this thing between us public.”
She kept her gaze steady with his, even as she arched away. Seriously? She was mid-crisis, and he wanted to discuss this now?
“No,” she said.
“No, as in never?” he asked. “Or no, as in not right now?”
