I decided to believe he either knew a different Stella or he was having two dreams at the same time. Of course, asking him would have cleared all that up, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.
I didn’t think I could handle confirmation that he’d been thinking about me or that he hadn’t.
My feelings for Lee were supposed to fade by living in his house, not get more complicated.
Lee had a road trip coming up next week, and as terrible as it was, I yearned for the relief of some distance.
Too lazy to change, I reached for my robe on the closet door and draped it over my tank top and sleep shorts, sifting the hair tie out of my tangled waves while I trudged into the hallway.
The house was still dark when I padded toward thestairs, rubbing my eyes as I collided with something hard and wet.
Lee was awake. And wet. And naked, other than the towel cinched around his waist.
“Hey. Sorry, Stell. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, that was…my fault. I should watch where I’m going,” I said, forcing out a nervous chuckle as I tried with all my might not to gawk at Lee’s glistening chest.
He was built but not bulky, muscles defined with smooth ridges and what looked like a soft dusting of dark hair. My fingertips tingled to sift through it as my greedy eyes roamed over his torso, counting the rest of his abs beyond the sneak peek I’d gotten on the couch.
We’d gone to the beach as teens, and I’d seen Lee without a shirt and in a tank top, but that was then, and now was…a lot. My brain was about to flatline from all it was taking in, despite my desperate and futile attempt not to look.
“Eyes up here,” he whispered, touching his temple as the corner of his sinful mouth twitched.
“They are. You just surprised me. Like I said, I should watch where I was going. My fault,” I said, clearing my throat when I caught it squeak. “I’m going to make coffee. Do you want coffee? I think we have muffins left too.”
I shifted to move past Lee, trying to shield my face so he wouldn’t notice the blush singeing my cheeks. He stepped in front of me, taking the end of the fuzzy belt of my robe and tying a knot as his gaze bored into mine.
“It’s a little cool,” he said, his voice low and husky while he roamed his gaze over my body. “You should cover up.”
And you should drop that damn towel and give me what I’ve wanted for half my life.
Desire and need were battling with my common sense,and if I didn’t head downstairs in two seconds, we would all lose.
I nodded and rushed downstairs, opening the fridge for a moment to lean in and let the cool air hit my face before I shoved it closed. I dropped my chin to my chest, my eyes bugging out when I noticed my tank top drooping on one side, almost low enough to see my left nipple.
That must’ve been what Lee had noticed when he’d said cover up. I could still feel the rasp in his voice deep in my belly and…lower.
He was probably just teasing me, like always. Seeing me flustered had been his and Gary’s favorite pastime, although now I was a very different kind of flustered.
This was not the everyday scenario I’d been hoping for while living with Lee. As hard as I’d tried, I couldn’t find any bad habits to turn me off. Ramming into him like that, wearing nothing but a towel and a crooked smile like a bad sketch from a roommate sitcom, only made things worse.
I set up the coffeemaker, drifting my gaze out the window above the sink as it hummed to life. So I’d seen Lee’s chest, and he’d seen most of my breast. This was no different from when I’d watched him play baseball and tried not to look at his ass in baseball pants. It was a nice ass, and he had a nice chest. An amazing chest.
I noticed nice things. Like the flower beds at the base of the windows on Diane and Jimmy’s house next door. I tried to get lost in the vibrant roses and daisies and willed my pulse to slow.
I wasn’t sure if humiliation or desire was kicking up my heartbeat. I’d managed to convince myself that all the heavy moments between us were my own muscle memory of pining for Lee, but lately, I wasn’t so sure. If he’d been onlyteasing me, he would have laughed and goaded me more before he’d have let me leave.
When his eyes had dropped to my almost-exposed breast, he hadn’t been laughing. He’d had fire in his eyes, unmistakable even in a dark hallway.
Maybe this was a product of forced proximity. I’d read countless novels about the tension between two people and the powder keg it created when they were forced to stay in the same space. That was probably messing with both of us.
After his next trip, he’d be home for almost a month. I’d managed to hold in my crush for Lee—at least from him—for years, but this was the first time I had a genuine worry if I could control myself.
“Hey,” Lee whispered against my neck, making me yelp and almost fall against the sink.
“You need to stop doing that,” I said, feeling the rumble of his laugh at my back while I rinsed out one of the coffee mugs I’d grabbed from the drainboard.
“I’m sorry I scared you that time.”
