I kept my gaze on the sink, Lee’s arms coming up on either side of me.
“It’s okay. I didn’t expect you to be up so early, and I couldn’t sleep. Not a big deal.”
I forced myself to swivel my head to meet his gaze. His hair was still wet as he peered down at me, the corner of his mouth hitching up.
“How come you couldn’t sleep? I figured you and Bennie would sleep late on a Saturday.”
“She is, I’m sure.” I grasped the mug to busy my shaking hands. He’d pulled on a T-shirt, but it was tight enough to stretch across his chest, the fresh memory of it underneath the material still making me squirm against the stainless-steel edge of the sink.
“I guess I’m used to waking up early. Years of early meetings and flights conditioned me, I suppose.”
“And now you don’t have to worry about that anymore, right?” Lee lifted a brow. “You’ll stay close to home for your next job?”
“I already promised my mother and Bailee. My mother deserves one kid who is in the same time zone.”
“Well, how about you promise me too?” Lee held my gaze until the coffeemaker beeped. “You can’t leave me now that I’m used to having you around.”
He grabbed the pot before I could reach for it, taking the mug from my hand and filling it up.
“Thank you,” I said, narrowing my eyes while I wrapped my fingers around the mug handle. “You’ll be sick of me soon.”
“I like talking to you all the time, even when I’m on the road. I don’t want to go back to once-a-week check-ins because you’re somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, working all day. If that’s what you want, I support it, but I guess I’m a little selfish.”
I wrapped my hands around the steaming mug, trying to distract myself from what he’d just said and the vulnerable pull in his features as he’d said it.
Blurred lines.They were a mind game that was going to drive me to madness before the end of the season.
“I don’t want that. I probably never did but was too busy to register how miserable I was. So, you got me. All of you can rest assured I’ll stay in the local New York area and be a nomad no more.” I lifted my mug in salute.
“Good,” he said, that husky dip in his voice ricocheting from my heart and that overexcited spot in between my legs that needed to calm down. I couldn’t think straight when my entire body was throbbing.
“Maybe when you’re home, we should coordinate when we wake up.” I poured creamer into my coffee and took a big gulp, eyeing Lee over the rim.
“Coordinate?” He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
“You know, sothat,” I said, flicking my eyes toward the stairs, “doesn’t happen again.”
“What doesn’t?” He sucked in his bottom lip as if he were holding back a laugh.
I set the mug down on the counter with a frustrated thunk.
“That I don’t catch you right out of the shower, and you don’t see one of my boobs by mistake.”
“I wouldn’t call it a mistake.” Lee reached over me to grab a mug out of the cabinet. “I’d call it more of a happy accident.” His brows jumped when his eyes met mine.
Was he flirting with me or fucking with me?
I slapped his chest when he burst out laughing.
“Come on, Stell.” He grabbed my hand when I pulled it away, his gaze skimming over my face before it roamed up and down my body. “Wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Yes, it was. Really bad.
“And you don’t have to see me with a rat’s nest on my head.” I flipped a tangled lock of hair over my shoulder. “I’ll spare you.”
“What if I don’t want to be spared?”
He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, tingles radiating down my neck when he moved his hand away.
