“Why would I?”
Her voice sounded smaller when she said, “Payback, maybe?”
Simon hugged her tighter and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “This doesn’t work like that.” He pressed one more kiss, then released her. “Go on. Go do your thing. Mind if I take a shower?”
“Not at all. Do you drink coffee in the mornin’?”
Simon smiled as she crawled out of bed, taking the sheet with her. “I drink coffee any time of day, but yes, if you’re offerin’ to make some…”
“Okay.”
While she slipped into the bathroom, Simon put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.
“Do you work on Sunday?” he prompted when she came out of the bathroom wearing a royal purple robe.
“I … uh … work … uh … every day.” Her eyes were locked onto his cock. The damn thing was hard, but that wasn’t saying much. He was hard whenever he thought about this woman. Being in the same room only made him harder.
“All day?”
“No.” She swallowed, shifting her eyes to his face. “Officially, the store’s open from noon to four. Since it’s only me, the town knows my hours may vary. Why?”
He grinned, shifting his gaze her way. “Just curious about you.”
“Ah. Well, if that’s all, I’m gonna make coffee.”
The teasing note in her voice made him want to grab her and haul her back into the bed. He could’ve spent the entire day there.
“What’s on your schedule today?” she asked as she opened the door and left the room.
“I need to do some research,” he called after her, sitting up. “And I need to call Archer and Paige.”
Violet reappeared in the doorway. “Are you gonna do the story?”
“I think so.” Now that he’d said it out loud, he realized how much he wanted to do it.
“So you’re goin’ back to Dallas?”
“Do youwantme to go back to Dallas?”
Her smile looked forced. “Of course not.”
She disappeared again.
Simon knew they had to talk about what this was. He hadn’t been concerned about how fast things were moving between them, but that was before she told him the story about her parents. He would have to tread lightly if he hoped for any chance of seeing where this might lead.
After he took a quick shower and got dressed, he joined Violet in the kitchen. She was busy making the cats their breakfast while the coffee was brewing. He waited until she set the bowls down for the cats before he said her name.
She didn’t look at him. “Hmm?”
So she wanted to play like that, huh?
“Come here, please.”
Again, she didn’t turn around. “The coffee’s almost done.”
“Violet.”
His tone was firm enough to attract Harry’s attention. He looked over, assessed, then went back to eating his breakfast.
