I snorted.“Yes, that ought to give it away.”
Kai stepped closer, slipping an arm around my waist and pulling me in to him.“Are you beginning to regret not asking for the room with the twin beds?”
Carefully, I traced the pad of my thumb across his cheekbone.“Maybe adjoining rooms, we wouldn’t want it to look scandalous.”
He nodded, then dipped his head in close until his lips just brushed against mine.Instinctively I found myself leaning into him, trying to follow his mouth with my own.
Strong fingers, kneading up my spine.My body shuddered, as Kai’s hands slipped down from my shoulder-blades to the small of my back, then worked their way up again.“You only have to do that for two hours more,” I told him, my eyes closed.Heard him chuckle.
“Are you tired?”he purred next to my ear.I felt his smile twist, at my grunted yes.“Has it been a terribly long day for you?”
I made a breathy uh-huh noise in my throat, too caught up in the sensations of his impromptu massage to find real words.
Only to be jolted out of it rudely by a slap on my ass.
“In that case you should brush your teeth, then, so we can go to bed.”
I flinched away, feeling outraged; glared at the look of amusement on his grinning face.
“I don’t know if this is what they taught you at military boot-camp, but out here in the real world it would be considered kinda rude,” I scolded, as I pushed past him and into the bathroom.
“I didn’t go to military boot-camp,” he replied, volume increasing as I closed the door in his face.
“Well you should have!”I shouted back, pointedly.Then grumbled to myself over the sound of him laughing.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed when I opened the door again, stripped down to his briefs.Black against his tan.I’d been ready to continue our playful bickering, but the sight of him undressed pushed any thought of that out of my mind.
“That was quick,” he observed.
I shrugged in reply.“I’ve brushed my teeth before, this wasn’t my first time.”
Kai grinned.“Such wisdom and experience.”
I gave him a big, toothy smile.“Yeah,” I added, “I’m kinda a big deal when it comes to mouth stuff.”
His grin became a smirk.“That’s one of the things I like about you.”
Shaking my head in mock-dismay, I started to pull off my tie and unbutton my shirt.I could see Kai watching me in the mirror.
“Aren’t you going to brush your teeth, then?”
He shrugged.“The view is better here.”
I pushed the shirt down my shoulders and pulled it off, then began unbuckling my belt.“The view in here will very soon be one of me in bed.Which you’d be very welcome to join, if only you weren’t procrastinating right now.”
Sighing, he pushed himself up.“Fine, fine.But try not to fall asleep before I’m out, okay?”
Pointedly, I glanced at my watch.“It’s a ticking countdown,” I warned.Then laughed as he dashed into the bathroom.
We’d joked about it, but the thought of actually sleeping in the same bed as Kai - falling asleep, not sleeping together - felt like a milestone.It’d been a good while since I’d been bedmates with another guy, and frankly that hadn’t been the most comfortable of situations as things with my ex deteriorated.Toward the end of the relationship I’d usually finish up the inevitable bottle of wine and then be asleep by ten, eleven at the latest.He’d half-wake me as he crawled in at two or three in the morning, and then I’d be out to work before his alarm went off the next day.
It was a routine, but one that seemed more about making sharing a bedroom manageable when it was with someone you didn’t particularly look forward to seeing any more.Kai wasn’t my ex, of course, but just the idea of having someone else alongside me was making my palms itch.
Then there were the practical considerations.Which side of the bed did he prefer to sleep on, for a start?Hanging my pants over the back of a chair, I decided I’d just take the side I usually would have, and rely on the fact that Kai was probably too nice to actually say anything about it.
“You’re still awake,” he observed when he clicked off the bathroom light a few minutes later.
I looked up from my phone.“Forced myself, just to be polite,” I told him.
