“He’s still on Scott Ranch,” he tells me, “But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t sent anyone this way. Right now, I don’t know if he knows where you are, so we play it safe.”
“Thank you.” I drop my eyes, watching my finger as it picks at a raw bit of skin on the side of my thumbnail.
“You don’t need to thank me,” he says softly, drawing my eyes back to him. I watch as he stands, making his way to the ensuite. He pauses on the threshold, “And you don’t need to apologize for falling asleep. I’d rather you sleep and I watch over you than you sit up all night alone.”
The door clicks closed behind him.
Watch me.
Did he watch over me last night?
My stomach does a weird little flip that has me running from the room. That’s some dangerous territory right there.
Heading straight for the kitchen, I get a pot of coffee brewing and then pull two mugs from the cupboard. I’ve been watching Silas fix his coffee every morning and can remember exactly how he likes it,so once the coffee is ready, I pour his cup and then fix my own. I have my mug cradled in my hands when he finally comes out of his bedroom, but my coffee goes down the wrong way when I see he’s in a pair of dark jeans andonlydark jeans. The button is open, showing the band of his boxers, and he’s rubbing a towel over his hair, a couple of water droplets clinging to his chest and shoulders.
I’ve seen muscles, obviously, but this is a whole new game. The ladder of his abs is so well defined they may as well be cut from stone, and a deep V carves his hips while a trail of dark hair travels from his navel and disappears beneath the band of his underwear. His skin is kissed by the sun, tanned, and the veins in his forearms pop out as his biceps flex while he towel-dries his hair.
I’m still sputtering, trying to come up for air when he reaches me, a frown pulling his stern brow down. The glasses are gone again, the gold of his eyes molten and swirling.
His hand pats me on the back, and I think I melt into an embarrassed puddle right in the middle of the kitchen floor. Death by abs. Not the worst way to go, I suppose.
I finally manage to catch my breath, placing my coffee down and step away from his hand, clutching my chest as I turn to face him. “Went down the wrong way.”
I cannot help but look again now he’s closer, tracing the ridges and valleys of his body, the way themuscles move at his ribcage, and the definition of the muscles around his shoulders, his collarbones sharp.
A strong throat, sharp jaw and a smirk that’s pulling on that perfectly delicious mouth of his. A smirk that wasn’t there just a moment ago.
My eyes bounce up to his, and he’s watching me intently. He clearly just saw me checking him out.
Dear God, take me now.
I feel the heat bloom in my cheeks, my scalp prickling, and that smirk turns to a teasing grin.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Honeybee?” His head cocks to the side and his eyes dip down me. I’m still in his pajama pants, the bottoms so long they’re covering my feet even though I’ve rolled the waistband several times to try to hike them up a little. The T-shirt is huge, hanging off one shoulder. It’s so far from sexy, but the way he’s looking at me is suggesting otherwise.
A both familiar and foreign feeling uncurls in my lower abdomen, making all my muscles pull tight as warmth begins to bloom. I haven’t felt this in a very long time.
“I’m good,” I squeak.
Those sharp canines appear when he smiles just a little wider, “You can look all you like.”
My breath catches.
“In fact, I think I quite like your eyes on me the way they just were.”
Is he… is he flirting with me?
He steps closer and his scent wraps around me, fresher now he’s showered and used the products that give him it. He’s so close, I feel the warmth of him press against me though no part of me is touching him.
“Silas,” his name is a breath that whispers from my lips, the urge to step into him almost too much to ignore.
A finger curls beneath my chin, and the rest of the world slips away. I feel my heart hammering in my chest, thumping so hard I can hear it pulsing in my ears. It would be so easy to get lost in him, to forget it all and pretend nothing else exists.
His eyes bounce from my eyes to my mouth and then back again, the smile slipping away as his throat works on a swallow. He leans, just a little bit closer, close enough his minty breath brushes across my lips.
He’s going to kiss me.
And I’m going to let him.
