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  “Will you just…” He paused for a long time. “Be there when I get home? That’s all I’m asking of you.”

  “Yes.” She could at least do that much. She owed it to both of them to speak to him in person.

  “Thank you.” He sounded tired and relieved.

  Chapter 5

  Neil was too impatient to wait for the flight he had originally intended. He finished his job too late Saturday evening to catch a flight that night, but he was able to change his ticket and get on the first flight out Sunday morning.

  He knew Heather had worked Saturday night until late, so he wasn’t sure if she would be awake yet when he arrived. He smiled as he pulled into the garage. Her car was in there. He kind of liked that. Her car next to his. It was a silly thing, but it made him smile.

  He assumed she would have heard the garage door going up and then back down, but as he opened the door to the kitchen, he grinned, realizing why she hadn’t heard him.

  Heather had music playing. Loud enough to drown out the garage door. She was standing at the stove, flipping bacon—based on the scent in the air—swaying to the music.

  She had on a white tank top and navy cotton shorts, probably what she’d slept in.

  When he set his bag down, she spun around and screamed. She nearly stumbled backward and fell on her ass. “Jesus.”

  “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t see a single way to avoid scaring the hell out of you.” He rushed closer and steadied her, taking the spatula out of her hand before she dropped it.

  She was gasping for breath as she reached for her phone and stopped the music. “You’re early.” She jerked her gaze from him to look at their surroundings. “I haven’t even started cleaning up yet.”

  He chuckled as he turned off the burner and removed the bacon to set it on a paper towel. Seconds later, his attention was back on her. Damn, she looked so fucking amazing. Her brown curls were in a high loose bun, many of the tendrils loose around her face as if they refused to be contained.

  She had her palm over her chest, still breathing heavily.

  He wanted to pull her into his arms, hold her against him, and inhale her scent, but he settled for reaching for her hand instead and holding it loosely, stroking her knuckles. “I took an earlier flight.”

  “I see that.”

  “In retrospect, I should have told you.” He tried to grin.

  “It’s okay. You used up one of my nine lives, but I still have a few left.”

  He chuckled. Thank God she was making a joke of it. He glanced at the stove. “You were cooking. I’m starving. Can I join you?”

  “Of course. It’s your house, and most of the food is yours too. You shouldn’t have stocked the fridge for me. That was over the top.”

  He shrugged. “I should have paid you to stay here. It’s what normal people do when they ask someone to house sit.”

  “Normal people don’t get house sitters unless they have pets or at least one plant,” she pointed out. She turned toward the flowers on the table. “I kept the bouquet looking well. Whoever heard of flowers that lasted two weeks?”

  “They do look pretty good. See? I needed you.”

  She laughed. “You didn’t need the flowers.”

  He shrugged. “Sure, I did. They made you smile.”

  She glanced down at herself and then tugged her hand free and crossed her arms. “I should put more clothes on.”

  “You’re fine.” She was far more than fine. She was sexier than ever. Maybe he should let her put more clothes on. He could see the outline of her breasts and the points of her nipples. It took great strength not to stare at them.

  Neil pulled out a bar stool. “Sit. I’ll finish the cooking.”

  She climbed up and sat, but leaned on her elbows, keeping her arms in front of her, her posture telling him she knew her nipples were hard and showing through the top. “You might want to add more bacon.”

  He headed for the fridge, grabbed the bacon, and proceeded to follow her advice. The eggs were on the counter. So was the bread. So he popped two slices in the toaster.

  “How was your flight?” she asked.

  “Mine was fine. I should ask how yours was? Anything new?”

  She sighed. “You can’t even imagine. Every day something new happens. And the airline is keeping it all hush-hush. The only reason we flight attendants know is because we pass the information around like we’re playing telephone. Only I guess we literally are.” She chuckled.

  Neil frowned though. “What happened yesterday?”

  “One of the ticketing agents here in Dallas either didn’t get the memo to check all tags before putting them on suitcases, or she chose to ignore it. Pure bedlam. Baggage was backed up all over the place when dozens of pieces of luggage came out of the conveyor belt behind the scenes with a destination that didn’t match any flight.”

  “Seriously?” Neil flipped the bacon and then reached for the eggs. He held up the carton. “Fried?”

  “Yes, please. Hard. Just one.”

  “Got it. Anyway, didn’t that cause delays?”

  “Oh yeah. All of the flights were delayed yesterday, and I’m certain many of the customers arrived at their destinations without their luggage. It took quite a while to determine where the mislabeled tags originated from.”

  “Remind me not to fly Open Skies anytime soon,” he joked.

  “I don’t even want to fly with them. People are going to start complaining soon, and guess who’s going to be on the receiving end of their wrath?”

  Neil winced as he cracked three eggs into the pan. “No kidding. I don’t want your job either.” He pulled out the orange juice and filled two glasses, handing her one. “I assume you like OJ since the carton is half empty.”

  “Aren’t you astute,” she teased.

  “Oh yeah. Very.” He hoped she could hear his sarcasm.

  He noticed a nearly empty mug of coffee on the counter and lifted it. “Want a second cup?”

  She hopped down from the chair. “I can do that while you finish the eggs. You want one too?”

  “Yep. At least one. Might need two. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “Why did you change your ticket to such an early flight? You could have slept in and returned this afternoon.”

  He removed the eggs from the pan, turned off the burner, and faced her.

  She was leaning against the counter, one hip cocked out to the side, waiting for the first cup of coffee to brew.

  He considered what he should say for a few moments, stalling, and then reached up to toy with a stray curl hanging near her ear. It was all he would permit himself. He would have grabbed her hand, but she had her arms crossed, probably to cover her breasts again.

  “I wanted to see you,” he admitted. “Not for an hour this evening but for several hours all day.”

  She bit her lower lip as she stared at him. Finally, she released it and smiled. “I’m glad.”

  Thank Christ.

  On top of that, she slid closer to him, dropped her arms, and grabbed his shirt with her fists. When she tipped her head back and gave a tug, he closed the distance and lowered his lips to hers. There absolutely was a God.

  After waiting until she melted into the kiss, he set his hands on her lower back, pulled her against him, and licked the seam of her lips.

  She let him in, her tongue stroking his with the same eagerness he felt.

  They both flinched and finally parted when the toast popped up, the sound reverberating louder than usual in the quiet room.

  Heather giggled and backed up, pulling away from him to remove his cup of coffee and start another. Her cheeks were flushed.

  He couldn’t stop grinning at her. It took several seconds before he shook himself out of his daze and finished filling their plates.

  “How do you like your coffee?” she asked as if the air in the room hadn’t just shifted dramatically.

  “Black.” He headed for the table with their plates while she doctored
her cup with cream and sugar. When she joined him, she was no longer working so hard to cover her chest.

  “I really did intend to clean up before you got here.” She took a bite of bacon.

  “And I really don’t care if the house is clean.” He wasn’t kidding. He may have spent the last dozen years keeping his world fairly orderly as a holdover from his time in the Army, but in the grand scheme of things, did he give a shit if there was a plate sitting on the coffee table? Hell no.

  He knew for a fact he would never ever point out something like that to her. But it wouldn’t be hard. He wouldn’t point out a messy house to any grown adult. It wasn’t in his nature. Maybe he would ask a child to learn to do some chores, but his spouse? His partner? Never. He hadn’t ever asked Lacey to clean on his internal timetable. He simply wasn’t that kind of guy.

  Heather smiled. “At least your sister was kind enough to let me know about the bait and switch,” she joked.

  He groaned dramatically. “I still might have to kill her.”

  “It’s your own fault.” She pointed her fork at him. “You should never try to impress a woman like that. Makes it too hard to explain your usual sloppiness later.”

  He chuckled. “Plus, it backfired on me. If I’d known you would not only be unimpressed but it would actually stress you out, I would have left the place a mess.”

  When they finished eating, they dropped their plates in the sink, grabbed their coffee, and headed for the couch.

  Both of them laughed as they glanced back at the kitchen.

  Neil felt far more relaxed than he’d expected. “Perhaps in a battle of wills to determine which one of us could hold out the longest, we should declare a contest.”

  She giggled as she sat and tucked her feet under her. “Just let the dishes pile up in the kitchen all day until one of us can’t stand it and cracks under the pressure?”

  He twisted around to set his mug on the end table and then glanced around.

  “Are you looking for the coasters?”

  He shifted his gaze to hers to find her eyes dancing with laughter. “Uhhh…”

  She took a sip of coffee and shrugged. “I hid them.”

  He set his mug on the table and laughed. “Did you now?”

  She shrugged. “I was feeling like a rebel.”

  “I think I like it.” He looked around. “What else did you do?”

  “I guess you’ll find out over time.”

  On impulse, he reached for the space between the couch cushions, intent on jamming his hand down to see if she tucked any sexy garments under them.

  Heather lurched forward, grabbed his arm, and pulled it away. Her face was bright red. “Don’t do that.”

  He was smiling from ear to ear now. “Why not?” He grabbed her wrist with his other hand, pried her fingers off his, and then plunged his hand down between the cushions.

  “Neil…” she cried out. “You weren’t supposed to think of that for days.”

  He was laughing hard when his fingers hit lace. “As many times as we joked about it, why do you think I would wait days?” He pulled out the delicate lingerie and then groaned when he held it up.

  Heather jerked her hands back and covered her face.

  Neil swallowed and his cock grew harder than it had been all morning as he held up the sexy scrap of red lace. It was a thong. A thong this shy, quiet woman who didn’t date tucked in between his couch cushions as a joke.

  She finally reached out and snagged it from his fingers, sticking it behind her as if she were mortified. She kind of was.

  Neil slid closer to her and set his hand on her biceps. “I have one question.”

  She groaned, tipping her head back and not meeting his gaze.

  “Did you already own that and bring it here in your original suitcase, or did you buy it in the last two weeks to torture me?”

  She lifted her hand to cover her face. “Can the earth open up and swallow me whole now?”

  “Uh-uh. Answer me.”

  She lowered her gaze finally. “Does it matter?”

  “Yes.” He wasn’t sure why, but it did. It would tell him more about her. He wanted to know if his prissy, introverted house sitter was a jokester or secretly liked to feel sexy under her clothes.

  She scrunched up her face.

  He gave her a slow smile. “You already owned that, didn’t you?”

  “Maybe?”

  “One more question then.”

  Another groan.

  “Is there a matching bra?”

  She dropped her face forward and rested her forehead against his chest. “I’m mortified.”

  He chuckled as he smoothed his hand up to cup the back of her neck. “I’m not sure why. I think it’s hot.”

  “I don’t think I want you to think I’m so hot,” she told his chest.

  “Why the hell not?”

  She lifted her face. “I probably should have thought that through a bit more. It was impulsive.”

  “It was perfect.” He cupped her face now. “Impulsive is fun. You should do it more often.”

  She held his gaze for a long time, her breathing heavier. Finally, she murmured. “I’m not so impulsive that I’m going to sleep with you today, Neil.”

  “That’s okay. I didn’t expect you to. I don’t want you to feel pressured by me, ever. Not with regard to anything. Certainly not sex.” He released her face and scooted back a few inches, taking her hand instead. It was for his own self-preservation mostly.

  “Also, you should know that it won’t do you any good to get carried away thinking you should be prepared for someday eventually having sex with me and running out to buy a box of condoms because I’m allergic to latex.”

  Damn. They were discussing sex. He hadn’t expected this chat today. Nor had he bought a giant box of condoms. Though in retrospect, perhaps he should have thought of that.

  He cleared his throat. “Gotta be honest. I haven’t had sex in a hundred million years, so there’s not a condom in this house. Not even in my wallet. If I’d been thinking, I might have stopped to buy some. Just in case.”

  She giggled. “A hundred million years?”

  He shrugged. “Seems like it. Five years. A hundred million. Same difference.” He hadn’t admitted that to a single soul.

  Her chest rose and fell while she stared at him.

  He lifted his brows and forced a crooked smile. “Don’t look at me like I’m an alien. Not all men need to have sex with every woman that passes them just to fulfill some sort of urge. I haven’t dated. I haven’t had sex. It’s simple.”

  She looked away, blushing again. “Sorry. I’m not judging you. I’m…impressed actually. That’s kind of… It’s fucking hot, Neil.”

  He swallowed hard. This woman never ceased to amaze him.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been as turned on as I am right now,” she declared.

  Neil’s eyes bugged out before he could stop them. His damn cock was in pain.

  Heather yanked her hand out of his and scooted back as far as she could into the corner. She white-knuckled the back of the couch, her other hand fisted in her lap. Her nipples were hard points tormenting him against her thin cotton shirt. If only it weren’t so tight and revealing.

  “Take a breath. I’m not going to pounce on you,” he said.

  “Wow. This went there in a hurry.”

  He forced a chuckle. “Gotta admit, I didn’t see it coming. You continually shock me.” He grinned. “So, when I go to the store, I should get non-latex condoms?”

  She shook her head.

  His heart fell.

  “Won’t need them. I’ve been getting birth control shots for years. If and when we add benefits to this odd friendship, I gotta assume we’re both as clean as two humans can get since the last person I had sex with was Hawke three years ago and you’ve got me beat. And after letting that asshole inside me, even though we used condoms, I got tested. Twice.”

  “I can beat you on that too. I’ve bee
n tested many times.”

  She frowned. “Why? I thought she was your high school girlfriend.”

  “Yep. And I didn’t leave her because she was verbally abusive. If that were the only issue, I would probably still be married to her, and she’d still be screaming at me. I left her because when I came home from Germany a few hours earlier than she expected, I found her fucking another man in our bed.”

  Heather winced.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so blunt.” He shuddered.

  “It’s okay. Blunt was about the only option. I’m sorry. That must have sucked.”

  “Yep. I had just lost my dream job, I’d had two surgeries no one was certain would work at all, and I had an eye patch. I was exhausted and supposed to be taking it easy. Blowing every blood vessel in my head hadn’t been the plan. So, yeah. I was livid, so pissed that all I did was turn around and walk back out the front door. I drove to a hotel, climbed into bed, and slept for two days.”

  “Yikes. What did she do?”

  He shrugged. “No idea. I truly didn’t give a single fuck at that point. It was actually a relief. The last straw. I was done. Nothing left to consider. God knows how many men she slept with during our marriage. I never asked. I just assumed the worst and got tested every month for about a year before I could breathe easily.”

  “Shit. Did you eventually come home then?”

  He shook his head. “No. I got a lawyer, filed for divorce, and had her served without even speaking to her. I even changed my phone number so she couldn’t contact me.”

  “Good for you.”

  “I wish I could say she hadn’t damaged me, but clearly she did. I swore off women and never looked back. Insisted I would never marry again. One and done.”

  Neil stared at the most amazing woman he’d ever fallen for. Finally, he swallowed. “And now, here I am, backtracking. An amazing woman, perhaps as equally broken as me, is sitting in my home wearing so little clothing that my cock is about to burst out of my jeans.”

  She pursed her lips, but didn’t move to cover herself. Her one hand was still gripping the back of the couch. The other was still fisted in her lap.

  “I was wrong. I don’t know what kind of bets the guys at work have placed concerning me in the last year, but they’re going to have to pay up because I’m whipped.” If he was saying too much, tough. She needed to hear this.