Page 41 of Foreplay on Words

“You’re not going to run outside? It’s such a nice day.”

“I usually alternate days. I’ll run outside tomorrow.” I shrugged as I looked over at her. “Do you want to run with me in the morning?”

“You probably get up obnoxiously early, right?” she sighed knowingly.

“6:00 am is not that early.”

She pulled a face and shuddered. “It is when you don’t fall asleep till after midnight.”

“Maybe you need a good night’s sleep,” I teased.

“The bed at the B&B is comfortable. I slept like a baby last night,” she sighed.

“I’m betting my bed is nicer.” Especially with both of us in it...naked.

“Meh.” She shrugged her shoulders. “The mattress was kind of hard and lumpy.”

“I think you meant hard and chiseled. Since you used me as a mattress,” I teased, and her cheeks turned pink.

“You were warm.”

“You know...” I hedged, trying to keep my voice even. “I was thinking.”

“That’s scary.”

I ignored her and tried to keep going. “What if, in the interest of accessibility, you stayed here instead?”

“You want me to stay here because it would make me more accessible?”

Granted, it wasn’t the best formulation of my argument.

“What if one of us gets inspired in the middle of the night?” I argued. “Wouldn’t it be easier to write together if we could do it whenever we wanted?”

She seemed to be thinking it over.

“What’s in it for me?” she teased, but I could see her lip twitch.

“You get to look at my handsome face all day.” She valiantly tried to resist smiling as I batted my eyelashes at her.

“Eh. The view isn’t that great.” She shrugged, and I pinched her side as she laughed.

“I’ll cook your food?” I offered.

“If you throw in cooking while naked, then sold,” she giggled. She would not let this naked chef thing go, but the only thing I wanted to eat in the kitchen was her.

Chase

Connecticut

Apparently, Evan’s enthusiasm for my books had rubbed off on me. I couldn’t put down the tablet. I’d even turned down taking a shower with his sweaty post-run self to keep reading.

Kallie’s character had drawn me in, and I’d just gotten to the good part, where she met Detective Peter Raines for the first time after witnessing a murder. Of course, I wouldn’t stop when it’d gotten to a good part. He should have known a lady never puts down the book in the middle of a meet-cute, even if it happens over a corpse.

After Evan had taken a shower, he’d pried the tablet out of my hands so we could leave. He thoroughly teased me on the car ride to check out and get my luggage.

I would miss my little private sanctuary, but—even though I gave him a hard time—I was looking forward to cuddling up with him each night. Things were moving ridiculously quickly between us, but I didn’t want to step back either.

Even so, as we stood in the entryway of his house afterward, the enormity of what I’d agreed to hit me, and I stopped, letting the bag I was holding drop to the ground. Had I agreed to essentially move into the house of someone I’d met two days ago? Scenarios of how this could blow up in my face—and not in the fun way—started racing through my mind.

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