Page 95 of Five Alarm Kiss

He smirked. “You know I’m just gonna throw them in the hamper, right?”

“This is really good,” she said after swallowing. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” His smirk turned into a full-fledged smile. “And you’re totally avoiding.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her innocent expression was cute as fuck.

“Uh-huh.” He’d noticed her slight OCD tendencies before, and how it bugged her to have things messy or out of place. It was a quirky little part of her that made her who she was. And he really liked who she was. “Are you done?”

When she nodded, he lifted the breakfast tray so she was no longer locked in.

“Then, go take a shower before I keep you in bed all morning.” Damn, he wanted to keep her in bed all morning, but they had an appointment. “There’re fresh towels in thecupboard. You’ve only got forty minutes because we have someplace to be.”

“We do?” she asked.

Unfortunately.

“We do,” he confirmed.

She studied him, trying to figure out what he was hiding, but he had a damn good poker face. She could look all she wanted, but he wasn’t giving up anything.

Apparently reaching the same conclusion, she climbed out of bed and hiked a brow. “I can do it in twenty,” she informed him saucily as she turned to leave. She’d only taken one step toward the bathroom before she pivoted back around and pulled the washcloth from the vase on the tray. “I might need this,” she said with a flirty little smile.

As those toned legs and sweet ass disappeared into the bathroom, a song popped into Jake’s head that could’ve been written for this exact moment because… he hated to see her go, but damn, he loved watching her leave.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Where are we going?” Laurel asked from the passenger seat of Jake’s Jeep. He was taking her somewhere, but had yet to tell her where.

She’d felt both awkward and comfortable taking a shower at his house, which made no sense at all. Even though showering at a guy’s house wasn’t something she usually did, it wasn’t like Jake hadn’t seen her naked. He’d done—holy cranberries, the things he’d done to her!Just thinking about last night made her simultaneously blush and crave more.

But, since she couldn’t go to her apartment to clean up, and she definitely wasn’t ready for Britt’s interrogation, Jake’s shower it was.

He’d put her clothes into the washer while she was in the shower and laid out one of his T-shirts and a pair of shorts for her to wear. Thankfully, the shorts had a drawstring, or they never would’ve stayed up. Wearing his clothes while she’d waited for hers had been a small slice of torture. It had made it too easy to think of them as a couple, which they weren’t. Were they?

Since he’d only washed her garments, the load hadn’t taken long to dry.

Pulls out chairs, helps a lady with her coat, loves his grandma, and does laundry?

She didn’t know what to think. So much about him had been unexpected. Amy had labeled him a player from day one, yet he kept contradicting that stereotype. Jake Lockwood was a nice guy, she realized. A really nice, decent guy.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Jake said.

“Why won’t you tell me where we’re going?” she asked. “I don’t like surprises.”

“I call bullshit. You liked my last surprise.”

Laurel thought back to the wild horses. She couldn’t deny it’d been the best surprise ever.

“Okay, the horses were amazing, I’ll give you that, but can’t I even get a hint?”

“One hint,” Jake relented. “Number ten.”

“What?”

“Number ten on your list.”

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