Page 4 of Falling for Them

Only I was, and I had been since the moment I laid eyes on him. I’d been able to suppress my attraction because I’d had a boyfriend, but now that I was single? All bets were off, but I at least had to try to keep him in the no-box I’d placed around him.

“Don’t get your panties in a knot, princess. I’ll be gone by Friday.” Princess? That was a good reason to stir up enough animosity to keep my distance.

He held out his hand to help me up, and I begrudgingly took it, keeping my other arm firmly plastered across my chest.

“Let’s forget this ever happened, okay?” I looked past him toward the hallway. “I should um… get my stuff in the dryer and get to bed.”

He winced and sucked in a breath through his teeth. “About that...”

“Shit. Ryker said he left the washer and dryer. He took them, didn’t he?” My brother wasn’t always the best at communicating, and with him being so busy running his marketing company and getting the foundation up and running, he forgot to tell me important details.

Like the fact that Leo was staying in the condo.

“I wasn’t talking about the washer and dryer; he didn’t take them.” Leo’s eyes dropped to my arm over my chest and thenfarther down before he stared down at my bag. “Why are you wet?”

It took me longer than I would have liked to realize what he was talking about. Maybe it was a good thing I hadn’t brought a book to read on the train since, clearly, my brain was already in Smut City. “Because it rained? I didn’t just find a pool to fall into on the way here.” I almost addedor lube, but Leo and I weren’t on that level of joking yet and probably never would be.

He ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll get you a shirt and shorts.”

Before I could protest that I would not be wearing his clothes, he was headed down the hall, his toned ass looking bitable in his tighty-whities. I decided to blame my lapse in judgment on my tiredness.

I rolled my eyes and busied myself getting the damp clothes out of my bag. Not all of them were wet, but I had packed them by what order I’d wear them, so my sleepwear and clothes for tomorrow were damp.

Glancing back down the hall, I bit my lip. Not once since Ryker announced that Leo would be the executive director of the foundation had I looked at Leo like I wanted to pounce. Yes, he was attractive, but now that I had nothing stopping me from acting, it was like trying to keep a cat away from a can of tuna.

Maybe I needed to get a cat and embrace my inner cat lady to help the situation that was barreling toward me. I was going to have to work with this man every day for the foreseeable future.

If I focused on his flaws, that would help. He’d always rubbed me the wrong way when it came to the foundation and there hadn’t been much we’d agreed on so far. He was also a billionaire who had no clue what it was like to struggle financially. He was so far out of touch with reality that I didn’t know what my brother was thinking when he brought him on to run everything. I mean, the man had a yacht. Enough said.

Leo came out of the guest room, his bottom half now covered in pajama pants. There was no hope of containing my giggle when I saw what was printed on them as he got closer. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Leo held out a shirt and shorts to me. “I know they’re going to swallow you whole, but all of my spare women’s clothes are in my penthouse.”

That abruptly ended my giggle. Was he that much of a man whore that he had a lost and found for clothing his conquests left behind?

I snatched the clothes away and held them against my chest. “I was laughing at your Ninja Turtle pajamas.”

He looked down, smoothing his hands over his thighs. “Paige got them for me. She thinks it’s hilarious my name is Leonardo.”

Paige was my brother’s girlfriend and the woman I owed a whole hell of a lot to. If she hadn’t come into Ryker’s life, I don’t think he would have ever confronted what happened to us when we were younger and the impact it still had on him. It was why I was now moving to New York to help with the foundation and the community center being built where we’d grown up.

“Well, um...” I looked past Leo instead of at the turtle head right in the center of his bulge. “I should go put these on. I’m tired.”

“About that. That’s what I was trying to tell you.” He cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him. “There’s only one bed.”

“Excuse me?” Had I heard him correctly? “What do you mean there’s only one bed?”

I looked into the living room. No couch. I could have sworn Ryker said he left the couch, and it had been there the last time I stayed.

“There’s just the one in the guest bedroom. I didn’t bother moving my bed down here.” Leo shrugged as if a one-bed situation was a completely normal occurrence for him.

“What happened to the couch?” I’d really liked that couch too, damn it.

He shrugged and scratched his stomach as he looked down the hall before looking back at me. “Is this really that big of a deal?”

“We aren’t sharing a bed. This ismycondo.” I didn’t want to argue with him practically naked, so with my back to him, I pulled his shirt on. It was soft and smelled like him. What had he done, rubbed it all over himself?

“Your condo? I didn’t know a teacher could afford a multi-million dollar-” His words died on his lips as I turned around. His jaw flexed as his eyes slowly moved down my body. He was looking at me like I was a juicy piece of steak and he was starving.