Page 110 of Leashed

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Sage reached across the bed, her hand grasping at a body that wasn’t there. She opened her eyes and sat up, listening for signs of Bo in the shower as she called out for him. When she was met with silence, she picked up her phone to check her messages.

Needed pre-breakfast breakfast. Will return with food and coffee xo

With how much pizza she’d watched him consume the night before, she was shocked there was still room under his taut abs for anything else.

Of course, he’d worked off a lot of calories once she’d given him the go-ahead to pillage her.

And pillage, he had.

She walked to the shower on wobbly legs, unsure how she’d make it through another full day at the museum. She was almost through rinsing her hair when she heard a low growl outside the door.

“You’re naked in there, aren’t you?”

Biting her lip, she squeezed the excess water from her hair and turned off the shower. “Completely.”

“Well then come on,” he called out. “Let me in!”

Wrapping a towel around herself, she opened the door to see him kicking his shoes off, his shirt already halfway over his head. “First, coffee.”

Coffee time with Bo was definitely on her top five list of favorite things. And had been for a lot longer than she had been able to admit until a few scant days ago. Today was no different as she sat cross-legged on the bed rattling off the collections they would be seeing later, glancing up from the pamphlet periodically to see him staring at her hungrily, full coffee in hand and jeans lying in a heap in the corner of the room.

He might be sex on a stick, but the way his eyes raked over her had her feeling like she just might be able to keep up.

And it was more than a little intoxicating.

Setting her coffee on the bedside table, she gave him her sternest look. “We’re leaving in forty-five minutes. Make it count.”

*

Bo kept oneeye on the velvet ropes while Sage spoke with one of the museum curators about the online courses he offered during the summer.

As the event in the room drew to a close, he became more and more anxious, his palms sweating enough he was certain there were wet handprints running down the length of the black pants he had on.

Two pairs of dress pants had seemed a little stupid when he’d grabbed them, but the pizza sauce on the first pair made him grateful he’d listened to Sage and picked up a second.

And, lucky for him, the black button-down he had on today had a little more give in the throat.

Lucky, because he was very close to fainting.

The velvet ropes were finally unhooked and he glanced at her to ensure she was too distracted to see him leave. He waited as the guests poured out and began milling through the rest of the exhibit, their numbers creating an effective veil for him as he slipped into the room and walked straight to the one guy he’d been itching to speak with.

Five minutes, one crumpled license, and three hundred dollars later, he was back at Sage’s side, waiting impatiently for her to be released from the curator’s long-winded speech.

“Hey,” he whispered into her ear. “I need to talk to you.”

She instantly looked him over, worry on her beautiful face. “Are you okay? Do you need water? Baby, you look flushed.”

He grabbed her hand and led her to the back of the crowded room, hoping she didn’t notice how clammy his palms were. “I’m good,” he replied. “Really good. I just…uh…”

Pausing to tuck his hair behind his ears and gather his thoughts, he looked around the gallery at the hordes of people completely ignoring them.

Hot damn, this was terrifying.

“So, I really fucking like you,” he opened, his heart pounding in his ears loud enough he was sure she could hear it. “Really freaking like. Like you enough that it’s, like, more than that.”

She blinked a few times and slowly brought her wrist up to his forehead. “Maybe we should get you outside for some air.”

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