Page 49 of Puck You Very Much

“My feeling prefers to remain anonymous.”

“And I would rather have woken up alone.”

“Really? Judging by your reputation, you rarely wake up alone.”

“Yeah, but the women are usually with me in bed, not looming over me like a damn lamppost that’s about to take me out.”

“The lamppost comparison is apt because I’m so bright?” she guessed.

“No. It fits because you have nerves of steel and you seemed tall from down here. For once.”

She snorted even though the corners of her mouth threatened to break into a smile. “You deliberately overslept, Dax, just because you were due to be photographed in costume with your brother.”

He bolted upright and the blanket went sliding off his chest, an invitation to stare that she refused. “Costume?” he echoed, panic in his voice. “You never said anything about costumes!”

She shrugged. “Didn’t think it was important. Now, get up or we’ll be late.”

“I’m naked, Lucy.”

Heat flooded her body and gathered in her abdomen. He slept naked?Completely naked?

Oh God, if she’d known, she would have woken him from outside his bedroom.

“I don’t care,” she said with an easy air, sipping her coffee and carefully hiding her face, which was surely glowing the most dazzling shades of red by now. “Get up, take a shower, and brush your teeth. You smell like a whiskey barrel.”

“Bourbon,” he corrected. “It was vodka and then bourbon.”

She gave him a condescending look. “Do I look like I care?”

“No, but you seem to care that I’m naked,” he replied softly.

The depth-charge of his voice imploded all her senses, so that her lips burned from the memory of his kiss. Swiftly, she turned her face away. She was even worse at forgetting than she was at acting normal. “Are you still drunk? Where are you getting these ridiculous ideas?”

He answered with a deep chuckle. “We’ll have to school you on the lying thing a bit more. Okay, fine, I’ll get up, as long as you don’t have a problem with it and ourextremely professionalrelationship won’t suffer as a result. I have no issues with my body.”

In the next moment, he swung his legs out of bed.

A tiny and very unprofessional squeak escaped her lips. She might have known from his sheer confidence alone. If she looked like a Roman statue, she wouldn’t have a problem walking around naked in front of him either.

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t care,” he whispered.

“I don’t,” she insisted, swallowing.

“Then why did you close your eyes, Lucy?”

Oh. Had she closed her eyes? She hadn’t noticed for the highly detailed scene she was replaying in her head. “For privacy.”

“So says the woman who broke into my loft and greeted me from the chair next to my bed like a damn mafia boss,” he muttered, snorting.

Then she heard footfalls and a door click shut.

Relieved, she exhaled and opened her eyes. Okay, maybe she did care if Dax waltzed around naked after all. But he definitely hadn’t noticed. Right?

Sighing, she stood and strolled back to the kitchen nook. Dax’s loft consisted of a single, huge room divided into different areas. With one goal in mind, she hadn’t given the place a second glance. Now, hearing the shower running in the background, she investigated as though she had all the permission in the world.

With her coffee in her hand, she strolled through the room. It was tidy, but not spotless. A coat and a worn blanket lay tossed over the arm of the L-shaped, light-blue couch. On the live-edge wood coffee table, she saw an empty coffee mug on a coaster, a vase of artistically arranged dried flowers, and headphones plugged into an iPad. A plush yellow carpet occupied the space in front of a huge bookshelf, various plants were tucked away in the corners, and a few landscape paintings and photos hung on the walls.

She walked over to the photos and examined them. One showed a young, dark-haired woman in a graduation robe. She was smiling broadly, her arm wrapped around Dax’s waist, who was gazing down at her proudly. In another, three children were standing in front of a large, colorful carousel. There were two boys no older than ten with cotton candy in their hands, one dark-haired, the other blond. The dark-haired one – definitely Dax! – grinned broadly into the camera, showing the gaps in his teeth. The other’s face was hidden behind the huge stick of cotton candy he was handing to a little girl holding a stuffed rabbit in her arms. The girl’s delight was evident.

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