Page 24 of Hungry Like A Dragon
He smiled and patted her knee. “So what did you learn from Carlos tonight?”
Petra opened the internet browser on her laptop. She Googledantique shops royal streetand then pointed at the row of red dots on the map that came up on her screen. “I believe Gabe’s mother owns one of these shops.”
Noah contemplated the image for a few moments before saying, “Well, I guess we’d better call it a night. Looks like we have our work cut out for us tomorrow.”
Considering it was past midnight and Sadie generally woke by 5 a.m., it was a good suggestion. Except, where the hell was he supposed to sleep?
“Are you, er, planning to stay here?” she asked as she stood and stretched before heading over to extract Sadie from the swing so she could change her diaper and put her in her bassinet.
“Yeah, I hadn’t really thought that through. I can go find a hotel or something.”
He could also stay at Pacey’s place. Petra knew the human woman would welcome him with open arms. But Rebecca lived there, too, and the way she’d looked at Noah earlier… Well, Petra’s dragon was quite adamantly against that idea.
“Um, you don’t have to do that.”
He glanced at her small, secondhand couch. “So you don’t mind if I crash on your couch?”
She snorted. “It’s surprisingly comfortable but way too short for you. You’ll be miserable. You take the bed.”
She walked down the hall toward the bedroom. Noah followed.
“No way. I’m not kicking you out of your bed.”
“Hey, if you sleep in here, you get to wake up with Sadie. So trust me, it’s not that great of a deal.” She placed the baby on the changing table and proceeded to exchange her wet diaper for a fresh one.
“Damn, your bed is huge.”
“Yeah, I totally got a great deal by accident. I ordered a queen, but they shipped a king, and because it was their fault, they let me keep it.”
“Nice.”
She kissed the top of her baby’s downy head and placed her in the bassinet.
“Um…” She darted a glance at the bed. “We could, uh, share. If you want to.”
Holy smokes, why the hell had she offered up that option? Just being in the same room with the guy turned her dragon into a lust-crazed pussycat and her body into a puddle of liquid desire. She’d practically attacked him in that cemetery. No way could she handle sleeping in the same bed with him.
No. Way.
Noah ran his hand over his hair and then cupped the back of his neck. “I don’t know…”
“It’s huge.” She waved at the monstrosity of a bed. Her mind and her mouth were clearly not on the same wavelength. “Plenty of room for both of us, without even touching.” He still hesitated, and she didn’t let up. “Your other option is a couch that is half the length of your body. Your choice.”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
***
She was an idiot. Why did she think she’d be able to sleep with Noah lying next to her?
No, he didn’t snore. He wasn’t a bed hog, and he didn’t steal the covers. In fact, he was quite the polite sleeping companion, all things considered.
What he did do was exist. With that remarkably cut chest lying next to her, without a shirt to hide it from her view. In fact, all he was currently wearing was a pair of blue plaid boxer shorts. He’d apologized and offered to don more clothing, and she’d insisted he do whatever makes him comfortable.
They were friends, after all, right? Platonic co-parents. It was like having her closest gay friend sleep with her.
No, no it wasn’t. Not even close. She’d never once fantasized about Jeff, whereas she’d fantasized several times a day about Noah. Hell, she’d fantasized about him since he walked back into her life less than twenty-four hours ago.
She was definitely a woman with issues. And the biggest one was sound asleep next to her right now.
