Page 16 of The Cuddle Clause
The curtains on the balcony doors were open, and Roman was outside.
Shirtless.
Doing burpees.
The sunlight hit him just so, highlighting every cut of muscle like the universe was playing a cruel joke on me. His back arched with each movement, and sweat shone on his skin. Roman’s hair was mussed in a way that I wanted to hate but couldn’t because he looked like the poster child for the Emotionally Available Lumberjack aesthetic.
I sat down and did my best not to gawk.
It didn’t work.
I knew ogling my roommate like a creeper was terribly wrong, but in my defense, he looked like he’d been sculpted from marble as the perfect example of the male body. Roman was the ultimate thirst trap. Some kind of ancient Greek god whose apartment listing I’d stumbled upon. His body moved like it was built to tempt and ruin.
I took a bite of my sandwich and chewed without tasting it, becauseof coursehe had to be stupid hot. The universe loved giving me things I couldn’t have.
He switched to push-ups, and good lord, I nearly drooled.
The veins in his arms flexed, muscles coiling and shifting with an elegance that had no business being legal. Heat coiled low in my belly before I could stop it. The involuntary, traitorous throb of attraction made me drop my sandwich back on the plate.
I shouldn’t have been thinking about him like this. I’d just gotten out of a relationship. Amessyone, at that. I was still licking my wounds, still doubting everything about myself—my worth, my desirability, whether I’d ever be enough for someone without reshaping myself entirely.
But none of that stopped the very vivid,veryunwholesome thought that drifted into my head, which involved him, the balcony railing, and fewer clothes.
The door slid open, and there he was, wiping his hands on a towel, breathing steadily like he hadn’t just made my ovaries riot. I tried to look away—I swear I did—but my gaze locked on him like it had a mind of its own. I swallowed. Hard.
There might have been drool.
He caught my eyes and—God help me—grinned. Subtle, slow, like he knew exactly what he was doing. Like he couldsmellthe heat in my face. Which, unfortunately, he probably could. My cheeks flamed. I straightened and bit into my sandwich to pretend I was chill. So chill. The chillest. A glacier of non-horniness.
He yanked the curtains shut, then walked past me, casual as ever.
“Making a smoothie,” he said. “Protein. Want one?”
His voice was rougher than usual, a little deeper from exertion. It rolled over me like warm honey and made my brain glitch.
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. I coughed once, cleared my throat, and tried again.
“No, thanks,” I managed, my voice a shade too high.
He nodded and turned to the blender.
I sat there, red-faced and flustered, wondering how I’d gone fromemotionally unavailable trainwrecktohorny roommate disasterin under ninety seconds.
After another hour of work,a loud knock at the front door startled me. Firm and fast, like the person on the other side hadexpectations.
I wiped my hands on my leggings and opened the door.
“You must be Maggie,” the woman said with a perfect, practiced smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She brushed past me like I was a decorative inconvenience.
She was stunning. She possessed the kind of beauty that made you feel like you had something stuck in your teeth: long, champagne-blonde hair that moved as if it had its own wind system, full lips glossed within an inch of their lives, an outfit that was somewhere betweenelegant brunchandmildly threatening boardroom energy. Her perfume hit me like a spell. Moonstone oil and vanilla. Expensive.
She paused in the middle of the living room, hands on her hips, and scanned the space with clinical precision.
“These weren’t here before,” she said, gesturing toward my stacks of books on the windowsill. “And that?” Her manicured finger jabbed toward my abstract painting above the couch. “That’s new.”
“Uh, yeah. It’s mine. I live here.”
Seraphina turned on me like I’d insulted her lineage. “HowdareRoman move another woman into this apartment when he still lovesme?”
