Page 59 of Roommate Wars
I pressed my lips together and checked the homemade baked fries I’d prepared, distracting myself. He’d bought me something—without my asking. Without my even pointing out that I liked it. He just noticed that I did and got me more.
This was a slippery slope, and it was already too late because I’d fallen half in love with him.
“When will food be ready?” he asked, running a hand through damp, wavy locks.
“Soon,” I said, my voice shaky. I was suddenly incredibly nervous. When had I started to fall in love with Jack?
“I’m taking a shower.” He headed toward the hallway. His haggard T-shirt was thin from overuse and giving me an indecent view of his back muscles. So now I had the visual of his body through his tee and the knowledge he was getting naked in a minute. Not to mention the falling in love part. I’d never been in love; why’d it have to be with Jack?
He returned to the living room a few minutes later, showered, shaved, and with a newer T-shirt that didn’t hug the muscles as much as the ratty one. I’d complained last night about his tee needing to be thrown out because it was too old. Now I saw the benefit of the thin ones.
I leaned over the dining table and set a pink peony inside a glass I’d filled with water.
He glanced at the place settings with blue cloth napkins I’d found buried in a kitchen drawer. I’d bet money Jack had never used those in his life. “Flowers?” he said. “To what do I owe this effort?”
“I owed you.” I straightened a napkin nervously. “For last night.”
He hunted in an upper kitchen cabinet. “You don’t owe me anything.” Then he glanced over with a wink. “I liked having you in my bed. You’re a cuddler.”
I covered my face, which had heated to a thousand degrees. “How embarrassing.”
“Like I said, I enjoyed it.” His lusty gaze shifted to one of annoyance. “Until you left without saying goodbye.”
My mouth parted. “But I left a note. Didn’t you get it?”
“I found it.” He set what looked like a very expensive bottle of red wine on the table, then rummaged around in a drawer and pulled out a corkscrew. But not the cheap type. This one was black matte with a polished wooden handle that worked like a crank.
He placed the corkscrew on top of the bottle, pushed down, then pulled up, and in one smooth move the cork was out.
The cheapo corkscrews I used would have left cork floaties, but the wine he poured into a glass was floatie free and looking delicious.
“Note or no note,” he said, “I would have preferred to find you there.”
I looked up to him staring, sending some sort of message my lady bits immediately interpreted even if my brain was slow.
My nervous system popped like uncorked champagne, and I set a bowl of sautéed brussels sprouts and bacon on the table, attempting to keep my hands steady. “But this is a platonic dating thing.” I might be falling in love, but that didn’t eliminate the potential combustibility of dating Jack long term. He was head and shoulders above anyone I’d been with, and he was Max’s best friend. There’d be no escaping him if things went south.
He chuckled, the sound deep and rumbly. “It’s not platonic.” He made his way to the table and set the glass of wine down.
The wine, his words… Was he trying to seduce me?
I’d been seduced by his sweaty body and holey T-shirts. What would happen if this man actually tried?
It would be all over.
“Jackson, you said this relationship wasn’t physical.” I was scrambling at this point.
He lowered himself into one of the four chairs at the table. “It isn’t. But if we decide to mix pleasure with business, even better.”
“So this was always for sex?” I was pretty sure it wasn’t, but desperate times and all that. Not like I hadn’t just been fantasizing about his naked body.
He leaned forward, arms braced on the table, a tinge of atypical anger flaring behind his eyes. “You know it isn’t only sex between us.”
He was right. We’d agreed to date for practical reasons, butI’dagreed to see if all that initial attraction was fleeting. Only the spark hadn’t fizzled. Not one bit.
I liked Jack a lot. And things were about to get hot. Because I was starting to think Jack might want me as much as I wanted him.
ChapterTwenty-Five
