Page 101 of Mr. Flirt

He put his hands on my shoulders and braced himself. “So, big question.”

“Let me have it.”

“I have a King bed in my room, or you can choose a guest room you’d rather stay in.”

“You mean by myself?”

He nodded with a glint in his eyes.

“I didn’t come all this way to stay in a bed by myself.”

Shep lit up and nodded. “I’m really good at keeping the bed warm. It’s like I was born to be a radiator.”

I nodded, remembering the first and only night we’d spent together. We hadn’t had sex, but we’d had an amazing time, and I did remember he was warm.

And naked.

“Do you sleep in pajamas?” I asked, wondering if that was a one-time deal.

“Sometimes. I certainly can, if you want.”

My cheeks warmed at the thought of him sleeping next to me in the nude, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my mouth that had taken over.

“I take that as a...” His voice trailed off.

“Well, I don’t want to put you out. You know. Whatever you feel most comfortable with,” I explained. “I mean, if you need to be in the buff, by all means...”

The way Shep looked at me made my world spin into a completely chaotic one where everything was tilted slightly, and I couldn’t count on myself to make smart and sound choices.

But being in front of him made that all okay. It suddenly didn’t matter if things were wonky in my world with Shep at the helm.

Because he somehow also made me feel like he’d protect me and shelter me from the chaos.

Basically, I was completely confused.

“Okay, so on to the rest of the house. The entrance to the house is actually here.” He pointed over to the right as I snuck next to him to see a vaulted ceiling with light pine timbers spanning the space and a rustic chandelier larger than his DeLorean dangling in the middle of the room.

“Beautiful,” I said softly, truly in awe.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen nice things before, and I certainly brought in a large income, but this type of elegance wasn’t something I’d ever been exposed to growing up. The moment my dad walked out on my mom, things went from tight to impossible. It was one of the driving forces behind wanting to provide a good living for myself and ensure that I could send Mae to college, which I’d managed to do.

But this felt... incredible.

Surreal.

“I’ll show you around the rest of the house later, but I had a chef come and prepare some dinner for us. There’s a steak salad in the fridge, along with some dessert. And there is a quiche waiting for us to pop into the oven in the morning.”

My jaw dropped. “Really? This feels like it’s straight out of a movie.”

Shep looked confused, and that’s when I realized that his parents’ divorce was very different from mine. We were in different leagues.

I suddenly felt self-conscious about being in awe.

Kind of foolish to think that my degree and profession could prepare me for this kind of world.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “We don’t have to eat if you’re not hungry.”

I bit my lip and let out a slow breath, feeling absolutely insecure for the first time in a very long time.

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