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“Right.” He took a deep breath. He wasn’t going to criticize her for not unpacking. It worked out right now, and he knew she wouldn’t respond well if he said something about it.
The maintenance woman walked back in, on her phone with someone, and she held up one finger to Rae and Brian as if asking them to wait. He took advantage of the opportunity to walk over and take the suitcase from Rae, who scowled at him and held on for a second before letting him take it. But she did let him take it, and a little surge of triumph went through him—which he did not let show on his face.
“Okay, so housekeeping has some people coming to clean up the water, but I’m definitely not going to be able to fix this today. We’ll be giving you a full refund, of course, and we’re so sorry about the inconvenience.” The woman rattled through the words almost as though she was reading off a list, her tone matter-of-fact rather than apologetic. “You’re going to be staying next door?”
“Yes.”
“Villa Forty-two,” Brian added helpfully, and the woman nodded.
“Great, they’ll probably send you some kind of apology basket or something. I’ll let them know where you’ll be.”
Rae took in a deep breath and let it out, sagging slightly as if the situation was now fully hitting home.
“Thank you. I appreciate your help.” Reaching up, Rae rubbed her forehead, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them again, drawing on her inner patience. It was fascinating to watch. Brian wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her exhibit this kind of patience. “Guess that means I’m at your place tonight. Can we not… tell everyone else?”
“Fine by me.” He didn’t feel like being teased for the rest of the week about Rae sleeping over, either.
“Great.”
“Great.” He held his hand out, gesturing in front of him for her to go ahead. Maintenance woman’s gaze bounced back and forth between them, like they were a complicated math equation she was trying to figure out.
If she came up with an answer, Brian hoped she would be open to sharing with the class.
6
Brian
Since they were trying to keep Rae moving into his place a secret from everyone else, they went out the back, crossing over the beach to get her from her villa to his. Because of the way the cul-de-sac curved on the street, this gave them the least chance of being seen, as long as no one was out on the beach. Thankfully, they weren’t. The coast was completely clear, literally.
“You can just set my suitcase down— Where are you going?” The exasperation in Rae’s voice was clear as he kept walking, ignoring her because they were in the main room. She was gesturing toward the couch, as though she really thought he was going to let her sleep there.
Absolutely not.
Maybe it was old-fashioned of him, but if he was in a situation with a woman he wasn’t sharing a bed with and there was only one bed, she was absolutely going to be the one sleeping in the bed.
“I’m going to the bedroom,” he answered, even though it should be obvious. Before he could tell her that she got the bed and he’d take the couch, she was already talking again.
“Oh, so that’s how it is, huh? You offered me a room, and I’m going to pay for it with my body?”
Well, that was interesting. She didn’t sound defensive at all. In fact, she sounded like she was… flirting.
Pausing in the bedroom doorway, Brian turned around to look at her, one corner of his mouth lifting up in a smile when he met her gaze. She was standing next to the couch, hands firmly planted on her hips. The sun filtered in through the window behind her, making her dress a lot more sheer than he’d realized, and he wondered if she knew that he could see right through the fabric.
“Yes,” he said, just to see how she would respond.
“What?” Her mouth popped open, eyes widening—not in horror, but in surprise and… was that interest?
“Yes, I’m offering you a place to stay. You should repay me.” He was enjoying her shock enough to keep the joke going. Although he was starting to feel like maybe he wasn’t really joking.
After all, she was the one who had brought it up, not him.
Really? You’re going to give her another chance? Again? Have you not learned your lesson yet?
It didn’t have to be another chance, though. He already knew things weren’t going to work out between them, that she didn’t want him. It wasn’t setting himself up for rejection if he wasn’t going to put himself out there.
But if she was going to be staying here tonight, maybe they could do one more night. Just for fun. Closure of a kind. One night and then goodbye.
And this is what we call thinking with your dick instead of your brain.
