"Oh, no." Emma sat up in shock, pulling the sheet tighter around her naked body. "We did that with the curtains open?"
"It's just my backyard," he said with a playful smile. "The only person who might have seen us was Lucy."
"Hello, handsome!" came a cheerful voice from the speakers on the wall.
"Good night, Lucy," Chase said dismissively.
"Good night, handsome!"
There was a little blip as Lucy shut down again and Chase slid under the covers next to Emma, his body muscular and warm, his hand gently taking up space on her hip.
"I promise I won't stay all night, but I hope you don't mind if I stay for a little bit."
She smiled at him and brushed his hair away from his forehead. "You can stay all night if you want."
He leaned over and kissed her again, this time soft and warm, before taking his spot on the other pillow and closing his eyes.
"Good night, Emma."
"Good night, handsome."
His playful laugh at her joke was the last thing she heard before falling asleep next to Chase.
Chapter Fifteen
When he's in the middle of shooting a movie like the Project Lyonheart sequel, Chase usually sets aside time on Sundays to get a gym workout in, drink another gross green shake, and do things on his personal to-do list before getting back on set.
But sometimes he just needed to decompress and today was going to be one of those days after the convention. To be fair, there was something on his to-do list that he did plan to check off later: Emma Colton.
When he took on this assignment to spend money with Emma, he didn't expect to know that Emma's shampoo smelled like strawberries and her skin was soft and she liked to sleep with two pillows, which is why his head was propped up on the corner of just one of them right now.
This wasn't the first time he had woken up in the guest house instead of sleeping in his own bed, but none of those times included going to sleep next to a gorgeous woman, and definitely not a woman like Emma.
She stirred next to him in the bed, almost pushing him from his small perch on her second pillow, a teasing smile pulling at the corner of herlips as her leg casually ran along his.
"You know, you would be more attractive if you shared the pillows just a little bit."
Her eyes flew open as if she was stunned and just now realized that she was lying next to Chase and wearing his black t-shirt that she put on last night after their more enjoyable activities. But then she took a breath, using that beat to try and casually pull away from him.
"Leaving so soon?"
She turned to him sarcastically. "This is technically my place."
"This is technically my place," he replied.
"I'm paying rent."
"Yes, yes, at market rate so you can get credit for it or whatever," he said, waving his hand flippantly in the air. "Can you just come back here? I'm getting cold."
The tension in Emma's shoulders seemed to drain a bit as she rolled towards him again, pushing the extra pillow in his direction. It felt so good to be next to her in the same bed even if she wasn't totally convinced to pull herself closer to his body. It was fine. Her leg and sharing her pillows would have to do for now, but at some point he would convince her that he was worth getting closer to, both physically and emotionally.
Besides, he didn't mind her being on her own pillow because it gave him space to stretch his neck a bit and look at her from a bit farther away, taking in her dark hair and dark lashes and a few littlefreckles on her cheeks.
"You're staring," she said with a teasing smile.
He knew it and he wasn't going to hide it. He couldn't help himself. So instead, he reached over and tucked a few random strands of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering on her skin, tracing her neck and her shoulder. He took it as a good sign that she didn't pull away.
He tucked that hand under his pillow, his eyes still on Emma. "So what should we do today?"
