Page 56 of Nothing to Tell

She wasn’t going to yield that easily.“What’s the shrug?”

“I’m an insomniac.”

Great, now she felt even worse.“You didn’t sleep?”

“I slept a little; it comes and goes.”

“You should’ve woken me,” she said, rounding the center island.

“What would you have done?”

“Bored you to sleep,” she said and smiled.“I’m a tongue twister expert.I know them all.It’s my party piece.”

Stealing a hunk of fruit from beside him, she popped it in her mouth just as he turned his smile her way.The unexpected whirr of the blender startled her, though not as much as the splatter of fruit that followed.

“Shit,” he mumbled as she squealed.

The grump complemented his frown.She, on the other hand, couldn’t hide her smile.It wasn’t like him to be out of sorts.

“Are you okay?”she asked, resting a hand on his bicep.

“Yeah, I… that sweet scent…”

When his attention dropped to her bare legs, she wiggled her lilac-frosted toenails.“Are you surprised I have legs?”

“Didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to see them.”

In relaxing him, she melted.“Your shorts wouldn’t stay up.Thanks for the tee-shirt.”

“Now I regret giving it to you,” Bastian said.“I might have got to see more of you if I kept it to myself.”

Being around him was so easy.Right there, she wouldn’t dwell on the show they put on for the outside world.This was a rare chance to chill and drop the pretense.

“We should clean this up,” she said, scooping some of the fruit goop from his arm then sucking it into her mouth.“This is good.”

“My secret recipe,” he said.“I thought you’d like it.”

“I do,” she said, wiping more from him and licking her finger again.

“It tastes like you smell,” he said, running a fingertip across her temple.“I use peaches with the berries now… because of you.”

Whatever was in the blender tasted good.Or maybe that was enhanced by its source.She picked up a lump of peach from his wrist and sucked it into her mouth.

In apparent response, he took a long backward step.

Enjoying the new treat, she’d missed the sterner angle of his brow and the tension rippling his shoulders.

Uh… “You okay?”

“Don’t do that.”

Yeah, she shouldn’t eat fruit straight from her exhausted host, that was kinda rude.

“I’m sorry, I—”

“Don’t apologize, just—”

“Tell me about Robyn.”