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“For the time I thought you were with Theo,” I reply, just as candid as before.
The moment I say his name, I’m reminded I need to tell him about what happened between Thalia and me in the jacuzzi at the mountains. Not the details—he doesn’t need them—but the fact that I thought she was his girlfriend and touched her anyway. I owe him that much honesty.
She glares at me as she continues. “And then we started having sex and nothing else. Flirting, fighting, and sex. That pretty much sums up our ‘situation’ until… last night.”
“Yeah, until last night,” I confirm, amusement lingering in my voice. “How can you be so free and seductive every time we have sex, yet so guarded in a normal conversation with me?”
“Ethan, it’s the first time we’re naked and not having sex. The first time all your attention is on me, and I’m trying to hold back the urge to say or do something that would push it away from me,” she says, holding my gaze steadily, like trying to prove her point.
I’ve known it all along. Whenever she’s the center of my attention, she instinctively deflects, diverts, and avoids. That’s part of why I started teasing her, provoking her—and because she’s irresistible, and she doesn’t know it. Captivating from the first moment I saw her.
“You’re going to have to get used to this, Thalia,” I say, a crooked grin tugging at my lips, letting the irony hang in the air. Then I wink at her.
“Jesus,” she breathes, wide-eyed. “Who are you?”
I just watch her, letting the smile linger. I know exactly what’s coming—a stretch of time where she’ll be utterly stunned by my actions, and I’ll be endlessly entertained by her reactions. She’s only known me as serious, reserved, composed… even in bed, to a point. But now that I’ve decided to fully embrace whatever this is, she’s going to see me differently.
She rises, pulling the sheet around her as she leaves me exposed on the bed.
I stay still, studying her moves, one eyebrow lifted, a small, teasing smile playing at my lips. I’m reading her like an open book.
“You need to cover yourself with something,” she warns, her eyes darting anywhere but at me.
I remain unmoving. No intention of obeying.
“I can cover myself with you,” I offer, playful.
“Ethan,” she says, finally meeting my gaze, panic creeping into her voice. “You need to stop acting like this. Grumpy Ethan is normal. Playful Ethan? Oh my God, no. You’re far too charming, and I don’t like it at all.”
I smirk and close the distance between us, deliberately slow, watching her recoil instinctively until she reaches the bedroom door.
“No, no. We don’t have time to start anything,” she protests, panicked. “We have to be at work in an hour. Didn’t you ask us to work a Saturday a month?”
I raise my hands in mock surrender, halting a few steps away, observing her struggle with the sheet while trying to open the door.
“Fine, you escape this time,” I say. “But only because I have a critical meeting first thing, and we need to get there early.”
“We?” She asks, stunned, pivoting to face me fully.
“Yes,” I reply, flat and simple. “We. The two of us. You and me.”
“You think we’re going to the office together?”
“Of course. We’re leaving from the same place, aren’t we?” I gesture around the room, making my point.
“No,” she says, frowning seriously. “I thought you’d lent me a T-shirt and some pants so I could run home, shower, and get ready for work.”
I take two purposeful steps forward, snatch the sheet from her with a single hand, and pull it away. She resists briefly, but I tug it free effortlessly, leaving her completely exposed.
Fucking hell.
If she stays like this another second, work isn’t happening.
“Thalia,” I say, stepping closer. “You misunderstood. We’re showering here—separately, but simultaneously. You in one bathroom, me in another, so we can actually get to the office in time.”
She inhales sharply, about to argue, but I shake my head once. Her defiance falters.
“Then you pick whatever you want from my wardrobe while I get ready. After that, we swing by Theo’s so you can change, and then—together—we go to work.”
