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He flashed a devilish smile that made her knees go gooey. “I have tea.”
He strode down the stairs and she watched him, trying to decide if it was okay to follow him in only her underwear while she enjoyed the way he looked from behind.
In the end, she opted not to overthink it. The idea of slipping into a pair of skinny jeans when she was this comfortable was as abhorrent as the idea of putting on a bra. They were adults and Flynn was far from a stranger. So, they’d kissed. So what? That didn’t mean he was going to shove her gruffly against a wall and feast on her neck and her nipples, while his hand moved insistently between her legs...
“Mercy,” she muttered, her hand over her throat as she came to a halt in the middle of the staircase.
“I know. The wide slats throw you off at first,” he called from his position behind the counter, reading her reaction incorrectly.
Her hand tightened on the railing as she completed her descent but not because she was afraid of falling. Flynn was a distracting sight, shirtless in his kitchen. She couldn’t see his boxers behind the counter, so for all her imagination knew he could be completely nude. And didn’t that introduce a fine visual? Especially after she’d felt the evidence of his arousal against her this evening.
They went about dishing out ice cream and preparing tea in a silent dance, both either too weary or too wary to speak. Once she had filled her cup with hot water and he’d topped his scoops off with chocolate chips, peanut butter and sliced almonds, they went to the living room, where they both angled for the same cushion on the sofa.
“Sorry.” She felt weirdly shy—something she’d never been around him.
“Ladies first. You’re the guest.” He pulled a blanket from the trunk that served as a coffee table. “In case you’re cold,” he explained. “But if you’re not, don’t cover up on my account.”
She playfully rolled her eyes, but there was a nip in the air of his cavernous apartment. She pulled the blanket over her lap as she sat and folded her legs beneath her.
Cupping her mug in both hands, she inhaled the spicy cinnamon scent of the tea and hummed happily. Regardless of the kiss or them being nearly naked and in close proximity to each other, she was happy here with him. Flynn had a way of making her life brighter and her day better. It was good to have him back in any capacity.
“Gage and Reid came to debrief me,” he said.
“They’re not allowed to do that! I told them any emergencies were to go to the management team or me.”
“They wouldn’t take issues to the management team instead of me if their lives depended on it. You know that.”
“I know. But I wanted you to have a real break. What’s it been, a week?”
“You deserve a real break, too, Sab.” His lingering gaze did a better job of warming her than the blanket. “Bethany in accounting is leaving for Washington Business Loans.”
“No!” She liked Bethany. “Why?”
“Reid said her fiancé works there and Bethany would like to work with him. Reid and Gage suggested offering her a pay raise and an extra week’s vacation not to leave, but they wanted to clear it with me first.”
“Oh. I guess that’s reasonable. But then why did they come over and ask in person?”
“My guess? They wanted to have beers and dig up dirt on you and me.”
The phrase “you and me” made them sound like a them. An idea as foreign as everything else that’d happened this week.
“I didn’t help,” she admitted. “I was obviously nervous. I talked too much. Ran away too quickly.”
Flynn palmed her knee and the heat of his touch infused her very being. “It’s not your fault, Sab. I told them about the kiss last week. They suspected more than that had happened after you dashed off to the shower. Don’t worry, I told them nothing.”
“Well. I guess it’s silly to pretend we’re doing something wrong.” That sentence was one she’d been testing out in her head and now that she’d said it out loud, it was sort of silly.
“If anything, what we’re doing feels scarily right.” He ate a spoonful of ice cream. “I’m not sure what that means, but I’m sure we should stop overanalyzing it.”
“Have you been analyzing it?”
“No. But you have. I can see it in your eyes. I’ll bet there’s a completed pros/cons list in that brain of yours.”
“Not true!”
He cocked his head patiently. And dammit if he wasn’t right.
“Fine. But I call it a plus/minus list, just so you know.”
“What’s in my plus column?” He asked that like he couldn’t think of a single reason why he’d be a plus.
“You’re my best friend,” she answered rather than recite his yummy physical attributes. “Ironically, that’s item number one in your minus column, too.”
