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“I don’t think that will be a problem,” he said. “I just have these couple of bags. They won’t take up much space.”
“Good. I’ve not got a lot of space. I don’t usually need it,” she joked, gesturing down at herself, indicating her diminutive height.
“I’ve kind of got the opposite problem,” he attempted to joke back, before realizing what it sounded like he was boasting about and regretting his words immediately. Her cheeks flamed as she looked up at him, and he felt a thrill at the way she was so clearly affected by him.
They stood in silence for a moment, both staring at each other. Kate’s tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip and his breath caught. The room was so small, it would only take a step and he’d be able to kiss her…
“Okay, well, I really need to take a shower. It’s been a long day,” she said. “I’ll let you get settled and then we can order some food for dinner?”
Emile shook himself out of his reverie. What was he thinking? He couldn’t kiss Kate. Certainly not out of nowhere. Even if her big blue eyes blinking up at him made him think that she maybe wanted him to.
“Sure. I’ll get unpacking.”
Unpacking, it turned out, didn’t take all that long. He’d never had to do it for himself before, he mused, as he put things on hangers and shoved things into drawers. He hadn’t bought a lot of stuff with him — he’d grabbed as much as he could fit in a few bags and left the rest. Maybe regular life wasn’t going to be so difficult, after all. He’d managed to find somewhere to live and somewhere to work within the first day… surely the only way was up?
As he was folding the last of his things, he heard the shower sound up. It was so loud, it sounded like it was in his room; he’d never had a bedroom where the bathroom was in such close proximity to the bed. They really were going to be in close quarters here.
He kicked off his shoes and lay down, trying to stop his thoughts from drifting to what was happening on the other side of the clearly thin wall. He really did try. But he was even less successful than when he’d been trying not to stare at her ass. Kate was naked on the other side of that wall. Naked and wet and probably lathering herself up…
Regular life might be easier than expected, Emile thought as he adjusted his now hard cock in his pants, but controlling himself around his new roommate and boss was definitely not going to be.
CHAPTER8
KATE
Kate felt as though she’d barely blinked her eyes closed before her alarm was blaring again. Groggy, she stumbled out of her room in search of coffee, and was startled to find Emile sitting on the couch, eating a bowl of cereal.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you,” he said.
“No, it’s not your fault. I’m just not really used to having anyone else here, and I’ve not had any caffeine yet this morning. My brain is going to take a minute to start functioning.”
“Understandable. I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself?”
“No, no, of course not. You’re up early.”
“Jet lag.” He shrugged. Today, he was wearing a pair of simple blue jeans and a white T-shirt. An outfit that would have looked dull on anyone else, but he looked as though he’d just walked off a catwalk.
“Ah.” Kate pretended to understand what he was saying. She’d figured that with his accent, he wasn’t from Arizona, but it was news to her that he’d only arrived in the country recently. They’d shared takeout pizza last night, but they hadn’t really dug into any personal details. Kate didn’t want him to think that she was being nosy, so they’d stuck to discussing the layout of town and Kate had entertained him with some anecdotes from some of her more colorful customers.
“And, I’m obviously keen to start my brilliant new job.” He gave her a wink. She wished he wouldn’t do that. It was very distracting when you were trying to make coffee and wake up in the morning.
“Flattery will get you everywhere.” Kate busied herself with the coffee. Her savior and her refuge.
“Duly noted,” came the wry reply from Emile, who seemed to be studying her as he ate.
It wasn’t long before they were downstairs; Kate had taken the executive decision to show him the ropes well before the cafe was due to open, so they wouldn’t be disturbed. She wanted to give him a head start before the customers started poking their nose into his business, which she predicted would inevitably happen about five minutes after the doors opened. If they waited that long.
“This one’s yours.” Kate handed him a spare apron with the cafe logo on, and tied her own around her back.
“Huh, I’ve never worn one of these before,” Emile said, as he hooked it over his head. How did he manage to make even that look catwalk-ready?
“What, never?” Kate was incredulous. She lived in her apron and couldn’t imagine a life where one wasn’t needed.
“I guess I’ve never needed to until now. I’m honored that yours is my first.”
It quickly became apparent that he wasn’t lying about never having needed to wear an apron. As Kate began to show him the menu and the layout of the cafe, explaining her processes and how the day usually ran, Emile was engaged but his questions made it seem as if he’d never worked a day in his life. She found herself explaining things almost as if he was a child; she didn’t want to patronize him, but he genuinely didn’t seem to mind how simplistic her explanations were — he nodded along enthusiastically.
“Okay, so when we’ve brought the plates back to the kitchen, you just need to scrape them into the bin over here and then load them into the dishwasher. If we’re busy, I tend to do them by hand, just to keep things moving.”
