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“You haven’t spent more than five minutes in the same space as him. He’s not exactly what I’d expect from anangel.”
Her expression darkened. “Did he do something?”
“No! Nothing besides being rude anyway.”
“This is an opportunity, Sierra. God literally dropped a guy in your lap. A really tall, beautiful guy with one of the best backs I’ve ever seen. And I’m not even a back person.”
“I’m not sleeping with my bodyguard. He’s rude and infuriating and has made it clear I’m a job to him—one I don’t think he wanted.”
“Whether he wanted the job or not, you two are stuck together. You might as well enjoy it.”
“All right, that’s enough talking about this. I want to hear aboutyourdate.”
* * *
I wokeup to the smell of pancakes. The clock beside my bed claimed it was nine a.m. I had an hour and a half before I had to leave. Resisting the urge to burrow deeper under the covers—ninety percent due to the smells of breakfast—I dragged myself out of bed and padded into the kitchen.
I stopped dead at the sight that greeted me.
Nathaniel was standing over my stove, flipping pancakes. He was shirtless, wearing a pair of gray sweatpants tucked into combat boots, and his hair was a disheveled mess. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him as he stood in my kitchen like he’d been there a hundred times before. Like he belonged.
After a couple of minutes, he spoke, still without looking away from the food he was making. “Are you going to have breakfast, or was your plan to stand there gawking all morning?”
“What are you doing?”
“Making food. I thought that part was obvious.”
“But why?”
He finally looked in my direction, and the look he gave me implied he thought I had the intelligence of a rock. “Because I’m not an inanimate object and I need to eat.”
“And you have to do that half-naked?” I regretted it the second the words were past my lips.
Nathaniel smirked at me. “Does me being half-naked bother you, baby girl?”
“No.” But I could feel my cheeks heating, giving me away. “And stop calling me that.”
His grin spread, and I knew my blush was visible and that he’d noticed it. “Don’t worry. Your virtue is safe. I’m not trying to seduce you.”
I shot him a glare. “I’m going to take a shower. I’d tell you to help yourself to anything in the kitchen, but you clearly didn’t feel you needed my permission.”
The sound of his chuckle followed me as I spun on my heel and headed for the bathroom.
Turning the water to scalding, I stood under the spray and closed my eyes. “You couldn’t have given me a guardian angel who was actually pleasant company?” I muttered, hoping God didn’t take offense to my lack of gratitude. Nathaniel had saved my life last night, but I was almost starting to think it wasn’t worth it.
I would have stayed in the shower for hours if I’d had the time. Then again, Nathaniel would probably think that I was hiding from him, and I didn’t want our living-together situation to start that way. This wasmyapartment, and I had to lay out the rules and expectations.
When I came out of the bathroom twenty minutes later, dressed in jeans and a sweater, Nathaniel was sitting at the table. There was a platter of pancakes along with three plates, three glasses, a bowl of strawberries, and a carton of orange juice on the table in front of him. Thankfully he’d managed to put on a shirt, but he was still wearing those gray sweatpants.
“Hungry?” he asked, leaning back in his chair. “Don’t worry, I followed the recipe taped to the side of the fridge. They’re vegan.”
“You know?”
“Well, the lack of animal products in your kitchen was a clue.”
I sat across from him and reached for the orange juice. “Thank you for making breakfast. You didn’t have to do that.” I used my fork to transfer several pancakes and strawberries to my plate and started eating sans maple syrup. Neither Kylie nor I cared for the stuff, so there wasn’t any in the house. I wondered if Nathaniel had looked for it, if he was disappointed by its lack of existence in our apartment.
We were quiet as we ate. I still had a million and a half questions, but he’d made it clear last night that he wasn’t keen on answering them, so I held my tongue. There’d be time later when I was more awake and didn’t have to rush out the door.
