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“Okay. Follow me.” He crossed the dining area and walked down a hallway. “Your room.” He pointed to a door on the left side of the hallway. “Mine is there.” His was on the right. “The bathroom is here.” The door was opposite her bedroom. “Yell if you need anything.”
She nodded and disappeared into her room.
So much for trying to extend the olive branch.
“Whatever,” he groused and went into his room, closing the door behind him.
He peeled off his T-shirt very slowly. His back was on fire. The Advil was in the kitchen and he needed a double dose of it. He opened his door and started down the hallway, only to come face-to-face with Mac as she exited her room.
“Er, sorry,” she said.
He just nodded and moved around her, continuing to the kitchen. He grabbed the bottle and shook out a couple of pills. He downed them with water and then started back to his room.
Mac was leaning on the doorjamb of her room. “Um, do you have a T-shirt or something I can sleep in?”
“Sorry, I should’ve thought of that.” He went back into his room and pulled open one of his drawers. He pulled out a black cotton shirt and turned around, almost running her over. He hadn’t realized she’d followed him into his room. He swore as he reached out, wrapping an arm around her, and braced his other arm on the doorframe to stop them both from falling. “Sorry. I didn’t see you.”
She’d flattened her hands on his chest, and he couldn’t lie, he liked the way the heat of her palms seeped into his bare skin. Her hair curled around her shoulders. He hadn’t seen it down yet and he found it was a spectacular style on her.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide. “My fault. I should’ve warned you I was there.”
Was her voice a little breathy, or was that his imagination? “No problem.”
Except it was a problem. He didn’t want to let her go. He liked the fit of her body pressed against his. He’d noticed and relished how nice her curves felt while they were in the closet, even though it was highly inappropriate. He was enjoying it now, too, and if he didn’t let her go soon, she’d be able to feel just how much.
“Sorry,” he mumbled again as he removed his arm from her waist. He bent down to grab the fallen T-shirt and pain speared across his back. “Fucking hell!” He didn’t straighten immediately, pressing a hand against the center of his spine.
“I got it.” She bent down and picked up the T-shirt. They both straightened. “Your back still hurts that much? Didn’t the vertebrae heal?”
“I had a compression fracture of the L1. It healed a while ago, but the soft tissue damage around it is going to take time, or so the doctor says. Mostly the muscles just get tight, and it makes it hard to move without pain shooting in one direction or the other.”
“You need to do Pilates.”
He blinked. What the hell? Is it a conspiracy? “You’re the second person to tell me that today.”
“It really works.”
He put a hand on his back. “Do you do Pilates?”
“Oh, sure. Been doing it for years. It makes all the difference.” She smiled at him.
“Maybe you could show me some moves, or whatever, sometime.”
“Sure.” She took a step back and held up the black tee. “Well, thanks for the shirt.”
“No problem.”
She went down the hall to her room and closed the door behind her.
Dane looked down at the cat who was sitting at his feet, looking up at him. “Yeah, I know, Beans, but we’re working together. Work and play don’t mix.”
The cat stalked by him, jumped up on his bed, and curled into a ball on one of his pillows. Dane let out a long sigh and headed to the kitchen for his Advil. He carried a glass of water back to his room, set it on his nightstand, and then finished getting ready for bed. As he removed his pants, something clunked against his thigh.
The book.
He’d forgotten all about shoving the little black notebook into his pocket, thanks to the whole closet incident and the possible bomb. It had been a hell of a day.
He propped up his second pillow, turned on his bedside lamp, and got into bed. He flipped through the book. There were lots of entries, but they were all written in some sort of code.
