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He turned off the tv and managed to reach the lamp on the end table next to him, extinguishing the light with a free hand. As slowly as he could manage without waking her, he turned, simultaneously pulling Hayley onto his lap. He leaned back, stretched out on the couch with her light frame on top of him. It didn’t take long for him to join her after he let his eyes close.
Chapter 19
Hayley came to waking and was surprised by a number of things. One, light was streaming in through the slits in the blinds of the front window, as opposed to the usual darkness that greeted her when she came to. So she’d actually slept through the entire night. The next piece of information was slightly more shocking. She was lying on top of Chris, who was still asleep. His arms were around her and her head had been resting on his chest. She saw no way to extricate herself from his hold without waking him, she obviously had to.
Why hadn’t he woken her last night? Why hadn’t he just gone to bed if he hadn’t wanted to disturb her?
Gingerly she tried to slide off him, but he made a low noise and his eyes opened.
“It’s still early,” he complained.
Hayley stilled. “How do you know?” she asked suddenly.
“Internal clock, courtesy of Uncle Sam.”
Hayley scoffed. “I have to get up.”
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Chris frowned. He’d actually slept pretty well with his little tenant stretched out on top of him. He knew she had, too, because it was past dawn. It was pretty early, though, and he’d much rather she lay back down so they could squeeze in another half hour. At least. Hell, he was the damn boss. They could take another few hours. And he knew without a doubt that if she wanted to just that, then they’d lay all day on that couch. But he knew he wasn’t likely to convince her.
He stretched his arms above his head, working the kinks out as she got up.
“If we’re both up this early,” he declared, “how about breakfast?”
Hayley picked up the kitten, who started purring immediately. To his satisfaction, he could tell by the look on Hayley’s face that she was going to agree.
“I’ll hurry up and hit the head,” he announced before she could change her mind.
The warm water hit him and roused him further from sleep. In truth he didn’t really care about breakfast. If Hayley wasn’t amenable to continuing snuggling, he still wanted her in the house just the same. He ambled into the kitchen to find the kitten eating from a small bowl on the floor and Hayley at the stove making pancakes. He smiled to himself as he opened the fridge to pull out a carton of orange juice.
On Sunday, Chris had finished mowing the lawns and was showering again. Hayley was in his (bigger) kitchen, roasting a chicken in his oven. Pepper attacked as soon as she saw him rounding the corner, drying his hair with a towel. He winced as she climbed her way up his jeans. He set the little hellcat in the crook of his arm and flopped onto the couch. Chicken settled into the oven, Hayley joined them in the living room. She took the remote control off the table. He scowled as she fired up the DVR. Ten minutes later he’d reached his limit. Chris snatched the remote control away from her.
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“Give me that back!” Hayley shrieked, reaching for it.
“This is terrible,” Chris declared, flipping through channels. “They can’t even sing!”
“Because it’s auditions week! It gets better!” she insisted.
“Couldn’t get worse,” he mused.
She grabbed at his arm and he raised the remote over his head, out of her reach. She got up on her knees next to him and tried to grab it. When she nearly toppled over his lap, she put a hand on his shoulder to brace herself. She looked down at him at the same moment he was looking up at her. God, the man smelled good, she thought. It wasn’t right that a man should smell that good. It wasn’t even him, his scent. It was whatever soap he’d used in the shower, but still…damn. His hair was still just a bit damp and the way it fell in a thousand different directions made him look more wild, more carefree than he normally did. And men shouldn’t have eyes that color. Not green, not gray, some shade in between.
“Hayley,” Chris said, when she’d been staring at him for far too long. Which was bad because it caused her eyes to drop to his mouth. What does he taste like? she wondered. What was underneath that soap scent? Before she could stop herself, she leaned down and pressed her mouth over his. And Oh, God, there was the soap, that was true, but below that, when you got up next to his skin, there was a darker, earthier scent that was all male. And Hayley wanted it. Wanted to wrap herself in it, lose herself in it.
