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“They’re not sad tears,” she said, sniffling. “Why do you have to be so nice?”
He chuckled, relieved beyond reason. It wasn’t often that people accused him of being overly nice. “It’s customary to smile when people say nice things.”
Her lips curved up, and now that he knew the sensation of them against his own, he longed to drop a kiss onto them.
“By the way,” she added. “If you’re worried about being a rebound, you don’t need to be. I haven’t felt anything for Charles for a while.” The smile fell away. “But you’re right that I should get my life sorted out before I try to move on.”
He’d been right about something? Hallelujah.
“Would you like to have a cupcake and snuggle up to watch a baking show?” she asked, stepping to the side so he could come into her room. “I won’t make any moves on you, I swear. Just snuggling.” She sent him a cheeky grin. “Or are you too manly for that?”
“Hell no, I’m not too manly for that.” He crossed the threshold before she changed her mind, and that single step felt momentous. As if he was stepping over a precipice that signaled a change in their relationship from friends to something more, and even though a whispered voice in the back of his mind told him he shouldn’t, he sat on the bed, setting Pixie down. She skittered over to a pillow, circled several times, and settled in the center of it.
“Little diva,” he muttered.
Megan closed the door and turned on the television, which she must have borrowed because guest rooms didn’t usually have them. She switched through the channels until she foundThe Great British Bake Off. The episode had started ten minutes ago, but the contestants hadn’t gotten very far yet.
“Where do you want me?” he asked.
“Well, I plan to climb under the covers and get comfortable,” she said. “You can sit wherever you like.”
Once she’d wriggled into place, propping a pillow between the wall and her back, Tione slipped in beside her. Reaching over, he switched off the light, then put his arm around her waist. She rested her head on his shoulder, and proceeded to narrate the show to him, explaining who each of the contestants were, and what they were doing right and wrong. It was the most confident he’d heard her, and he allowed himself to relax and enjoy the sensation of her soft, slender body beside his. He turned to nuzzle the top of her head. Even her hair smelled of sugar paste. Smiling, he brushed a kiss over her temple so gently she didn’t notice.
He wished the moment could last forever. There, in the dark, they were closer than they’d ever been, and it felt like they belonged together. As though he could be someone who deserved her. It was a pipe dream, but he clung to it as he listened to her quiet words and pretended it was an accident when he scooched closer, until she was nearly on his lap.
What he wouldn’t give to end every night like this. It was perfect.Shewas perfect. But much as she might be under the impression he was her knight in shining armor, he wasn’t, and he couldn’t ever be. Instead, if she wasn’t careful, he’d be the devil who dragged her under.
After a while, her arm flopped across his stomach and her breathing deepened, indicating that she’d fallen asleep. He extricated himself, switched off the television, and left Pixie in the bed while he trekked out to the cabin to bring Trevor back. When the mastiff was curled on the floor, he locked the bedroom door and returned to his cabin with Pixie, where he lay sleeplessly in his own bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering how the pint-sized city girl had come to mean too much to him.
* * *
Megan pressedher face into the pillow and groaned. Oh God, had she actually thrown herself at Tione last night? Yeah, she had, and he’d let her down ever so gently. She groaned again. Man, she’d messed up. Big time.
Rolling over, she reached for the light switch and blinked as her eyes adjusted. She was about to get up when she noticed something that didn’t belong. In the center of a small plate on her bedside cabinet was an apricot Danish, with a hastily scrawled note beside it. Tione must have brought it in for her. Her insides turned gooey as caramel sauce. The Danish had to be a good sign, right?
She leaned over and read the note.
Megan
Eat this and come find me.
T
The words were simple and to the point. So very him. They shouldn’t have caused a flurry of excitement in her belly, but they did. He wanted to see her. Maybe he’d been telling the truth when he said he was interested but didn’t think the timing was right.
She bit into the Danish, savoring the explosion of sweet yet tart apricot onto her tongue. It oozed out the corner of her mouth and she wiped it up with a finger and licked it off. Mm. This was what it tasted like to have a man in her life who cared about her. Charles had never brought her pastries for breakfast. Heck, if she’d served herself a pastry, he’d have clucked his tongue and taken it away with a remark about how she needed to watch her figure.
Bastard.
In a burst of defiance, she crammed the rest of the Danish into her mouth and chewed while she hunted for clothes. Trevor stirred on the floor, and she experienced another wave of happiness. Tione must have brought him over after he’d left, and why would he do that if he didn’t care?
Trevor stretched, releasing a doggy sigh, then shook, his floppy ears slapping the sides of his head. She snorted, covering her mouth so she didn’t spill crumbs everywhere. The dog sidled over and leaned against her leg. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around him, rubbing her cheek on the fur of his shoulder and petting wherever her hands landed.
“You’re such a good boy,” she crooned, and he gave a giant yawn of agreement. “Such a brave boy, watching out for me all night.” He slumped onto his back, his feet in the air. Laughing, she rubbed his belly. “Is that what you want?”
His hind leg kicked as she found a particularly good spot, as if to say “yeah, just like that.” She scratched his stomach for a few moments more, then dressed in fresh clothes, combed her hair, and brushed her teeth. When she emerged from the bathroom, he was sitting by the window, looking longingly outside, so she set him free. He beelined out into the garden while she went in the other direction, to find Tione in the kitchen. He was standing at the sink, elbow deep in dishwater, his tattooed arms glistening wet, muscles bunching as he worked. She swallowed. Holy hell, he was hot. Nothing like the men she’d dated before, but perhaps that was part of the appeal. There was a rawness about him, and she loved it.
“Gonna stand there and ogle me all morning?”
