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“Morning,” she returned, ducking her head and resting it against his chest. “You’re still here.”
Regret filled him as he realized she’d been sad to wake up alone the last time they’d had sex. “Well, you are in my bed,” he teased, hoping to keep things light.
She nodded against him before lifting her head. She bit her lip, looking away, before saying, “I’m sorry if I took advantage of you last night.”
Trenton wished he wasn’t tapped out and could take her all over again. She was too darn adorable. “I thought we agreed last night that you can take advantage of me any time you like.” He gave in and hugged her close, feeling the tension leave her shoulders.
“We didn’t really talk it through,” she said, lying against him.
“True.” Trenton thought about turning away from her again, avoiding her. He didn’t like the idea. “If you’re sure no relationship works for you, I’m happy to give my body over for your use.” She let out a soft laugh, and he stroked his hand over her tousled hair. “See, I really am a saint, like the guys said.”
“They called you a monk, and I don’t think it fits.” She lifted her head, and all the anxiety from the last week seemed to have faded from her eyes.
They leaned forward together, indulging in a soft kiss. It wasn’t the sexy variety from the night before. It was a friendly kiss, he told himself, squashing the fluttering in his stomach.
“Celia,” he said, drawing back to study her again. “If at any time you change your mind, please say something. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I will.” Her eyes searched his. “What about you?”
“I’ll tell you,” he agreed.
Her fingers slid to the nape of his neck, playing with the hair there even as she bit her lip. “Can I ask you something then?”
“Yes.”
Her fingers continued to stroke, though she seemed to be unaware of it. He watched her eyes scan the room before coming back to his. “This room. Was it the one you shared with your wife?”
“Yes, it was.”
She bit her lip again. “Then, what we did here? Was it a problem for you?”
He finally understood her concern beneath the question. A concern for him, he realized. “Oh, well, I should have said it is, but it isn’t. The room itself was ours, but I redecorated after she was gone.” He’d had to. It had been too much to have her surround him all the time. The guys had dragged him out to do it a year ago, but it had been the right decision. “Most of the rest of the place she had a hand in decorating, though.”
She nodded. “Like my bedroom. All the color didn’t seem like you.”
“It’s quite a rainbow, isn’t it?” He smiled at the memory of saying just that to his wife. His hand returned to stroke over Celia’s hair. “I don’t want you to tiptoe around me. Anything you think about is okay to ask.”
Her fingers paused as she looked at him. “Will you tell me more about your wife?”
Trenton expected the pain to hit, but no swamp of sadness came. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything.” Celia shrugged, her other hand coming around his neck and her fingers curling together before pressing against his skin. “How did you meet?”
“We went to the same university and ran into each other the last year. We really shouldn’t have. She wasn’t going the route toward law school.” He smiled as he thought of Emily shoving the environmental propaganda into his chest and waving her hands as she lectured him about trees. “She actually never picked a major, but floated between classes. Malcolm called her flighty when he met her.”
“He tends to be rather logical,” Celia said with a small laugh. “I never expected him to become a bar owner, but it suits him. So you introduced her to Malcolm when you started dating?”
“Well, we hadn’t gotten that far yet. I thought she didn’t like me, and so I tried to be extra nice to her when we ran into each other. Which was suddenly really often.” Trenton let his head rest against her hands. “Apparently, she was coming around on purpose because she liked me. When I took her to Malcolm’s new tavern, I thought I was just showing her a place she’d asked about as a favor. She thought it was a date.”
Celia laughed, pressing her face against his chest. “You really don’t notice women, do you?”
Trenton’s eyes scanned over her naked hip to where the sheet bared part of her ass. “Not usually,” he admitted. He bit his lip before he could admit she’d been an exception. They’d agreed to no complications, and that sounded like a relationship thing to say.
“So, if she never picked a major, what did she end up doing?” Celia asked.
“All sorts of things. After she dropped out, she worked for a lot of nonprofit organizations at first, but it made her realize there was more business to it than helping the causes. She tried a few other things, but eventually fell into being an artist. Some of the paintings around the condo are hers.”
“The bright ones with splashes of color,” Celia said, nodding as if it made sense.
