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I returned his smile. “Sorry, but no. You’re still bunking with me.”
Striding past him, I motioned for him to follow. “This is the main floor, but one of three. Upstairs are four suites, downstairs has three more, and a fully equipped home gym. But this is the best part,” I said, moving the wall of glass floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the cerulean-blue Pacific Ocean.
I opened the doors and led him outside to the covered veranda. Three steps led down into a square infinity pool with bench seating. The water from that pool dropped into the much larger kidney-shaped pool below.
Austin continued to take everything in, but said nothing. “O-kay,” I said, continuing to play tour guide for him.
He followed me across the stone walkway and down the steps to the larger pool. “This is pretty good for laps and training. I bought the house after construction, so I had no choice in the shape.”
“So you didn’t have the water slides put in?”
“No, smarty pants, I did not,” I said as I pointed to the other side of the pool. “But feel free to use them whenever you like. I won’t tell anyone.”
I glanced back at him as he stood with his hands on his hips. I knew what he was looking at. “Is that the only way to get to the other side of the pool deck?”
Turning, I nodded with a big smile. “From here, yes. But if you don’t want to swim to the other side, you have to cross my bridge to get over there.” I began the trek over the concrete walkway that connected the two separate pool decks. “There’s a path that goes around the other side of the pool. You’ll be able to see it from the bedroom.”
When we’d crossed the bridge, I turned back to face the back of my house. “The balcony on the left is my room. My bed faces the doors, so I always have a view of the ocean.”
Austin stood next to me, taking in the house in the afternoon sun. “Why did you buy such a big house? You don’t need all this room for just one person.”
I looked around and down at the access to the beach.
“I hope one day it won’t be just me,” I murmured, only loud enough for him to hear. “I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life. And if my sister has anything to do with it, I won’t be.”
Austin grunted and headed back across the bridge.
“Where are you going?” I called after him.
He waved his arm over his shoulder, beckoning me to follow. “To the beach,” he said after turning to face me, walking backward. He tore his shirt over his head, causing my mouth to drop open.
“Hurry up, let’s go. Clocks ticking on the daylight.”
Austin dropped his shirt to the pavement, gave me a challenging smirk, and then took the stairs two at a time. With a view like that, this week might not be so difficult to manage after all.
When I reached my bedroom, I fully expected to be alone. But to my pleasant surprise, his bag was sitting unzipped on my bed. The bathroom door was ajar, so I placed his shirt on top. I stared at it a moment before picking it up and bringing it to my nose. My eyes closed as I inhaled his scent into my memory. What would I say if he caught me?
I smiled and placed it on the bed before heading over to open the sliding glass doors to let the ocean breeze in.
“What are you looking at?” he said, coming to stand beside me.
Glancing over, he was dressed in compression shorts that made his thighs look like tree trunks and a muscle tank that fit him like a glove.
“Uh, the whales. I always look, even though they’ve already passed by. April is the best month.”
He nodded and looked down at me. “You want to run, or just stay here smelling my shirt some more?”
My face and neck heated in embarrassment. “I was trying to determine the cologne you wore. It smelled familiar.”
He grinned, but let it go. I knew he’d bring it up again at some point. But I took the out and headed for my walk-in closet to change.
I emerged a few minutes later to find him on the balcony, bent over with his forearms resting against the nearly invisible wall. He was such a beautiful specimen of the human body, especially when he wasn’t scowling.
I sat down on the bed to tie my running shoes, then got up to get the bug repellant. Austin reentered the room as I left the bathroom. I shook the can of spray at him.
“We need to use this. The mosquitos are huge.”
“Yeah, okay,” he replied, with no argument. Shocker.
