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“There was an opportunity!”
Adrian rolled his eyes as he pushed himself to his feet, holding a hand out. “Come on. Let’s see if Mrs. Henderson can get that stain out before it sets.”
I took his hand, and he hoisted me up to my feet.
“Don’t touch the wine, Lucas. And stay there.”
————
“Itshouldcome out,” Mrs. Henderson said, lifting and dunking the fabric into the deep basin in the laundry room.
“It’s honestly fine if it won’t,” I insisted. With my arms wrapped around my mostly bare torso, I felt a little out of place in front of a woman I didn’t know very well. But it was just the two of us in here, and I could live with her seeing me in my bra. “I thought you were a cook?”
She shrugged. “I do a bit of everything, too. But cooking is what I prefer to do.” She lifted the shirt again, and the stain had paled significantly. “The only shirt I’ve got in here is Lucas’ from last night. You might need to make a break for it back to your room.”
Forfuckssake.
I turned the handle on the door and slipped out into the little hallway that separated the laundry area from the kitchen. The house was so quiet I could have heard a pin drop, and I assumed my modesty was safe—until I turned the corner and nearly ran into the back of Adrian as he leaned against the kitchen counter, his gaze fixed on the window that looked out at Lucas.
“Shit,” I breathed, slipping my body back behind the corner to cover myself.
Adrian turned, his eyes meeting mine. I covered the bit of me that he could potentially see from my position, my skin flaring with heat almost instantly. “Why are you?—”
“There weren’t any other shirts in there,” I hissed. “Can you go…”
My sentence trailed off as I realized what a horrible, catastrophically terrible idea it would be for him to get me a shirt out of my bag.Why the fuck did I bring my vibrator?
“…actually, scratch that, can you just get me a pillow or something from the couch?”
His eyes rolled dramatically. “Apillow?”
“Please.”
“Christ, Ava, just have mine.” Before I could even protest, he was hauling the fabric up and over his head with one hand, baring his goddamnchestto me as if it was nothing. Every curve, every ripple of muscle that pulled at his skin drew my attention like a blazingly bright, neon exit sign.
He held the shirt out to me.
It tookeverythingin me to grab it and look away.
————
The sound of the sliding glass door opening behind me cut through the crickets and the toads, and I didn’t need to look to guess who it was.
“He was out the moment his head hit the pillow,” Adrian said, appearing beside my rocking chair on the back porch with a glass of wine held out. I looked up at him, taking in the softness of his face now that his one worry was sleeping upstairs. “Have a drink with me, Ava.”
Hesitantly, I took the glass from him and pulled my knees up to my chest. “Okay.”
His jacket snugly around him, he sank into the rocking chair beside mine with a huff, his breath forming a little cloud of steam in the significantly colder air. He lifted his glass to hismouth, the deep red of the wine slipping past his lips, andGod, all I could think of was how they’d tasted after he’d kissed me on the boat.
That hint of wine, but also the rest of him.
“Think it’s your turn to open up,” he said, breathing out a chuckle as he swirled the wine in its glass.
God fucking dammit.I should have expected this. “What do you mean?”
“Can I ask you some questions for once?” he asked, his gaze meeting mine as his lips tipped up in a smirk.
Reluctantly, I nodded and took a sip of my wine. It tasted suspiciously like the wine he’d given me on his boat, but I wasn’t a connoisseur. It could have been anything.
