Page 35 of Unraveled

Cara walked on past, but nearly stopped as she felt his hand find her lower back. That all too familiar shiver crawled over her skin at his touch. “And what comes after the food, Gian?”

She felt his smirk grow as he pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “Any other bedroom but that one, Cara.”

Cara crawled onto the foot of the bed, moving up Gian’s naked side in nothing but one of his dress shirts. The man woke up at the ass-crack of dawn, and it was disturbing because Cara liked to sleep.

She couldn’t sleep when Gian wasn’t, though.

He wouldn’t let her.

Gian had tossed the beige sheets across his lower midsection and groin, but that still left the rest of his body free for Cara to admire. It was quite a sight, especially in the morning with light coming in through the opened windows. For every defined cut of muscle on his body, Cara’s attention was caught and spun. He was lean like a runner, yet built enough like a fighter. It was easy to tell over his suits that he was fit, but it was when he was naked that Cara couldn’t stop staring.

A beautiful man.

Cara laid along Gian’s side, though lower than he was, so that her top half ended at his waist. He peered over the book he was reading, those brown eyes of his raking over her form and the shirt she wore.

“Shame you can’t go out like that all the time,” he said under his breath.

“I could say the same.”

“Yes, and then where would all those unsuspecting women be, huh? Falling all over themselves, I imagine. It would be hazardous for me to do that to the world.”

“Arrogant ass.”

“Complex,” he corrected with a grin.

Then, he went back to his book.

His free hand came down to tangle in her hair as he continued reading, his fingers stroking through the strands carefully. He didn’t tug or pull, not like he did when he was fucking her, but rather, stroked her hair gently as if to relax her.

And it did.

Before Cara had realized what was happening, her face rested in Gian’s palm, and his thumb stroked her cheekbone.

It was intimate.

But not the kind of intimate like the night before, when he fucked her until she couldn’t breathe or see properly.

It was sweet.

But not like his pet names, not like his French or Italian nothings in her ear.

Cara was pretty sure this was not how hookups were supposed to go, and she certainly shouldn’t be considering feelings for Gian, but he made it difficult not to. This was only supposed to be a weekend away—a break, nothing more. And yet, it felt strangely domestic. Something familiar and comforting, with someone she didn’t know all that well.

She decided to get her mind off of that nonsense.

“Are you going to read all morning?” she asked.

“It’s good for the brain, Cara.”

“So is food. Or coffee. Television. A shower. Sex.”

Gian’s right eyebrow lifted and his lips curved salaciously. “Those are all good things, too.”

“Not good for the brain?”

“Some of them,” he said.

Before she could think better of it, Cara snatched his book away and tossed it to the floor. As it landed with a thump on the hardwood, Gian’s narrowed gaze turned on her. That one look threatened fun and bad and sinful, all at once. Cara simply smiled back in the face of his unspoken threat.