“Bathing suit.”
It took her a minute to respond to the randomness of his statement. If that could even be considered a statement. Maybe two words was a phrase. Or a term. Wait, what did he say? “What?”
“Where’s your bathing suit? I want you to put it on so we can see your body and not the clothes you choose to hide it with.”
“I’m not putting on a bathing suit.”
“That’s okay,” he said crossing his arms. “Bra and panties’ll work too.”
Her jaw dropped. Was he serious? She studied the hard glint in his hazel eyes. Shit. “I’ll get my suit,” she mumbled on her way to the large dresser along the wall.
“Excellent idea. I’ll wait out in the hall while you change. But Luce…” She paused midrummage through her top drawer and looked over her shoulder at him. “If you’re longer than three minutes, I’m going to assume you’ve chickened out and I’m coming in.”
She narrowed her eyes behind her glasses. “Do you always threaten people until they bend to your every whim?”
“Of course not. I’ve never had to resort to threats until you,” he said with a cover model smile. “Ticktock.”
She grabbed a handful of rolled-up socks from the drawer and threw them at his head. Unfortunately he did his bob-and-weave thing—holding his injured shoulder and laughing—and managed to avoid all three cotton missiles just before he closed the door behind him.
Chapter Four
Lucie tried to be annoyed with her new roommate but found herself grinning like an idiot instead. “Pompous ass.” Same old Reid. She shook her head and returned to her search for the elusive bathing suit. “Aha! Found you, you little stinker.” Holding up the suit Vanessa had made her buy for their vacation, Lucie winced. Wasn’t there more to it than this?
She did love the blue-gray color with the aqua swirly patterns, but she wished the sides weren’t so high cut. They hitched up past her hip bones. Vanessa claimed it emphasized her waist more, and the plunging neckline supposedly created the illusion of a bigger bust. She’d nodded dutifully to her best friend’s fashion advice, but had seriously doubted something could be made from nothing. Their vacation had been canceled at the last minute when one of Vanessa’s cases went to court suddenly, so thankfully she’d never had to wear the suit.
She sighed and changed. At least it was a one-piece, which is more than she could say for anything Vanessa wore in the vicinity of a pool or beach. A minute later she stood before her tall mirror, closed her eyes, and tried to ignore the blood rushing in her ears as she called out for Reid.
The door opened with a quiet snick, but he didn’t make a sound as he moved across the floor. The utter silence made her mouth dry and her fingers twitch by her side. Where was he? Was he trying not to laugh? Oh God, why on earth did she let him talk her into this?
Suddenly she felt his body heat radiating into her back. He was close. Very close. His breath feathered the drying strands tucked around her ear, and when he spoke, the vibrations from his voice rippled along her neck. “Open your eyes, sweetheart.”
With deliberate slowness Lucie fluttered her lids open until she was once again staring at the mirror image of herself with Reid standing behind her. His frame made her look slight in comparison. She knew all of his measurements from watching his fights. Six foot three, two hundred and five pounds, a little more when he didn’t need to cut weight for a fight, with a seventy-six inch reach. The tops of her shoulders barely came up to his armpits, and if she let her head fall back, it would rest comfortably in the crook of his neck.
“Now,” he said, bringing her out of her dreamy observations. “Tell me what you see.”
“Strong shoulders. Solid chest. Forearms roped in muscle with just the right amount of veins to make them supersexy…”
He grinned at her in the mirror and his voice became a low rumble that shot straight to her nipples. “You think my forearms are sexy, Lu?”
“Mmm-hmmm.” Why did it look like she had a dopey grin on her face? Surely that wasn’t what she really looked like.
“Thank you. I can honestly say no one has ever said that to me before.”
Well that was a damn shame. She was about to tell him so when he rudely interrupted her train of thought. “I meant, tell me what you see of yourself.”