“Do you always get up this early?” Chase covered his eyes with his hand and stumbled to the blinds to peer outside, then flinched back. “Good Christ, the sun’s still in the east.”
“It’s already seven!”
“Jesus.” He pressed his hand down. “The first time the sun comes out in this damn country, trust it to do it at an hour like that.”
“What is wrong with this country?” Vi asked, instantly indignant.
“Oh, don’t even get me started.”
Vi put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
He peeled his hand back a little to eye her. “Look,” he said appeasingly. “It’s better to work this out before the wedding. That alarm, honey. Please dear God that’s got to go.”
She winced guiltily and searched his face. She needed the siren alarm clock to jerk her out of bed, adrenaline rushing to her sleep-deprived rescue. She’d learned that as an apprentice. But this morning, when the siren went off, he’d rolled out of bed, grabbing her as he went and slamming her to the floor between the wall and the bed, his body crushing hers as he looked around, keeping her covered and keeping low as he tried to figure out what was going on. Her good hand had gotten trapped against his heart, and she’d felt it pounding madly. It had taken her a few tries to get through to him that it was just her alarm and everything was fine.
Now, of course, he was playing the clown.
“All I’m asking is that you tiptoe out of the room and keep the blinds drawn, okay? Unless you’re wearing pink peekaboo panties, in which case it’s okay if you wake me up.”
“What are you even doing in my apartment at all?” And in her bed? The last she remembered was the couch, and she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the fact that she’d apparently fallen asleep so deeply with him there that he’d been able to lift her body and carry it into another room and she’d never even noticed.
“I couldn’t just leave!” He acted as if she had impugned his honor. “You needed your sleep. And I had no way to lock the deadbolt behind me.”
“That didn’t stop you last time.” Not that she was bitter about him sneaking out of her apartment while she was asleep last time at all. She’d knocked her alarm clock and journal to the floor in her scramble to turn it off that morning, before it ruined his morning, and then she’d realized…oh.
Oh.
He wasn’t even there.
And that had not been a letdown. Not at all. It had been exactly what she’d expected. This morning, now. This morning was weird.
“You had a much lower chance of having drawn the attention of crazy people last time! I thought the knob lock would be enough to hold off the hordes of attackers for three hours.”
“Yeah, well, thanks for not overstaying your welcome.” But her mouth turned down despite herself.
For no good reason. She’d been entirely relieved that morning, of course. Nobody wanted to face the consequences of a wild hook-up the next morning.
Nobody. Definitely not Vi.
Chase rubbed his eyes with one big hand and then slowly lowered it and studied her a second. “Hey. I had to get to work.”
“Yeah, security has really crazy hours,” she said dryly.
“Says the top chef.”
She found herself biting back a smile. Damn it. If only she wasn’t so susceptible to his complete inability to be crushed or defeated by anything.
The man would be hell to live with. He would never be willing to lose an argument.
Not that she was in any way thinking about living with him. She knew he was just bullshitting her about the marriage thing, and anyway, who wanted to live in Texas? They had rattlesnakes there.
“Past tense top chef,” she said. “Thanks to you.”
“Honey, nobody can make you a past tense but yourself. And you know it damn well. That’s part of what makes you so beautiful.” He blew her a kiss.
“I need to buy more soft objects.” That kiss made her want to throw something at him, but somehow…she wanted the something to be soft and cuddly. A cute, fuzzy stuffed animal, maybe.
Mentally she kicked herself.
“Or a black lace thong,” he said out of the blue. “Possibly you could wake me up if you were wearing a black lace thong.” He examined her hips with a gimlet eye.
“Oh, purée,” Vi muttered.
“Or those black cotton things you were wearing the other night. Or maybe even plain white cotton. That would probably be okay.”
She definitely needed to buy more soft objects to throw.
“Or whatever you’re wearing now. Let me see it to make sure.”
Vi struggled not to laugh or, even worse, drop her hands to play with her zipper. Stop it, Vi. “I’ve got to get to work.”
Maybe she could climb in through that window before the inspection teams came back.