“Okay. But let me go in first and check that she’s asleep.” She pulled the passenger door open, then leaned forward to thank the driver.
A smile tugged at Gray’s mouth. She was nothing if not polite at all times. Except to him. He loved that about her.
It was two minutes later that he saw her bedroom window open up. She leaned out and beckoned him. Even from behind, he could see the driver’s grin.
“I’ll head out. Thanks for driving,” Gray told him.
“It’s been a pleasure. I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening, sir.”
Gray glanced at the clock on the dashboard. It showed a quarter after three a.m. “I will.”
“I hope Miss Clark does, too. She’s a lovely young woman.”
“Yeah,” Gray said, his throat scratchy. “Yeah, she is.”
He climbed out of the car and watched it pull away, then walked over to where Maddie was waiting for him at the window.
“You want me to climb in?” he asked her. “Or will you be letting me in through the front door?”
She shrugged and stepped back, tugging at the curtain. “Climb away. Why break the habits of a lifetime?”
He did as he was told, using his good hand to scale the low sill, his feet landing on the soft cream carpet in her bedroom. She’d kicked her own shoes off and was barefoot. He could see a few grains of sand clinging to her skin. She reached up to touch her hair, wavy and salt-kissed from the ocean. “I should probably shower before bed.”
“Stay like that. I like you dirty.”
She rolled her eyes. It was like the old, sassy Maddie was back and he liked that. He liked her vulnerability, too. Christ, he liked everything about her. It was crazy how fast he’d fallen for her.
He watched as she changed into her pajama shorts and tank, and tugged a brush through her thick waves, wincing as it hit some knots. “I don’t have anything for you to wear,” she told him. “Unless you think you can fit into my pajamas.”
He looked down at his body. A foot taller and at least sixty pounds heavier than Maddie’s. “That wasn’t how I planned on getting into your pajamas.”
She pulled the blanket back and pointed at the mattress. “Just get in.”
“Wait.” He pulled his shoes off, then his jeans, and finally his t-shirt, before he climbed into her small bed wearing just his shorts. She followed him in, her legs warm as they brushed against his. There wasn’t enough room for them not to. He turned on his side and reached his arm out, and she snuggled into the crook.
“Just so you know, there’s no sex happening in here,” she told him.
“No?” He grinned.
“Nope. This bed hasn’t been christened and it’d like to stay that way.” She looked up at him through her thick eyelashes. “You’re the first guy that’s ever been in here.”
“When you say stuff like that, my body takes it as a challenge.” He took her hand and slid it down between his thighs. “See?”
She curled her fingers around him and he groaned. “Maddie…”
“Your willpower is weak,” she whispered.
“Yeah. It really is.” He turned his head on the pillow. “How strong is yours?”
“Like a fortress.”
He ran a finger down her throat to her chest. “Really?”
Her breath hitched as he reached the swell of her chest. “Yeah.”
With the tip of his finger he traced over her breast, down her stomach, and continued until he reached her bare thighs. “So if I did this,” he whispered, sliding his hand between her inner thighs, “you wouldn’t open them.”
She laughed because she already had. “It’s just a reflex.”