7
BODI
WhenIsetfoot in my penthouse with Kayla following in my tracks, I fully regret my decisions. Within seconds, a frustrated feeling has me grinding my teeth, knowing I’m playing with fire now that she’s in my apartment. Every single surface seems like a good place to find out if she still tastes as good as I remember, and I shake my head before I close the front door behind her.
“Damn, McKay. This looks amazing.” She glances around the spacious living room before moving a few steps forward to look at the big kitchen on the left. Her slender fingers trail the gray marble of the oversized kitchen island while her eyes are focused on the view of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Wauw. You wake up to his view?” She saunters forward, past the big cream-colored U-shaped couch, to get closer to the window. My attention gets captured by the curves of her hips, swaying from left to right in the sexiest way without her even trying.
“You must feel like a rockstar every day.” She turns around, and I rapidly bring my focus back to her face instead of her lower body.
“Pretty much, yeah.” I point at the hallway leading to the left side of the house. “That’s the guest area. There are two rooms, one bath. Pick whichever room you want. Throw your washing in the hamper, and my cleaning lady will take care of it every three days.”
“You have a cleaning lady?” she blurts, slowly walking back to me.
“That surprises you?” I quirk up a brow.
“I guess not. If you live in a place like this, you sure as fuck can afford to never clean again.”
She halts right in front of me, just close enough for me to smell a hint of her honey and rose shampoo, something I still remember from last summer, but not close enough for me to scold her about the lack of distance.
“So, where do you sleep?” Her voice is lower than I want it to be, and I do my best to keep a straight face, ignoring the small jolt of my dick.
“The right side of the house is mine. Don’t go there.” I sound angry, but really, I’m not. Or maybe I am. I don’t really know. “I gotta go make some calls, then get back to the office. You get settled in and start tomorrow.”
Before she can hold me there with just a single glance, I make a straight line to my side of the apartment.
“Do I need to do anything? Cook dinner or something?” she calls out behind my back.
“Nope, I’ll bring some dinner when I get back,” I retort, without turning around. At a fast pace, I stride into my suite before I slam the door behind me with a loud thud. I push the air out of my lungs, dropping my back against the door as I close my eyes.
If this is how my body responds to having her around me for an hour, how the hell am I going to be able to keep her here for a month if I can’t touch her. I know I was being a dick to her earlier, but I can’t seem to find a response that’s anything in between. Either I want to kiss her, or I’m mad at her. Not because she makes me mad. But because I piss myself off for not being able to stop looking at her like she’s going to warm my bed whenever I want.
Fuck, I’m so fucking fucked.
I push myself off the door with a grunt, then throw myself onto the bed before pulling out my phone. With my arm covering my eyes, I call the one person to bitch about, ready to throw out all of my frustration.
“Before you start yelling at me,” Rae says as soon as the dial tone stops, “I didn’t know she was going to sneak out in the middle of the night. Though she did sneak out of Stanford, so that could’ve been an indication.” The last sentence comes out in a mumble.
“You couldn’t have given me a heads up?”
“I saw the note five minutes ago!” she defends. “It’s my day off.”
“She was in my office with a suitcase, Rae.”
“I can imagine.”
“Oh, but that’s not all!” I disclose, sharply. “She has no place to stay. She just hopped onto the first flight out here, winging it.”
“What?! Where is she staying?” The sound of her voice is laced with worry, and I roll my eyes at the denseness of her question.
“Where do you think?”
Silence.
“With me, Rae!”
A soft “Oohhh” is audible through the line, making me push out a sarcastic chuckle.
“Yeah! Seems like a job isn’t the only thing I’m giving. Nope, she also claimed a room in my house. Apparently, I’m not just an unemployment office now, I’m also a freaking hotel.”
“You’re being dramatic, Bodi. You two got along perfectly last year. I’m sure it’s only for a couple of weeks. Just until she gets back on her feet. As long as you don’t sleep with her, you’ll be fine.”
“She’s nineteen,” I huff.
“Didn’t stop you before.”
“Shut up.”
“Gladly, because I haven’t had breakfast yet.”
“Rae, wait. Help me out. She can’t stay here.”
She stays quiet as I wait for her to save me from this disaster waiting to happen.
“I’ll talk to Jensen. Maybe he has some friends in the city that can take her in.”
A relieved feeling washes over me. “Thank you.”
“Just be nice to her in the meantime, okay?”
“I will,” I agree, even though I don’t believe my own bullshit.