CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
Anne
I shut the door to my room and leaned against it, blowing out a breath. I didn’t think dinner would be filled with bickering, but I hadn’t expected to enjoy it so much. And I wasn’t talking only about the food.
Was Bran trying to impress me by having a multicourse meal in his fancy dining room?
I couldn’t imagine why since I was clear that we weren’t going to be friends. Maybe I should have sat at the other end of the table and not so close to him. I suppose years of being away from the high life, I’d forgotten how the rich lived. It just felt too weird to eat in the same room but being so far apart I’d need a walkie talkie to talk to him.
He was pleasant and if I wasn’t mistaken, amused by how much I liked his food. He was really a ridiculously handsome man when he wasn’t wound up so tight. When he smiled, I felt it in my chest. I made the mistake of checking him out when we were talking about healthy food. He really was freakishly sexy.
When he walked me to the stairs, his spirit light, his expression kind, I had the urge to jump him. I wondered if he’d ever had sex on his stairs.
I’d thought my bath earlier would have taken care of the lustful feelings but apparently not, which was why I was tossing and turning in the comfortable bed with the zillion-thread-count sheets unable to sleep.
The room was warm. I decided to blame my insomnia on that and not on images of Bran being funny and sweet and sexy flickering in my brain. What I needed was a cool shower. Better yet, a swim.
It was late. He was likely sleeping and wouldn’t notice me taking a swim in his lap pool. The water would cool me down and the exercise would wear me out. Perfect!
I slipped from bed and put on my bathing suit, a ten-year-old bikini that was probably too young for me now, but I didn’t care. It still fit and I looked good in it.
I tied my hair back, grabbed a towel from the bathroom, slipped on flip flops and quietly headed downstairs to the gym. When I reached the pool, I kicked off my flip flops, tossed the towel on a nearby chair and dove in. The water sluiced down my skin, cooling me instantly. Yes, this is what I needed. I swam across, touching the side and turning to swim back. I did several laps before stopping to rest for a moment.
As I held on to the edge of the pool, I was startled to see Bran standing along the edge in his robe.
“Sorry. I thought you were sleeping—”
“Don’t be sorry. I told you that you had free rein of the house. I heard a noise and came to check.”
“Don’t you have a security guy for that?”
He shrugged. “Yes. He’s outside. Whoever was wandering the house hadn’t come in from the outside.”
So, he knew he’d find me.
“How’s the water?”
I floated on my back. “Wonderful.”
His blue gaze roamed my body. A warning bell sounded in my head, but the rest of my body liked how he watched me. My nipples hardened and I was pretty sure it wasn’t from the cool air on my wet bikini top.
“I wouldn’t mind a swim.” He dropped his robe. I gaped. He stood in all his muscular naked glory. He dove in, gliding to the other side of the pool.
The clanging of the warning bell grew louder. This was a bad idea. I swam toward the ladder.
“The water is fantastic,” he said when he came up for air. “Hey, are you getting out already? I didn’t mean to intrude on your swim.”
“I’m not equipped for skinning dipping.”
He snorted. “There’s a solution to that.”
“I like my swimsuit.”
“I do too. Are you chicken? I haven’t forgotten the rules, Anne. I won’t touch you.”
“Then why are you naked?”
“I sleep naked. I put on my robe when I heard you moving around. I didn’t come down here with the goal of seducing you.”