Beckett raised an eyebrow at me. “What do you think?”
I slid my legs to the floor. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
Beckett crossed the room and sat down on the bed beside me. “I’d like to make it your business,” he said, reaching for my hand. “I told you I didn’t have a life. I don’t have a woman in London.” He picked up my hand and kissed my fingers. “But I’d like to have one here.” He tugged on a curl and watched it spring back to my shoulder. “What do you think?”
My chest squeezed and I felt dizzy. “I don’t like to be tied down.”
“I’m not looking to tie you down. I just want to see where this goes.”
I pried my hand away and stood up. “We should go. I don’t want to make you miss your plane.”
Beckett watched me gather my stuff with his arms crossed over his chest. When I started to take off his sweatshirt, he stopped me. “Keep it,” he said. “It looks good on you.”
I mumbled a thank-you as I bent to lace my boots.
“Can you do me a favor?” Beckett asked.
I glanced up at him from under the curtain of my hair. My heart thundered as our eyes met. When he looked at me it felt like he was turning my soul inside out. “What?” I asked.
“Can you keep Aslan until tomorrow?” he asked. “Peppy called and said she won’t be home until late, and I hate to lock him up.”
Aslan gave me a look that I couldn’t refuse. He sat in the tiny back seat of Beckett’s car on the way home. Well, the back half of him did. The front half of him was wedged between me and Becket.
He tried to climb over me to the window as we passed Ginger Cake Acres. I heaved him off my lap as we turned into Frog Level, the oldest part of Mossy Oak and my neck of the woods.
My place was a studio apartment over a garage. The whole place was roughly the size of Beckett’s bathroom. Convenient to everywhere in town, my tiny apartment was cozy and cheap—perfect for me.
Beckett parked his car in my driveway and peered up the stairs at my apartment. “This is it?”
“Were you expecting a castle?”
He laughed. “No, but I wasn’t expecting a dorm room either.”
Beckett unfolded himself from the low-slung car and came around to open my door. I was too tired to protest as he helped me from the car and grabbed Aslan’s supplies from the back seat.
We walked up the stairs together, and I dug in my purse for the key. I struggled with the lock, my mind stuck on the fact that, besides the pizza delivery boy, Beckett was the first man to enter my apartment since I’d lived in Mossy Oak.
Beckett placed his big hand over mine, steadying it. “You okay?”
I took a breath and let it go.“I’ve never had a man here before.”
Beckett’s hand flexed over mine, his bruised knuckles stretching. “I’m the first?” When I nodded, a slow smile spread over his face. “I’m honored.”
I turned the key, and we stepped inside. Beckett stalked into the living room, casting his sharp gaze into every dark corner. I wondered what he thought of the place. It was a far cry from his luxurious mansion.
He strode to the bed, which was tucked under the A-frame of the roof. “Don’t you have a security system?”
“Why would I? No one in Mossy Oak even locks their door.”
Beckett bent and checked under the bed skirt.
I laughed. “No one’s hiding under the bed.”
He straightened and pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Are you sure you’re all right here alone?”
The serious look on his face made tears burn in my eyes. I hadn’t relied on anyone in years, but I suddenly wanted to beg him to stay.
Beckett saw my glassy eyes and gathered me in his arms. “I can postpone my trip.”
