Page 38 of Playing with Forever
I forced myself to nod and agree, because what she was asking for wasn’t unreasonable. By the time a week passed I hoped to have caught the fucker who was doing this to her, and the fact that she gave in at all felt like a victory.
“I can do that,” I said out loud, when I realized Andrea was waiting for a verbal response.
Andrea smiled at me, looking as relieved as I felt.
CHAPTER15
Chase
I’d never had a woman in my home before, not really. I had women over, obviously, but they’d never spent the night and they definitely hadn’t stayed for days, so having Andrea in my space was new territory for me.
I put Andrea in the spare room that she had, ironically, run into the other night when I was chasing her. The idea of her sharing my bed with me on a nightly basis made my palms sweat. Not because I didn’t want it, but because I wanted it too damn much. I wanted to be able to wake up and see her safe next to me, to feel her presence even in my sleep.
That kind of shit was dangerous. I was already in over my head as it was.
Andrea didn’t seem upset with me setting her up to sleep in the spare room. I’d had some women in the past who’d hoped for more from me in spite of my clarity from the beginning that it would only ever be sex, but Andrea just thanked me for the extra towels for her bathroom and remarked on how comfortable the mattress was.
It was nice, to have someone who respected our relationship and my boundaries.
Knowing she was under my roof, I slept better than I anticipated. I did wake up twice and stepped out into the hall, briefly peering into the guest bedroom. Both times Andrea was sleeping soundly, curled up on her side almost like a cat, her dark hair spread out on the pillow behind her.
When I woke up in the morning, it was to the smell of bacon frying.
Usually I was up pretty early, but waking up twice—and all the stress from yesterday—must have exhausted me more than I’d realized, because when I glanced at the time on my phone I saw that I’d slept in by an hour. I never set an alarm, never had to after leaving the military, just naturally waking up the way I had when on tour. Same time every day like clockwork until it was ingrained into me.
I got up and resisted the immediate temptation to look for Andrea, instead hopping quickly into the shower. When I stepped out, I felt more refreshed, more ready to face whatever would be going on in my kitchen.
Andrea was already dressed for work, although she wasn’t wearing makeup yet and her hair was still damp from her own shower. She was wearing a light green dress, cute but still office-appropriate, and in the warm light coming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind her…
She looked so fucking beautiful, it made me forget to breathe.
Andrea looked up and smiled at me, and my heart tried to stage a jailbreak from my ribs.
“Hey, you!” she exclaimed, startled to see me. “I thought you’d be up way earlier than I was. Lifting weights or working out, or something.”
I tipped my head to the side. “You found the home gym, huh?”
“I don’t know why I’m surprised you have one.” Andrea served up bacon and eggs onto a plate. “Hope you don’t mind the basics for breakfast.”
“No, this is great, you really didn’t have to.” I actually couldn’t remember the last time I’d really cooked for myself. I was capable of doing so, but with it being just me, it was easier to grab something on the way to work. And for dinner, I ordered takeout all the time from one of the many delicious restaurants Vegas was known for. It was a city full to bursting with the best of those, after all.
“You’re letting me stay here, so it’s the least I can do as a guest. I cook for Violet all the time. She works such weird hours and I think she once burned water.” Andrea handed me the plate. “Coffee’s brewing. You know you’ve got a big gym downstairs in your building that you could use, right?”
“I don’t like working out around other people.” Lifting weights was meditative for me. Sometimes I did it on nights I couldn’t sleep to clear my mind. I didn’t want other people around for that.
Andrea shrugged and let the subject drop, pouring coffee for herself and for me. She added an unholy amount of sugar to hers.
“No coffee beans were harmed in the making of this drink, so why are you killing the taste with all that sugar?” I asked.
She flipped me off but was fighting a playful smile. “Shush. Just because you’re a masochist who likes it black…”
I flashed her a wicked grin after taking a sip of the dark brew. “What can I say, I love pain.”
“No, you don’t get to make this sexy,” she said, pursing her lips at me in a way I found adorable. “Taking your coffee black doesn’t make you a fun person to fuck. It just makes you a sad and self-loathing heathen.”
I almost snorted my coffee out my nose laughing.
It felt unusually natural to have her puttering around my kitchen. Andrea acted comfortable in it, like she belonged there, and I couldn’t deny that I enjoyed her presence, and even our easy, flirtatious banter.
