Eli grinned. “I said lazy, not boring.”
“Just remember what Preston said.” Ilaughed as Eli rolled his eyes. We’d all heard what Preston had to say aboutEli and Roman in the studio alone. But Preston had just about given up tryingto remind Eli not to get too crazy in the studio.
The lectures weren’t working.
Sometimes I had a feeling Eli was doing itjust to push Preston’s buttons. He seemed to think that Preston was under toomuch stress, and I had to agree with him. But getting Preston to lecture andrant about Eli’s behavior wasn’t the best way for Eli to help. Not that heagreed with me.
“Preston needs more excitement in his life.He’s working more hours than he needs to and I’ve caught him sleeping in theupstairs apartments way too often lately.” Eli’s tone had moved from ready totease to honestly worried.
“Are you just concerned for Preston, or areyou frustrated that he’s stopping your fun?” I knew how close he and Prestonwere, which was why I was just teasing.
Eli merely grinned and shrugged. “What canI say? He needs a hobby. Or someone to obsess over. Why can’t we find a stalkerfor him?”
Preston might not have a stalker, but hedid have someone who was very curious about everything he did.
“I’m not sure that’s the healthiest option.And I’m speaking from experience, remember?” Just because I’d gotten luckydidn’t mean we needed to wish an obsessive stalker on Preston.
Eli huffed. “You’re gettingtooboring. We need more excitement around here. We need to get everybody together andgo out. It’s been too long since we did anything fun.”
“Whose fault is that? You’ve been the onewho’s been obsessing over your man.” But having quiet evenings at home to getwork done hadn’t been terrible.
Eli grinned. “Reese has been just as bad.”
Rolling my eyes, I went over to the closetand pulled out a small gym bag to pack everything in. “I was left alone sooften I turned into a stalker. If I’d gotten in trouble, it would’ve been allyour fault.”
Eli laughed. “Because I’m a terribleinfluence. Isn’t it fabulous?”
“I’m not sure I’d call it fabulous.”
Heading back over to the dresser, I startedputting in the nightgowns and things that Wilder had mentioned. Just thinkingof what could happen had my knees going weak. Maybe heels weren’t such a goodidea.
Eli must have sensed my growing nerves,because he jumped off the bed and bounded across the room. Throwing his armsaround me, he gave me a kiss on the cheek. “You are going to have a wonderfulnight and show off how sexy you are to your big tattooed hunk.“
I just hoped Eli was right.
Chapter 11
Wilder
He’d been nervous since he’d walked in thedoor. Lane was giving off mixed signals, but the one thing Iwassureabout was that I was excited to see what he was going to wear. And not justbecause it meant I was seeing him almost naked.
He was finally going to let me see the realLane.
As we’d gotten to know each other, I’d cometo understand how careful he’d been. Some things I’d already realized, likeletting me take the lead to initiate the physical side of our relationship.Other things had taken longer to figure out. Like the fact that until he’dshown up at my house, I’d never seen him in anything remotely feminine.
That still didn’t feel like an accurate wayto describe it, but Lane had said it was fine. It was starting to feel like hewas ready to open up—or maybe just test the waters. When I opened the door, theflowing white shirt was the first thing that drew my eye. It made me want toslide my hands over it and see how it would feel against his skin.
The jeans made his legs look even longer andalmost curvy as they led down to the heels. I couldn’t remember ever seeing aman wearing shoes like that, but I loved the way they made women look, and itwas easy to see that the same thing was true with men.
Evidently,everybody’slegs lookedbetter and ass looked rounder in heels.
Lane looked relieved to see my clearappreciation of his clothes, but his nerves hadn’t stayed calm for long. Evenas we sat on the floor, eating Chinese around my coffee table and laughing overa bad movie, I could still see some hesitation in his eyes. But I had a feelingwords wouldn’t make a difference. Lane needed toseethat it wasn’tgoing to scare me off.
I’d done enough research online, even justbrowsing through his site, to know that the clothes didn’t bother me in anabstract way. Lane’s photos, in particular, looked incredible. I was a littlebit nervous and curious, but not especially worried. He was going to lookbeautiful, and we were both going to have fun as I stripped them off him.
Since he was already nervous, I figured Imight as well ask some of the questions that had been on my mind. Texting them orasking them over the phone might’ve been easier, but I wanted to see his face.Voices could lie and text messages could obscure the details, but most peoplecouldn’t hide the truth in person.
“You liked when I took control the othernight, didn’t you? It was more than just something casual. Wasn’t it?” Lanehadn’t been expecting the question because he choked on his bite of beef and broccoliand it took him a moment to catch his breath.
