Bewitching You(17)

“Do you want the truth, Sofia?” His eyes glistened in the lamplight as if he couldn’t hold his secret back for another second.

She squelched her curiosity as best she could, then jerked a shoulder up and resumed breathing. “Sure. Go for it.”

“Those dreams”—a fresh grin slowly curved his lips—“are all I have to look forward to. I don’t want them to stop.” He gave a short laugh. “And you know what?”

“You’ve lost your mind?”

“Possibly. Because I have no desire to leave here tonight.” He brought a hand up and ran his knuckles across her cheek. “I don’t want to leave here. Can I stay? I promise to behave myself.”

Her skin sizzled under his touch. Geez, was he going to kiss her? No, he couldn’t. Not tonight. Not ever. It just wasn’t going to happen. She’d already come to terms with it, and now he needed to. Right?

“No,” was all she managed to say.

“Please. I’ll sleep on the couch. I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

“I’m still angry with you. You treated me awful.”

“I know.” His fingers traced her jaw, her neck. “I was an *. I don’t deserve your kindness.”

“You blew it.” She shivered. Her head swirled.

“An unforgivable *. If you punched me in the face and told me to go to hell, I wouldn’t be surprised.” His voice lowered as he spoke, his gaze dropped and focused on her lips. “But you won’t. Because you are kind. Because you’ll take pity on me…and the bad day I’m having. My car’s broken down. I don’t have anywhere to go.” He met her eyes again. “Please, Sofia.”

The room did another complete spin, but she tried to blink it away.

“We should go to bed.” She blurted out the words and instantly felt the heat reach her cheeks. “Um…I meant I should go to bed.”

And get away from you before I do something stupid.

Sofia stretched her arms out in front of her, simultaneously pushing Gray away from her. A safe distance. That was what she needed. “I’m exhausted.”

“And a little tipsy,” he added.

“No, I’m fine. I’m super fine. But you…” She dropped to the floor and felt the room spin around a few more times. Maybe she wasn’t so fine.

She gripped the butcher block to keep steady. How was she going to get rid of this guy without feeling guilty for throwing him out into the darkness without a vehicle? Dang it. Why did she care? “You can sleep in the guest bedroom if you want.”

“That would be great. Thank you.” He stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets and smiled mischievously.

“But you’ll have to leave first thing in the morning, understood?”

“No problem.”

“Because I don’t think—”

He put his hand up to stop her. “I know. I blew it.”

~ * ~

Gray had to admit, Sofia’s backside was starting to become his favorite part of her body, with the way her ass filled out those shorts. She led him up the narrow, dark wooden stairway, with two lamps hanging from her fingertips. Sweet Dreams stretched out with each step.

“I think Nana has a fresh toothbrush stored in the medicine cabinet. And I’ll have to make sure there are fresh linens on the guest bed.”

An orange cat zipped past at warp speed, nearly tripping Sofia on the top step.

Gray didn’t have enough viable brain cells left in his head to react in time. His leg curved into hers and his pelvis pushed against her bottom before he could stop.

“Sorry,” he said, and took a step back. Just in time. One second more, and she’d have felt his erection hardening in his jeans.

“My fault. I shouldn’t have stopped short.” She continued down the hallway. “Sam scared the bejeezus out of me. I really hate coming up here when it’s dark. It’s creepy, the way the old wooden floors creak.”

Rapid thoughts of how he could comfort her ran through Gray’s mind. Holding her in his arms, kissing her lips, making her forget about anything but him inside of her.

Keep your head together, Gray.

“It’s funny, but I think I had more courage spending the night here when I was a little girl. I guess I was naïve to what horrible things can happen in the world.” After a couple of steps, she spun around and pointed into one of the open door rooms. “This is the only bathroom. There are towels and whatnot in the small closet in there. Like I said, the toothbrush is in the medicine cabinet. And if you want to use the bathroom tonight for whatever reason, then take your lamp with you.”

“Running water?”

“Yes. Fortunately, that doesn’t give my Nana migraines.” She continued a couple steps to the next open door on the opposite side of the confining hallway. “This is my Nana’s room. I’ll sleep in here.”

Curious, Gray stuck his head in the room. The window was open, letting the moonlight in and the breeze whip the white curtains about. The room was a fair size, big enough for a large dresser and the queen-sized bed covered with a checkered quilt. The walls were bare and white, like the rest of the house. The smell of burning kerosene filled the air.

None of it seemed familiar. He hadn’t dreamed of this place. With Sofia. Actually, he hadn’t recognized the setting in the dreams at all that he could remember. He’d spent so much time trying to forget them. Erase them from his memory.

Not that he believed in any of them—that somehow they were visions of the future. Gray considered himself open-minded, but some things were a little too hard to believe.

Sofia cleared her throat from across the hallway as she pointed to the last door on the left. “This is where you’ll sleep. For tonight.”

Gray followed her inside, encouraged with where things could lead. Just one kiss. It blew his mind that he hadn’t had one dismal thought since he’d walked into her house. Not one recollection of all the pointless energy he’d put into his relationship with Rachel, or of how Hayes had betrayed him. No, his mind was captivated by the woman standing in front of him.

“Looks like the sheets are fresh.” She ran her hands across the top quilt. It was identical to the other one. In fact, the rooms were mostly indistinguishable, except this bed was wedged up against the window. Not that Gray gave a shit about the furniture arrangement, when Sofia was crawling across the mattress on her hands and knees with her rounded bottom emerging from those damn shorts.

“Getting comfy?” He hoped.

“No. Geez. This probably doesn’t look too good, does it?”

“Good doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

“The window’s closed,” she said, ignoring his flirtation. “I’m opening it so you won’t be stuffy.” She released the latch and began pushing up the window inch by inch.

Absentmindedly, Gray began getting ready for sleep, shrugging off his dress shirt and kicking off his loafers. It wasn’t until then that he noticed the black mark on his shirt. No way was he going to ruin Nana’s sheets with his filth. He slipped it over his head, ready to climb into bed and dream.

Hot, sensual dreams of Sofia. He’d get entirely undressed when she left the room. No point in wrinkling the only clothes he had to wear.

But it seemed Sofia was having trouble getting the window up to where she wanted it. She struggled, grunting and yanking.

“Wait.” Gray crawled across the bed, feeling like an ass for not offering to help sooner.

“What are you doing?” Perspiration dampened her sweet face as she eyed his shirtless chest.

Holding back a laugh, Gray knelt beside her and grasped the bottom of the windowpane. “Helping,” he said, and forced it up.

Wind gusted in and blew her hair off her shoulders. One piece stuck to her moist cheek so he swept it behind her ear.

“What are you doing?” she asked again, her eyes wide in what seemed like fear.

“Are you afraid of me, Sofia?” Had he been that awful to her?

“Of course not.” She wrinkled her nose. “Why would I be afraid of you?”

Her tone wasn’t convincing. Carefully, Gray cupped her cheek. Her skin was soft, speckled lightly with freckles. Beautiful in a way he hadn’t noticed before.

A wary sigh heaved up her chest. Then she leaned into his hand and pulled in her bottom lip only to release it, wet and inviting.

Just one kiss.

Gray brushed his thumb over her lip, desperately wanting to erase every bad notion she had of him. What was it that made him want to be more to her than a cold-hearted jerk?

So much more.

Another gust of wind blew in, and she closed her eyes. Before she could open them again, he tilted her head up and molded his mouth to hers.

She gasped slightly, but didn’t pull away. Her lips were supple and sweet to the taste. Like in his dreams, but better.