Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(22)

Lollipop panted her doggy breath in his face, smiling from ear to ear. It was impossible not to smile back. “You’re a nut,” he said fondly. Rising, he stripped out of his clothes, took a quick shower, and came out to find Lollipop watching with a worried expression that said she didn’t like nor trust water. He brushed his teeth, dropped his towel, tucked her back into her bed, and then climbed into his. He closed his eyes and . . .

Lollipop whined.

“You’re okay,” he said in the dark. “I’m right here.”

But like the backseat of his car and her bed in the living room, she wasn’t having it. He heard her move to the side of his bed and attempt to jump up.

And miss.

“Shit.” He leapt out of bed and scooped her up. She was fine, but he’d just had a heart attack. Giving up, he got back into bed. With her. She curled up against his side and was snoring before he lay his head on his pillow.

He was such a sucker.

He slept for a few hours, waking just before dawn with Lollipop asleep on his chest. He managed to check his phone without disturbing her and found a text from Sadie from around midnight the night before.

WHERE’S MY PROOF OF LIFE?



He snapped a quick pic of Lollipop and sent it off. Two seconds later, his phone rang.

“Who belongs to the abs my dog is sleeping on?” Sadie wanted to know.

“Me,” he said.

His phone buzzed. Sadie had switched to FaceTime. He hit accept and there she was, hair wild around her makeup-free face. Her eyes were . . . well, amazing. “Hey,” he said and felt a stupid grin come over his face. “You’re in my bed.”

“Funny,” she said, her tone making it clear she didn’t find him funny at all. “What the hell are you doing?”





Chapter 8





#GetAGrip



Sadie didn’t know where to look, his bare chest, those broad shoulders, the abs that she wanted to lick . . . It was a complete feast for her eyes. But no way was she going to admit such a thing.

“Morning,” Caleb said with a lazy smile and a gruff morning voice that gave her a secret thrill.

Get a grip! she ordered herself. So he looked sexy as hell first thing in the morning. So what. And so she was thinking things, really erotic things. He didn’t need to know this. “Sleeping with my dog on your bed is the exact opposite of not letting my dog sleep on your bed,” she said.

His mouth curved. “Our dog,” he said. “And she wouldn’t sleep unless she was with me.”

“But you’re naked.”

He shrugged. “That’s how I sleep.”

Oh boy. She was torn between relief and disappointment that his sheet was pooled low on his hips, hiding his goodies.

“You look pretty,” he said.

She was in an oversize T-shirt and sweats. No makeup. And she knew damn well she had circles under her eyes and was pale. Stress. But here was the thing. This gorgeous man, naked or not, impeccably groomed or not, was staring at her absolutely meaning what he said. He thought she looked good and she was going to own that. But it was going to take her a moment.

His eyes darkened and a bolt of electricity came through from his phone to hers and directly to her good parts.

Huh. Maybe she wasn’t going to need a minute after all.

“Wow,” he murmured in that husky morning voice. “Mark the date. I just rendered Sadie Lane speechless.” He paused and his eyes took her in the way she looked at red velvet cupcakes. And then his smile spread. “You want me bad.”

“Wrong. First, it’s the middle of the night and my brain isn’t running on full power.”

The combo of humor and heat in his eyes said he was onto her but too polite to call her a liar. “And second?” he inquired.

Dammit, she’d forgotten the rest of her point. “You know what? So you have superior genes. That’s just good luck. Don’t let it go to your head. Either of them.” And then she disconnected.

She needed a cold shower.

Her phone rang as she rose from her bed a few minutes later. She expected it to be Caleb again, but it wasn’t. It was her boss at the day spa, reminding her that though she thought Lollipop was very cute, she wouldn’t be allowed in the spa.

Something Sadie already knew but had hoped for anyway. She looked at the time. Damn. And then she took a deep breath and thumbed to recent calls and hit Caleb’s contact.

Which meant it was a FaceTime call instead of a regular one. He answered wearing a whole lot of wet, sleek, sinewy skin and a towel wrapped dangerously low on his hips. He shook his head and drops flew into the steam around him. “What’s up?”

“Um,” she said brilliantly, operating on maybe two brain cells.

He smiled. “Tell me the truth. You just wanted to see me naked again.”

She bit her own tongue hard to get it to behave. No sense in giving information to the enemy. “You’re not naked, you’re wearing a towel.”

“I could lose the towel.”

“Not interested,” said her mouth.

Her brain though, it was telling her a different story.

He just grinned. He knew. Dammit. She forced her gaze off his body and into his eyes.

But that was almost worse because his body, great as it was, didn’t hold her as much as his eyes did. There were secrets there, and a dark edge that gave her a shocking thrill. Caleb Parker was a man of power and wealth, and he was always, always in control. But a part of her wondered what he might be like if he lost that control . . .