Chapter 11
Ashlyn
“What’s all this?” Zane asks, and I saw the question coming before it ever left his mouth. “I told you there was no need to bring anything.”
“No,” I correct him as I turn away from the open trunk of my car and hand him the box with the peacock lamp in it. “You told me not to get a moving truck. You never said I couldn’t bring any of my things. What did you expect me to do? Get rid of everything?”
“I mean…I have lamps,” he says as he inspects the box. “Ones with less feathers…”
“Well, I want my things…at least some of them,” I tell him as I add more things to the box. Things that make his eyebrows arch and his lips tip down in a frown, which makes me smile.
“Fair enough,” he mutters. “As long as they’re in your room where no one else can see them.”
“Why? Are you planning on inviting girls over and want to impress them with your boring million-dollar art and leather couches?” I tease. Zane’s eyes snap up to mine.
“More like I don’t want to walk into the kitchen for a glass of water in the middle of the night and be jump-scared by a hairy gremlin. What is this thing anyway?” he asks as he pulls it out of the box.
“That’s not a gremlin! It’s a Gruffalo. And be careful with it! It happens to be signed by Julia Donaldson herself.” I tell him. “When I was a child, it was my favorite book.”
“I’ll stick with Stephen King,” he says and I blink. “What? I can read, you know.”
“Good. Then read this,” I say, pointing at the FRAGILE warning on the side of the box.
Zane sighs and makes his way into the house. I can’t help but laugh. This whole situation is ridiculous, but I’m in it now so there’s no reason I can’t have a little fun with it. Besides, the infamous Zane Calloway looks good with some ruffles in his feathers.
“So I don’t know how much you remember about the house from before,” he says over his shoulder as I follow him through the foyer. “Seeing as how you came in the back door…”
Ahh! We are back to the tennis match that is our normal conversation.
“I don’t know much of the layout at all,” I tell him. “But I will say your roses need trimming,” I toss back.
“You could use some trimming yourself,” he teases, and my jaw drops. Zane attempts to redeem himself with a little chuckle. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. You were very nicely manicured…”
“The tour?” I press on.
“Of course.”
I follow slowly behind Zane as he points everything out.
Most of the flooring is a light wood with cream-colored walls and wood framing.
Everything is clean, sleek, understated, but very obviously expensive.
Nothing is gaudy, which is nice, but it’s definitely modern.
It’s a little bland for my taste. As the tour continues, I notice everything is expensive. Modern, boring, and expensive.
“You’ve seen the backyard,” he says snarkily. “So we don’t need to tour that again. There’s the kitchen, the gym, a spare room I use for guests…”
Zane walks the length of his house, pointing things out as we pass them. One of the doors we pass is open, and as we walk by, it catches my eye.
I stop, pressing the door open further. “What’s in here?” I ask. There’s a desk in the middle, some bookshelves and an easel. But what really catches my eye are the walls. They’re covered in art. Paintings, charcoal, sketches.
“That’s my office,” he says, grabbing the doorknob and yanking it shut so quickly it nearly slams me in the face. “This is the only room that’s off limits.”
His tone is cool and guarded. So I nod and keep walking.
“The bathroom,” I tell him as I scope out the giant walk-in shower in the hallway bathroom. “It’s bigger than my entire apartment.”
Smells better too. While I didn’t hate my cozy little abode, it was arguably not the nicest place. But it was affordable…at least until it wasn’t.
“Wait till you see your bathroom,” he tells me as we round the corner into a master suite.
“Damn…” I let out. “Your room is bigger than the whole complex!” It’s an exaggeration, but not by much.
The bed has to be a California King. There’s a TV mounted on the wall that might as well be in a movie theatre.
French doors open onto a private balcony overlooking the pool as well as half the city.
“This isn’t my room,” he says, and my eyes sweep over to him. Meanwhile, my mouth is still hanging open.
“You don’t sleep in the suite?”
“I have more than one,” he chuckles. “And this one is yours.”
“This…this is my room?” I ask. Then I realize how I sound and change my stance. “It’s nice. I mean…it’ll do.”
“Good,” he says, setting the box down. “Hopefully, the Jacuzzi tub in your bathroom will do too.”
With that, he walks out, and even though he’s not facing me, I know he’s got that stupid smirk on his face. Then he stops.
“By the way. The entire house is yours to use. You can come and go as you please. The kitchen, the game room, the garden, the pool. Any of it. Except for my office. My office is off-limits,” he says.
“Why? Is that where you hide the bodies?” I joke, but he doesn’t smile. “I’m kidding. Sheesh.”
“The office is off-limits,” he echoes, and he waits until I nod to walk off.
I’m less interested in the hot tub than I am in the bathroom.
I shrug it off and walk over to check things out.
Then I see the tub he is talking about. I make a mental note to take advantage of it soon.
I look down at the edge of the tub where there is a plethora of candles, soaps, and lotions. All the things that I would like.
I narrow my eyes and grab one of the candles, marching back into the kitchen where Zane is refilling a water bottle. I realize then that he’s in gym clothes.
“Why do you have candles in the bathroom?” I ask.
“Because women like candles,” he answers casually. “From my experience, anyways.”
“So you bought these for another woman?” I smile, sucking my teeth.
“No,” he says, walking around me and down another hall. I didn’t notice it the last time I was here, but this place is huge. Like a labyrinth. “I bought them for you.”
I follow him, candle still in hand. “You bought candles for me?” I ask.
“Yes. Candles. Soaps. Lotions,” he says, walking into a room that looks like a public gym. Not that I am surprised.
“How did you know I like freesia? Apple? Honey?” I ask, and he turns halfway around to face me.
“Because that’s what you smell like,” he states as if it’s the most obvious thing ever
“My perfume?” I ask, and his eyes drag down to a lower region of my body.
“Among other things…”
For the second, maybe third, time my jaw unhinges at this man’s audacity. Yeah. I’m going to have to up my game.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he says, setting down his water bottle and laying back on the bench. “I have a very strict workout regimen that isn’t going to change just because I have a new roommate.”
A smirk crawls across my face. Because two can only play this game if I actually play the game. And believe it or not, I do know how to play the game. Not from experience. More like from watching a lot of Billionaire Hearts with Demi.
I slink over and carefully step over him so I am straddling him while standing up. Then I bend down, careful not to touch him in the motion. Luckily for me, I do a lot of yoga.
“Is that what we are now?” I ask softly. “Roommates?”
Zane’s hands are on the bar as he stares up at me.
“Unless…you want to be more…” he says.
“That sounds…complicated…don’t you think?” I ask, holding the bar as well to hover over him.
“Complicated isn’t always bad…” he says.
I let the smirk crawl further across my lips, which are close enough to his to feel the heat of his mouth.
Then, as I go to stand up, Zane slides out from under the bar and grabs me.
He sits up and tugs me down onto his lap.
Suddenly, I realize that this kind of backfired.
But before I can protest, his lips are on mine.
And by that time, I’m not so sure I want to protest.
“I really nailed it, didn’t I?” he asks as his lips suckle a trail down my neck.
“Nailed…what…exactly?” I ask breathily as he finds a sweet spot and teases it relentlessly.
“The candle,” he asks as he continues kissing my neck. “It smells just like you. Though I doubt it tastes as good.”
I bite my lip between my teeth, squirming in his lap. Part of me thinks this has gone too far, but I also think if he stopped, I’d die. So he continues to suckle and I continue to squirm until finally, he pulls back, leaving my skin numb and my head racing.
“You know what? I think you’re right. Maybe we should just be roommates. Because if this is an option, I’m going to want to do a different kind of workout every day.”
I roll my eyes and hop up, marching out the door with my cheeks flaming.
“You forgot your candle!” he calls back, and I can literally hear the teasing in his voice.
“Good. Take a bite of it. See if it tastes like me because that’s all you’re going to get, roomie.”
“Whatever you say…”