23. Building Up Inside
BUILDING UP INSIDE
The apartment door opened when Paris was pulling scallops out of the fridge. It’d be a fast meal and she needed the fuel after that.
“London, what are you doing here?”
“Well, hello to you too,” her sister said. “Spencer is held up doing something so I came home. Oh, yum, scallops. I’m starving.”
Her eyes were wide, her mind going to the man who was most likely taking a shower in her bathroom.
This was going to be uncomfortable.
She should have told her sister before now.
“I’ll start if you want to shower and change.”
That might buy enough time for her to run in and let Fletcher know and push his ass out.
“Why would I shower?” London said. “I haven’t worked out yet. I’ll go to the gym after dinner.”
There was a door shutting. She heard it. She was positive her sister did too.
Fletcher closing the bathroom door.
He would have heard them talking by now and was staying in her room. But that door wasn’t shut.
And her sister didn’t hesitate to turn and walk those few steps into her bedroom.
“I can explain.”
London was laughing. Paris was right on her sister’s heels as Fletcher was putting his gun holster back on his shoulder, not smiling. Not doing much more than getting dressed like he was starting his day rather than having just screwed her brains out.
Considering the hot guy in front of her was still barefoot and his hair was wet, it was obvious what was going on.
“What? Is his shower broken?” London asked.
“Very funny,” she said. “Come out here and I’ll explain.”
“No need to. I get it. I can see. I wish I saw before, and now I feel bad I wasn’t paying as much attention.
” London was almost bouncing in place and waving her hand.
“How long has this been going on? My sister isn’t floating enough for me to think she finally got a piece of ass after so long today? I mean, for the first time.”
“Go to your room and change,” Paris hissed.
London only laughed harder. “Oh, this is better than Netflix.”
Fletcher, fully dressed now, stepped past them like he hadn’t just been caught dressing in her bedroom. Calm. Collected. Infuriatingly unbothered and almost prepared to watch a show. Damn him. He could rein it in better than her.
“London,” he said evenly, giving her a polite nod. “Good to see you.”
“Oh, I’m sure it isn’t,” London said, her eyes sparkling, the giddiness coming through. Her sister’s voice was rising, her excitement almost too much to contain over Paris being caught sneaking around. “I leave town for one weekend and come home to this.”
She grabbed her sister’s arm and dragged her a few feet. “Lower your voice.”
“I’m not yelling.”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
London leaned against the counter in the kitchen, grinning like she’d just uncovered buried treasure her sister had kept hidden for years. “How long has this been going on?”
She focused hard on drying scallops that didn’t need that much attention. Didn’t seem as if Fletcher was going to help her out either.
“It’s new.”
“How new?”
“Recent,” she said.
“Paris,” London pressed.
She sighed and glanced over her shoulder.
Fletcher had taken a seat at the kitchen island like he belonged there. His elbows rested casually on the counter watching them with that steady, unreadable expression. If he was uncomfortable, he hid it well.
Which somehow made this worse!
Like he was waiting to hear her explanation before he contributed.
Not fair!
“We’re… dating,” she said, keeping her voice level. Keeping it calm. Cool. Restrained. Just like the guy staring at her. “It’s not a big deal.”
“You’re dating Mr. Broody Security Robot?”
She stiffened. “Hey. He has a name. And he’s not a robot. At least not with me.” She turned sweetly and winked at Fletcher.
Still nothing out of him.
Maybe he was a robot.
“I know he has a name. I just didn’t think you’d ever get close enough to use it personally. Or... romantically.”
She groaned. “Can we not do this while he’s sitting right there?”
“Oh, I’m going to do this while he’s sitting right there.” London leaned around her and waved her hand in front of his face. “Fletcher, blink twice if she bullied you into this.”
He didn’t blink. “I’m here voluntarily.” She was watching for his reaction. She couldn’t get much of a read, but then she caught the slight twitch of his upper lip. His eyes shifted to her and then back to her sister.
London clutched her chest. “He speaks. And has movement. He’s alive!”
She shoved London again. “You’re ridiculous. Go. You can’t eat with us if you’re going to be this way.”
London lowered her voice slightly. “Okay. All jokes aside. I just had to. You know. It would have been building up inside of me all night if I couldn’t get it out.” Her sister shook her arms wildly. “I’m better. But seriously. When were you planning to tell me? Not to add guilt.”
“But you’re going to.”
“Yep. I’m kind of hurt. You knew all along about Spencer.”
“I guessed how you felt about Spencer, then I was looking for the signs. I read you better than you read me.”
“You can lie to yourself all you want, but I’ve known all along you thought Fletcher was hot.”
She groaned when he lifted his eyebrow. “You know that. Stop. You’re just giving her fuel to continue. Let her see the side of you I’ve seen.”
London put her hands up. “I don’t need to see that. I’ve got a man. He might get jealous.”
She glanced at Fletcher again. He was watching her now, not her sister. Just… attentive.
And that softened something in her.
His eyes relaxed, his hand came out, and she put hers in it.
To show her sister that he wasn’t a robot.
That he had a softer side, even if it was only that small gesture.
But she took it and moved closer and he put his hand around her waist.
“I was going to tell you,” she said quietly. “I just didn’t know how. I thought for sure last Sunday when you got home you’d know.”
“Because that is when you got popped?” London asked, laughing.
Her shoulders dropped. “I thought we were stopping with the games.”
“Fine. Sorry.” London looked at Fletcher. “You know Paris is the good twin. It’s not like her to sneak around and do taboo things. Like sleep with the guy tasked for getting her out of trouble.”
“You’re the one who gets into trouble, not me.”
“No one is in trouble,” he said.
“I thought I was trouble for you,” she said sweetly, then put a kiss on his lips.
He returned it, barely.
Guess he wasn’t one for showing affection in front of people.
Truth was, neither was she.
But everything with Fletcher was different.
“I’m going to change and, Paris, you can come with me.”
“Now you’re ordering me around?”
“I’m the older sister. I can.”
“I’ll start dinner,” he said. “What do you want with these?”
“Whatever you can find that goes,” she said, moving away and following London to her room.
“Well,” London said when the door was closed.
She rolled her eyes. “It just sort of happened.”
London’s grin turned wicked. “Clearly.”
Heat rushed up her neck. “Oh my God. I meant last weekend, not just before you walked in the door.”
“Well, I’m just saying, the wet hair and bare feet were not subtle clues. What did you think I was going to say?”
She opened the door to leave. Her sister was having too much fun with this to talk seriously.
But London only followed behind her, having done not much more than kick off her shoes.
In front of them Fletcher was dumping spring mix into a bowl with some other vegetables out on the counter. “I can step out if this is easier,” he said, his voice almost flat.
“No!” she and London said at the same time.
London smirked. “Stay. This is fun.”
Paris covered her face for a second. “Please ignore her.”
She just wanted to vanish.
If there was one person she could be embarrassed in front of, it was her twin.
But she didn’t want to feel this way in front of the man who’d been taking up way too much of her thoughts lately. And who was clearly enjoying this.
He obviously wasn’t a robot and she hoped her sister noticed that.
“I can’t,” he said mildly. “She’s loud.”
London gasped. “I like him.”
She dropped her hands and glared at both of them. “I hate both of you.”
London leaned in closer. “You’re blushing.”
“Am not.”
“Are too. And you’re glowing. Which means this isn’t casual.”
She froze for half a second.
Talk about putting them both on the spot.
She straightened, her defensive reaction snapping back into place. “We’re just seeing where it goes.”
He didn’t contradict her. But she could feel his eyes on her.
London looked between them, then grinned again. “Well. I’m happy. But I expect details later.”
“No,” she said firmly.
London shrugged. “We’ll see.”
At least that was a sign her sister was going to let this drop.
“Please go change, and we’ll get dinner done.”
“My sister,” London sang out, “cooking dinner with her boyfriend. So sweet.”
The door shut and she turned to Fletcher. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“She’s a bit... much.”
“She is. I knew that.”
“Because you researched us so much?” she asked.
“Not like you think.” She watched as he assembled the salad like it was nothing more than a nightly chore.
He must have sensed her eyes on him. He turned, then put a kiss on her lips. “Relax. I’m just having fun with you.”
“Seems like everyone is tonight.”
“I would have thought the calmer you were, the more it’d work your sister up.”
“It would have. But it seems being embarrassed makes it worse in my case.”
Which she should have remembered, but it’d been so long since she’d been in this position.
And never with a man.
“I can leave if you want,” he said.
She shook her head. “No. Not unless you want to. Or have to get home to Ian.”
“We can have dinner.” His hand came out, running down the side of her face. “Tell me what you need me to do for you to relax around your sister.”
“Nothing,” London said. “That move right there, it tells me everything I need to know.”
She growled and put her head down on the counter.
This dinner was going to be so uncomfortable and for the life of her she had no idea why.
No, that was wrong.
She knew why.
Because it just mattered too much.
This thing she had. The start of something with Fletcher. It was everything she’d been waiting for and she just wished it wasn’t so complicated.