Chapter 13
Cole set her down and leapt away from her with a quickness Hadley found insulting.
It’d just been one kiss, she thought defensively. An impulsive move that felt right given their circumstances. Or, their characters’ circumstances, at least. A married woman being carried over the threshold by her hot, strong, muscly husband would for sure kiss him, right??
The answer was yes. Such a woman would definitely kiss her husband.
So why was Cole looking at her like she was a roadside bomb about to go off in his face after giving her the best, most earth-shattering, toe-curling kiss of her life?
Hadley sighed and decided she was too tired to unravel the enigma-wrapped-in-a-mystery-wrapped-in-a-question that was Cole Clayton. Instead, she turned her attention to the furnishings that had been delivered and set up ahead of their arrival.
It didn’t take more than a quick glance to determine there was nothing here she would’ve bought for herself.
Gray-washed end tables, a sleek, modern-looking gray sofa that did not look comfortable enough to curl up on with a plush blanket when she was sick, tasteful but bland landscape artwork on the walls that she was pretty sure her dentist had in his waiting room…
yeah, this wasn’t her style at all. “This is…”
“An affront to joy?” Cole muttered, glancing around with disgust.
She couldn’t help but chuckle. “It is kind of bland. Reminds me of…”
“Unseasoned chicken breast.”
“Not exactly what I was thinking, but now that you mention it, yes. It’s serviceable enough, I guess.
Wonder if this is how all the neighbors decorate?
” She shuddered. “Makes me wonder how we’re going to be able to fit in with them if that’s the case.
This is nothing at all like your house or mine. ”
He side-eyed her, and that’s when she realized she’d said too much.
She’d never been in his house. She shouldn’t know that his bedroom contained a dark-stained, antique oak dresser and a ginormous King-sized mattress that looked to have a lush pillow top, or that he changed his rich, jewel-toned bedding religiously every three days.
Unless she’d been spying on him, of course. Which she had. Which he knew already.
Gulp.
But either he was too gentlemanly to point all that out, or he didn’t want to have an awkward conversation with his fake wife about her voyeuristic tendencies, because he kept his mouth shut.
Thank God. Explaining the sheer number of times she’d gazed into his house like she was studying him for her midterms would be humiliating as fuck.
She cleared her throat. “So, uh, now what?”
He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “I’ll grab our bags from the car, and you can get situated in the master bedroom. While you’re doing that, I’ll check out the property and set up the surveillance equipment.”
She should probably have questions about the surveillance equipment and what they’d do first to meet the neighbors. Instead, her brain tripped and fell over one tiny part of what he’d said. “Um…I could take your stuff too, and, you know, get us both situated in the master if you want.”
His gaze swept down the length of her body for a split second, and Hadley would swear the temperature in the room shot up twenty degrees.
“If anyone in this neighborhood actually is a sleeper agent, they’ll check us out thoroughly, including searching this house.
We need it to look like we’re an ordinary, boring, married couple.
So, yeah, set us both up in there. But don’t worry.
I can sleep anywhere. I’ll take that couch. ”
She raised a brow at the couch, which didn’t look big enough for a man of Cole’s size by half. And besides that, even if he could contort himself to fit on that thing, it couldn’t possibly be comfortable. “I’m sure the bed’s at least a queen. We could always share. I don’t mind.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “I…mind.”
His words would’ve hurt her feelings if he hadn’t said them in a tone that suggested he’d love nothing more than to share a bed with her. That was an ego boost, quite frankly. “It’s up to you, of course.”
His gaze fell to her lips again. Then lower.
A muscle in his jaw tensed as he took a step forward.
She held her breath. Holy crap, was he going to kiss her again?
He sure as hell looked like he was going to kiss her again.
Her heart kicked against her ribcage hard enough that she started to wonder if he could hear it.
OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod…
Cole abruptly spun on his heel and stalked out the front door, every muscle in his body tensed, without saying a word.
Well. Just…hell.