Chapter 5
Reina
At some point, Morgan disappeared. I couldn't blame him. There were a lot of women in his kitchen talking and laughing. We probably should have discussed rules about having people over since we were going to be roommates.
Maybe he didn't want a gaggle of women in his kitchen. When Clara suggested we bake, I couldn't say no. Some people said they felt good after exercising; I always felt that way about baking.
It was like everything else around me faded away. The world became clearer. I felt almost Zen-like, probably how others felt when they were meditating.
We baked my favorite comfort food, chocolate chip cookies.
I made them whenever I wanted to feel good.
And right now, with my bakery closed for the foreseeable future and living with Morgan, I needed comfort.
I needed reassurance that I was doing the right thing, making good decisions, and not flirting with trouble.
When the first batch was cooling on racks on the counter, I slid another cookie tray into the oven. It might not have been an industrial kitchen, but there was plenty of space for me to work.
"Were you working out?" Clara asked, and I looked up to find Morgan standing in the doorway shirtless with mesh shorts riding low on his hips. I licked my suddenly parched lips.
Clara's gaze moved to me, probably gauging my reaction.
But the only thing I could focus on were the beads of sweat on his pecs. Beads I wanted to lick off with my tongue. My face heated, and my fingers trembled. I wasn't going to be able to live with Morgan if he walked around half naked. He was testing my ability to resist him.
"Yeah, I wanted to give you space."
"You don't mind that we baked in your kitchen?" I asked, my voice betraying me by sounding breathless.
He rubbed his chest, and my gaze snagged on the motion. "This is your place now too."
What would it feel like to touch his skin there? Was it hot from the exertion and prickly from the sparse hair that curled under his palm? "You can have a few of my cookies later. If you don't mind eating sweets after a workout."
Too late, I realized how that sounded. I'd offered him my cookies—later—when we'd be alone. Had he taken that the wrong way? I glanced around the room where most of the women were looking between us with amused interest.
Morgan threw a thumb over his shoulder. "I'm just going to jump in the shower. Maybe I'll sample one later."
Clara's eyes sparkled. "You're not going to be able to resist. They’re so warm and gooey."
It wasn't a sexual comment, but for some reason, that's where my mind went. I wanted to follow Morgan into the shower and clean him.
I forced myself to look away. I had a feeling everyone was watching our exchange closely. I'd never been close to Morgan. I wasn't interested in getting to know him. But now we were living together. I couldn't escape him.
His daring rescue had sparked something inside my body, an attraction I couldn't seem to shake.
Living in proximity, I'd be forced to get to know him.
I'd either be repulsed, or I was going to be more attracted to him.
I had a feeling it was going to be the latter.
The problem was, he'd already revealed a tiny part of himself—he was protective—and he'd followed through on his word, so he did what he said he would.
All attractive character traits. I had a feeling that the more he revealed, the more I'd like. He was not going to be easy to resist.
He disappeared down the hallway, and I could hear the thump of his footsteps on the stairs. Everyone smiled and looked at me for some kind of revelation that living with a virtual stranger who was hot was not going to lead to anything.
I held my hand up. "He's my brother's friend. He was nice enough to let me live here."
Clara waggled her brows. "Have you been paying attention to the other love stories of the shop owners and their sexy contractors?"
I swallowed hard, because I had noticed them. "Just because one or two women fell for their contractor doesn't mean that it will happen to me."
Belle took a bite of a cooling cookie. "That's what I thought. But I wasn't living with him."
I tipped my head to the side. "You and Maverick had a history. Didn't you date in high school?"
"Are you saying you didn't have a crush on Morgan growing up? He was always hanging around Tom, and you didn't have inappropriate thoughts?" Clara asked.
"First of all, Tom spent more time at the Sterlings than Morgan did with us, and I don't remember ever having those kinds of thoughts about him.
I didn't know him that well either." I'd actually thought he was boring.
He didn't joke around with me or seem overly into sports.
He was just there, a strong and steady friend to my brother.
But there was nothing that hinted at his interests.
"I didn't know Hudson before he fixed my pipes either," Angela said, and everyone laughed at her innuendo. "Get your mind out of the gutter."
"So you're saying that you didn't enjoy that sexy photo shoot?" Meg said, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
Angela's cheeks heated. "We're not talking about that."
One of the other shop owners, Bill, had shown one of the images at the town hall in an effort to discredit her lingerie shop. It had backfired, but I was still worried that Bill would cause trouble now that my electrical would have to be fixed first.
"We've had several successful romances in town, and I think you're next," Clara's voice carried over the conversation that had broken out.
I rolled my eyes at her declaration. "He's only helping me because he has some outdated sense of duty to my brother. It has nothing to do with being attracted to me or wanting something more."
Belle rested her elbows on the counter, her eyes sparkling with interest. "Tell us all about this promise Morgan made to your big brother."
I sighed, frustrated that no one was listening to me. "I think it's ridiculous to assume I'd need protection."
Belle fanned herself with a napkin. "I think it's sweet that your brother wants to know you're safe while he’s deployed."
"I consider myself an independent woman, but I'd still enjoy someone vowing to protect me."
"Right? How hot is that?" Clara said.
"I'd be annoyed too." Meg elbowed me in the side to get my attention.
She was just as independent as me, but it was for a different reason.
She had been a foster kid who was adopted into a new family, but she had wounds from her past, most likely a healthy dose of abandonment from her biological parents, and worries about her brother who hadn't fared as well in his new family.
"It's caveman of Tom to think I'd need protection."
Clara raised a brow. "You're not a teensy-tiny bit impressed that he broke through your door to get you out of that fire, even as firefighters were arriving on the scene? He could have easily stepped aside, and someone else would have saved you."
Would I be having impure thoughts about whoever had saved me? Was it not specific to Morgan but maybe the traumatic experience itself? "I didn't know he broke down the door."
"Eve said that his brothers had to fix it that night," Meg added.
"I had no idea." Suddenly my heart rate picked up, and my mouth was dry. I reached for the wine that Clara had brought and took a healthy sip.
"Slow down, girl. You have to live with that hot specimen of a man who thinks it's perfectly fine to walk around with shorts hung low on his waist and nothing else," Meg advised.
I loved Meg. She was my closest friend out of all the shop owners. We came from completely different backgrounds, but we'd easily clicked on the first day we met. "I should look for another place to live."
Meg's lips quirked. "I'd take advantage of the situation and enjoy it. Why worry about your brother? He's not here to give you rules and boundaries. You're not looking for anything serious, are you?"
Meg was notorious for not wanting a commitment, and it wasn't too hard to understand why.
But me? My parents were a good example of a loving relationship.
I always thought I'd meet the right guy eventually and settle down.
I wasn't looking for a fling with my brother's friend.
I had other things to worry about, like my entire life being uprooted. "I have no idea how he feels about me."
Clara grinned. "I have a feeling he's going to have a hard time if you walk around shirtless after your workouts."
I shook my head. "Yeah, I'm not going to do that."
"But you could make things a little harder for him, if you know what I mean?" Clara said with the hint of a challenge in her voice.
It might be fun to mess with him. Especially since he made a ridiculous promise to my brother.
After we'd eaten way too many cookies, I packed up containers for them to take home. Then I showed them out.
I scrubbed the counters, cleaning the flour off the surfaces. I hoped that Morgan didn't mind that I'd had guests and taken over his kitchen.
I turned on some music and danced around the kitchen as I worked. Just as I was belting out the chorus of a song about a boy calling a girl he'd just met, I jolted because Morgan stood in the doorway, wearing sweats, his hair damp.
I held my hand over my heart, wondering if he was going to be shirtless all the time. "You scared me."
He moved toward my phone, hitting Pause on the music. "It might be because you're playing the music so loud. You didn't hear me."
I gestured at the kitchen. "I'm sorry about the noise, the girls coming over, and the mess I made."
He shrugged, moving deeper into the room. "You live here too. But I'll take payment in the form of cookies."
I nodded toward the covered dish on the island. "I made these for you."
He raised a brow as he lifted the lid. "I'm going to gain weight if you're living here."
"I can make healthy options without using so much sugar," I offered.
His brow furrowed. "What would be the point of that?"