Page 47 of Out of Bounds
“Let’s leave my little buddy to nap and I’ll give you the tour of Pace Palace.”
“Pace Palace?” I drop my hands to my wide belt buckle. “Do girls usually fall for that level of arrogance?”
“They sure do,” he says with a chuckle, making me hide my own as I follow him through the downstairs.
“Nice flowers,” I tell him when we pass a stunning bunch of pink blooms on a side table in the hallway that has various rooms coming off it.
“They’re yours.”
Flowers? He bought me?—
“From Sas,” he adds quickly.Obviously, he didn’t buy me flowers.
I finger the lilies in the bunch. “She’s a sweetie, though I’m not sure I’ll be here long enough to see them fully open.”
Tanner casts me a look that, for him, is almost a frown, then keeps leading the way down the hall.
“I take it my brother didn’t send a housewarming?”
“I think his concession is his gift.”
“Trusting that we can be adults and I won’t try to jump the bones of another sports guy?”
Tanner stops so abruptly I run into his chest, palms flat to two hard pecs beneath his black shirt. I swallow hard, looking up into eyes that are fixed on me. I almost forget where I am and who I’m with as I realize that the expensive scent in this place isTanner;the whole house smells like him. Spice. Wood. Masculinity.
“I’ve got a couple house rules, and the first is this… No self-deprecation. D’you hear? If Colton’s worried about anyone jumping anyone’s bones, it’s me coming after you.”
His Adam’s apple moves as he swallows, pushing his chest harder against my fingertips, and as I thinkI wouldn’t be so sure,he says, “I’ve assured him you have nothing to worry about. This is Annie Bannie’s retreat from stress.”
“And men,” I mutter as Pace continues the tour.
“And the wrong men,” he says quietly, letting me know he heard me.
Dadgum, I almost made it a minute without Auston-sized dark thoughts.
There are more rooms in this place than if it was a genuine palace and we’re only just heading upstairs. He takes me to the farthest door along the corridor first and opens it to a crisp white bed and furniture to match. “I thought Betty could use this room,” he says, because he isn’t contracting only me for a few days, he’s also bringing my son and his nanny with me.
“She’ll love it, thank you.”
Then he shows me three more bedrooms with divinely crisp sheets and tells me I can choose, but only one of the three has an en suite, so I select that option for my holiday from real life.
As I run my fingers along the sheets, I see him, through the floor-length mirror, leaning on the door frame, watching me. While I know it’s my imagination and a growing crush I’m trying to ignore, it feels as if someone has cranked the temperature. My gaze locks on Tanner’s in the mirror for long, slow seconds, until he asks, “Like it?”
I nod, my throat suddenly dry, the memory of his touch heating me in places it ought not to, and when he disappears back into the corridor, I sigh with relief. I havegotto get a hold of my hormones.
He’s waiting by another door, hand braced on the handle. “I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to get things ready for him but this is Nelson’s room.”
He pushes open the door and in doing so, steals the air from my lungs. In the middle of the room is a white crib, with overhanging canopy sheets that are much like Nelson’s at the ranch. The walls have been stenciled with animals, the ceiling with stars and a moon. There’s even a bookcase with books on it and a small white wardrobe.
My fingers tremble as I cover my lips and my eyes gloss over with unshed tears.
“How did you do this?Whydid you do this?”
I turn to him and his usual happy-go-lucky has been replaced with something like concern. “You don’t like it?”
“Like it? Tanner, I don’t have any words for how kind this is. I love it.”
Now one side of his mouth curves up. “Good. I want you both to feel at home while you’re here.”
