Page 78 of Rhodes

"Not at all. Equally beautiful awake, just in a different way. You've got your armor down when you sleep."

"That's my Trojan horse. I never have my armor down."

"You did have a leg thrown over me half the night. Territorial, and I respect it."

"That was strategic. You run hot."

"I run hot." He hooks a finger in the sheet where I've got it clamped under my arm and tugs on it, testing. "This modesty is new. Because last night I'd have said modesty wasn't really your thing."

Heat gathers low in my stomach, and I don't hate it. "Last night was last night."

"Last night," he starts, and whatever he means to say catches somewhere behind his eyes. For a second, the joke disappears, but there's something else there. Then the grin comes back. "Last night you called me something I'm not repeating before coffee."

"Hmm." It's the best I can manage because I'm already shifting closer. I'm slick between my thighs, suddenly very aware that he's right here, warm and hard and close enough to touch.

His eyes drop to my mouth.

I close the last inch between us.

"You like?" he murmurs, his mouth barely brushing mine. "Say it again, and I'll remind you why."

I don't say it, reaching for him instead. A dumb and brave impulse is already halfway up my throat. I roll onto him, straddling him, when a knock lands hard on the door. Coop's voice comes right through it.

"Rhodes? You up, brother?"

The morning drops out from under me.

I'm off the mattress before I register what’s happening, pulling the sheet with me. Rhodes is faster, already at the end of the bed, pulling on the shorts from the floor. He catches my thong with his foot and kicks it under the bed.

"Bathroom," he mouths, pointing.

I grab my dress on the way, one shoe, and my phone. The other shoe's under the window and there's no time. I cross the tile and pull the bathroom door almost shut, leaving a crack so it doesn't make a sound, and fold myself down between the tub and the wall where the door would hide me. My heart's slamming so hard I feel it in my teeth.

Shit. My clutch is on his floor somewhere. Coop's not going to inspect the floor. I hope. If I think about it, I'll lose it.

Then another thought knocks the wind out of me. If Libba wakes up, my bed is the first place she will go. If it's empty, that's a question with no good answer, and I don't need her going around asking where I am. I thumb the phone open, hands shaking.

Crashed on a bench on the terrace. Can you believe I slept outside in Italy?! do NOT let anyone worry, heading up soon after I find some strong coffee.

I send it. It's mostly true. There was a bench involved.

"You look like death," Rhodes says to my brother as they greet each other with their normal hand-slapping. I feel like the worst kind of person, hiding from my brother, listening to his conversation with his best friend, whom I slept with last night.

Oh, my god.

"Feel like it." Coop says in a gravelly voice. "Brought you what is being sold as a coffee. The barista downstairs gave me a thimble. I said grande, and she looked at me like I'd proposed."

"Hey, that's Italy for you."

I can tell Rhodes is freaking the fuck out, too. Maybe I'm projecting, but no one wants to hear about the small coffees in Italy, Cooper.

"Man, I need this to hit, or I need to get a beer. One or the other needs to kick this headache." The clink of a cup on wood. "Cain was trying to put us in the ground with that wine. Who serves that much wine?"

"A man in love."

"A man showing off." Coop laughs, then groans at his own laugh. "Car's picking me up in an hour. I hate flying hungover. Want to go for a swim with me before I leave? Might help, and there's no one down there."

I press into the cold plaster and stay still. Yes, go swim with him, Rhodes. Please go with him and give me an out.