“Sure you can. You made it, didn’t you?” I spread the color onto her lip, and she froze. “It does look perfect.” I cocked my head and smacked my lips together. “What’s in this? It has a hint of something . . .”
“Honey.” She blushed the same shade as her lip gloss. “I wanted it to feel good and taste good.”
“For the person wearing it?” I dropped the container of gloss on the table and leaned closer. “Or the person kissing her?”
“Both,” she whispered as I inched toward her, our mouths only a few breaths apart.
“We’re gonna have to test that part out.”
“We are?” She scooted back a little, and I followed.
“Uh-huh. I’m a very dedicated tester,” I said huskily.
“I didn’t know you’d been a tester before,” she huffed. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was jealous.
“This is my first time. I want to get it perfect.” I ran my thumb across her mouth. Heat flared in her eyes. “What else do you need to try out?”
“This.” She darted from the sofa back over to the table. Relief practically poured from her.
“Should I be offended you were that happy to escape my kiss?”
Something in her hands clattered to the table. She met my gaze. “Probably.”
I stifled a grin at how quickly she composed herself. “You won’t evade it forever.”
A blush crept up her neck. “We’ll see.”
It was my turn to be surprised. She hadn’t shot me down. That was a start.
Hands full of I didn’t know what, she piled it on the sofa in front of me and sat back down.
“I can’t believe you’re letting me do this,” she said as she brushed something on my cheeks.
“I can’t believe you make all of this.”
“It’s not hard.”
I shrugged. “Still impressive. Have you shown anyone at the office yet?” She shook her head. “Why not?”
“I don’t know.” She scoured through the pile until she found what she wanted. “We work with the best of the best products.”
“Isn’t that what you’ve got here?”
“I want it to be.”
“Then that’s what you’ll do.” I touched her thigh, and she stared at me. “You can’t make the stuff fast enough for the ladies at Paths.”
“They’re just being nice.”
I gripped her chin, forcing her to look at me. “Being nice is trying something once. They’re all clamoring for your stuff.”
“Who told you that?”
I winked. “I’ve got inside sources.” I lifted my chin and turned my head from left to right. “Now what do you think?”
“I think you make an excellent guinea pig.”
* * *
Baker’s eyelids drooped where she was curled up on the opposite end of the sofa.
“Ready to call it a night?”
She yawned and stretched. “I think so.”
I nudged her in the ribs. “See. Roommate night wasn’t so terrible after all.”
“I guess not.”
I stood and held out my hands to her. She took them, and a spark shot up my arms as I pulled her to her feet. I couldn’t force myself to immediately release her. She seemed frozen as she peered up at me.
Heat crackled between us. I was desperate to pull her closer, but uncertain where the lines were that we weren’t supposed to cross. She’d said maybe we didn’t need boundaries, but I doubted she meant what I had in mind.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” The words were out of my mouth before I thought them through. She looked as surprised as I felt.
“I don’t have any plans.”
“Now you do.”
Lines creased her forehead. “What are they?”
“All you need to know is they end up at Dino’s for Sunday dinner with my family.”
A fondness etched her features. “I like your Dad and your sister.”
I pouted. “What about me?”
“Not really.” Pure mischief taunted me. “Don’t you care what I think about your brother?”
“I kinda hope you don’t like him. That way I don’t have to be jealous.”
“You do realize he’s with my best friend?”
“Doesn’t always mean anything,” I said, too cutting.
She saw too much as she looked at me, her hands squeezing mine back. “It does to me.”
I forced a smile. “Big day tomorrow. We’d better get to bed.”
She opened her mouth as if she wanted to protest, instead led me toward our bedrooms. At our doors opposite one another she hesitated.
“You never have to ask, Baker.”
She swallowed hard, kept my hand in hers as she pulled me into her bathroom. We washed our faces and brushed our teeth. Somehow doing this normal, everyday thing together made me nervous.
She took my hand again and guided us into my room. My heart thudded when she crawled into my bed like she belonged there. Everything inside of me screamed that she did.
She watched me as I rounded the foot of the bed, shedding my T-shirt as I did. I climbed in beside her and stretched out my arm in invitation. The second she nestled against me, a peace settled in my soul.
“You’re spoiling me, Easy,” I said when her breathing evened out.
Although, I was sure I heard mumbled, “No. It’s you spoiling me.”
It had been eight months since I’d had someone else beside me. Someone I thought I’d spend—no, I wasn’t going there. I seemed destined to be on my own. Hell, maybe I didn’t deserve a woman like Baker.
And that would be a dangerous thing to forget.
Chapter Nine
Holt
“What is this place?”
Baker turned in a circle, looking around the dilapidated space with curious eyes.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and kicked at some of the dirt on the floor. “I was thinking of starting my own garage.”
Light clicked as she flicked her gaze toward the roll-up door and back around the space. “Looks like this would be a good place to do it.”
“I can lease to own the whole building. There’s an apartment upstairs. A loft with plenty of room for you to set up shop for making your cosmetics.” I realized the implication of my words as soon as I said them. That whatever future I had, I imagined Baker in it. But how? How did I get to this point with a woman I'd only known a little over three months? And why had I said that out loud?
Her lips parted, an expression somewhere on the spectrum between surprised and horrified flitted across her face. I dug my hands into my pockets, despite that there was nowhere else for them to go. I hadn’t expected her to jump for joy, but I didn’t think she’d look at me like it was the worst idea she’d ever heard.
“Holt,” she said carefully.
I spun around, pretending to inspect something behind me. I couldn’t look at her when she told me no. Until this moment, I didn’t realize how much her answer meant to me. Which was insane. We’d been roommates for weeks. This boundary that separated friendship and something more had barely been breached.