Colby turned. “What? No.”
“Yeah, seriously, please don’t leave because of me,” Keats said, turning all aww shucks Texas boy. “I didn’t mean to mess up anything or embarrass you. I’ll go eat in the kitchen and you won’t see me for the rest of the night. Swear.”
“No, it’s fine,” she said, putting on her shoes and not looking at either of them. “It’s getting late anyway. And this is . . . awkward.”
“Wait,” Keats said, stepping into the living room and setting his plate down on an end table. “Don’t feel awkward. I mean, dead honest? Yeah, I shouldn’t have listened to what I did. The second I realized what was going on, I should’ve turned and left. This is my fault. But goddamn, I couldn’t make myself move. Y’all were, well, y’all were fucking hot together.”
“Keats,” Colby warned.
“It’s okay,” Georgia said, finally looking up. She sent Colby a droll smile, no doubt deciding she wouldn’t throw stones at a fellow Peeping Tom. “I get it. As long as you didn’t take any videos or pictures, I won’t have to kill you.”
Keats laughed, looking relieved. “Damn. Video. I should’ve thought of that. Next time I’ll come prepared. Imagine the money, I could—”
Colby grabbed an ink pen from the side table and launched it at Keats. It pinged him in the chest, shutting him up. “Keats, go eat your enchiladas.”
He smirked and gave a salute. “Right away, Teach. Poof! Consider me gone.”
But right as he turned to leave, Georgia called after him. “Hey, Keats, are you going to be around tomorrow?”
He peered back over his shoulder, his affable expression faltering a bit. “Didn’t plan on it. I, uh, have to take care of some things that can’t wait.”
“Will you come back after you’re done?” she asked, that irresistible feminine lilt drifting into her voice. “I have something to talk to you about, but now isn’t the right time.”
He stood there for a long moment but then managed to muster up that disarming smile of his. “All right. I’ll see what I can do.”
She smiled back at him, pleased. “Good night, Keats.”
“’Night.”
He disappeared back into the kitchen, and Georgia turned those pretty dark eyes on Colby. “Well, that isn’t exactly how I wanted to start things off with my potential new employee.”
Colby grabbed her by the waist and lifted her onto his lap to straddle him, settling her right against where he wanted her most. “Yeah, but you’ll probably get a really dedicated worker. I think he’s half in love with you already.”
She smirked. “Half-hard for sure. Like someone else I know.”
He laughed and pushed her hair away from her face. “Can’t blame him. We are hot together. I would’ve stopped and eavesdropped, too, if I were him. But I’m real sorry if he made you uncomfortable.”
She looked down, hiding the secret smile that had touched her lips.
The move was so endearingly sexy that he had to fight his instinct to pick her up and carry her to his bedroom. “Wait, were you uncomfortable?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Is it weird that it wasn’t that uncomfortable?”
He tilted his head, the question spiking his curiosity. “Meaning?”
“Meaning, it was a shock and I reacted, but now . . . I don’t know. Now I kind of don’t care that he saw us.”
Interesting. He filed that away. “And how about that he’s probably in the kitchen right now replaying it in his head and still sporting that hard-on?”
Her lips twitched into that smile again, but she quickly rolled them inward and shrugged. “Not sure.”
Uh-huh. Right. “Or that probably later tonight, when he’s alone, he’ll call up those sounds you made and use the memory to get himself off?”
“Colby,” she said, keeping her voice low and giving him a scandalized look. “Stop. Keep going and I’ll never be able to look at him straight, much less hire him.”
He gave her a wicked grin. What an undeserved gift. His neighbor was so much dirtier than he’d hoped. Not just a voyeur but an exhibitionist streak hiding in there, too. Apparently, he just had to get past that outer layer of anxiety to see that side of her. Right now she was still riding the buzz from her orgasm, and it was letting him see beneath that hard shell she always wore. “Hey, there’s no shame in it. You like knowing you’ve gotten more than one guy hot and bothered, enjoy feeling that kind of sexual energy directed at you. Believe me, I get that. That kind of power can be heady.”
“That’s what it is, isn’t it?” she said, glancing toward the kitchen, probably to make sure Keats wasn’t there listening. “Power.”