She turned, pasting a smile on her face. “Hey.”
He was in jeans and a white T-shirt, his hair wet and mussed from the shower. But she couldn’t focus on anything but the flush of color riding high on his cheekbones. The glow.
“I didn’t hear you come in. How long have you been here?” he asked.
She waved a dismissive hand, way too cheerily. “Oh, not long. Sorry if I woke you. I needed a caffeine fix but didn’t realize the coffeepot doubled as a tornado siren.”
His eyes met hers, evaluating. “That coffeepot’s the slowest I’ve ever seen. You must’ve been here a little while.”
Damn it. She kept her Stepford smile in place. “Guess I was good at being quiet and not waking you then.”
She took a long sip of her second cup of coffee, wishing it were spiked with something.
“You didn’t wake me. I was working out.”
“Oh. Great!”
Stop. Exclaiming.
He leaned against the island and crossed his arms. “You know FBI agents are trained to spot lies, right?”
She closed her eyes. Breathed.
“How much did you hear, Liv?”
Hear. Well, at least he didn’t think she’d seen him. She lifted her gaze to his and scrunched her nose. “Enough?”
“Fantastic,” he groused and moved toward the coffeepot to pour his own cup. “Can we ignore that you heard anything?”
“Yep!”
“Can you stop using the cheerleader voice?”
“Yep!”
He turned and gave her a sardonic look.
“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not sure why my voice is doing that. And I’m sorry I invaded your privacy. I really just needed some coffee.”
“I should’ve been more aware. Usually I hear everything. I didn’t think you’d be able to get in without me knowing.” He took a sip of his coffee, but she didn’t miss the wary look on his face.
“Well, working on that post-doc can be distracting.”
He glanced up, confused for a second, and then her comment registered. “The PhD level I mentioned last night. Weren’t we going to not talk about this?”
She gave him a sheepish look. “Sorry. I’ll stop.”
Though her thoughts didn’t stop at all. Like wondering if he got to finish. Wondering what he was thinking right now. Wondering if that color in his face was from orgasm or frustration.
He gave her a look like a teacher would give a naughty student, like he knew. He nodded at her camera bag, which she’d set on the island, and blessedly changed the subject. “So you look like you’ve been up a while.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep so I decided to go for a morning walkabout. Got some sunrise pics. Annoyed some wildlife.”
He finally let a half-smile peek through. “That’s good. Not that you couldn’t sleep, but that you’re already getting some camera time in.”
“I’m on borrowed time, so I figured I should squeeze in as much as I can.”
He nodded. “Have any particular plan of what you want to photograph today?”