A hard, virile man.
“Damn it, Cassandra, I said rub harder.”
Juliet jolted in Noah’s arms, trying to get away from her own response and the images the disembodied voices were painting in her head. With a hard swallow, she pulled free of the strong arm holding her.
“I think we should go,” she whispered, darting a quick look at him. “And come back later.” After a cold shower or something.
“What?” Noah’s eyebrows rose. “Why?”
Another “Rub harder,” echoed in the room, turning up the heat on her face.
Noah gave a sudden grin, as if now he could see the story playing out in her imagination. “Juliet Weston. Get your mind out of the gutter.” Still grinning, he returned to the front door, where he grasped the string of bells hanging from the handle. At his tug, they rang out.
From the hall, the woman’s voice instantly responded. “Be with you in half a second,” she called out.
“Thanks a lot.” The unseen man groused. “It might take a little longer than that.”
The woman laughed, and from his renewed place beside Juliet, Noah did, too. For her part, the situation seemed serious. Last night her shell had crumbled, freeing at least one thing she would rather have stayed safely under wraps. Before now, her mind had never wandered into the gutter!
Clearly she needed another focus in her life besides Noah.
On that thought, Cassandra came hurrying around a corner. “Juliet!” Her big blue eyes widening, she stopped short and her fall of rippling brown hair settled about her shoulders. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”
“We didn’t have anything else going on today,” Juliet said.
The other woman came closer. “And you wanted to make sure you hadn’t dreamed it all up?”
“Something like that.”
“I know I wondered,” Cassandra said. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a sleeveless cotton hoodie sweater that she had surely knit herself. “You can’t imagine the jump my heart gave when you walked in last night and I glimpsed another pair of Nikki’s eyes looking back at me.”
It had been a jolt for Juliet, too. But it had taken a naked Noah to bring her completely awake. She carefully kept her gaze away from him now. “We just saw Nikki at the fish place next door. They’re still the same blue and green as mine.”
Cassandra nodded, a smile playing around her full mouth. “The same. Though I think I see something of myself in you, too.”
“Yes? Well…” Juliet hesitated. “I hope we’re not interrupting.”
“No, no. Gabe and I are re-wallpapering the bathroom. It’s going to look so cute when we’re done.”
“Cute?” A dark-haired, dark-eyed man came around the corner. He was very lean and his hair was scruffy. It looked as if he hadn’t shaved in a few days and his whiskers only made his scowl appear fiercer. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
Cassandra lowered her voice and leaned toward Juliet and Noah. “I think he’s color-blind. I told him the pale blue and yellow stripes are black and silver—he’s a Raiders fan and it seemed to make him happy.”
Juliet didn’t think the whiskered man would ever be happy, even with a bathroom inspired by his favorite football team. Especially as his scowl was only turning more menacing as he stomped over to confront the other woman.
“Damn it, Cassandra. Cute is going to drive my property values down.”
“Nonsense,” she said calmly. “Your nasty temper does that all by itself.”
He sucked in a breath and stiffened with what looked like outrage.
Cassandra ignored that, too. Reaching out to balance herself on one of his heavy forearms, she came up on tip-toes to kiss his bristled cheek. “Just kidding.”
At the touch of her lips, he arched back, as if her mouth was fire. “I’m outta here,” he muttered. “The last strip is up and holding.”
Cassandra called to his retreating back. “That’s two dinners I owe you then.”
He waved without turning or even slowing his stride. “For your information, I see colors just fine. Which means if the rice is that brown crap, I’ll know it. I want red beef and white starchy stuff, Froot Loop.” Then he was out the door.
With a little sigh, Cassandra returned her attention to Juliet and Noah. “I hate that nickname. It’s a toss-up as to whether it’s his diet or me that will kill him first.” Then she reached out toward Noah. “I’m Cassandra Riley, by the way.”
He gripped her hand. “Noah Smith.”
Cassandra’s gaze shifted to Juliet’s face, and then to the hand that Noah had placed on her waist when Gabe had come marching into the room, trailing his black mood along with him. “Your boyfriend?” she asked Juliet.