He was standing still with his back to the bed. She frowned. ‘Luke?’
He held his arms up as if in surrender but didn’t turn around. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I thought you were awake. I didn’t realise you were...’
Claudia frowned again. ‘Asleep?’ she clarified when it didn’t appear as if he was going to finish his sentence.
He seemed to hesitate before saying, ‘Er...yes...’
Claudia shrugged. ‘Well, I’m awake now...kind of.’
Luke doubted it. He’d know the second she woke up fully.
Claudia yawned as she ran a hand through her hair. ‘You might as well stay and talk to—’
Luke didn’t have to wait much longer. The muscles in his shoulders tensed.
‘Oh...my...God!’
Yep. Now, she was awake.
Claudia looked down at herself in horror. She was naked? She covered her brea**sts with an arm as she made a wild grab for the sheet, the quick impulsive tumble into bed the night before coming back in all its stupid glory.
She glared at Luke’s back, the full implications sinking in pretty damn quick as she dragged the sheet right up to her chin and scuttled back until she was sitting ramrod straight against the bed head.
He’d seen her like this.
‘How much did you see?’ she demanded.
Luke, relieved to hear the rustle of the sheets, dropped his hands. ‘I...’ He was caught between lying to make her feel better and blurting out the truth.
Too bloody much.
He was never going to see her as that skinny six-year-old any more.
‘Oh, God,’ Claudia wailed, his silence more damning than any words. ‘Please tell me I had the sheet on.’
‘You did.’
He turned to assure her he hadn’t seen everything but her frantic, ‘Don’t you dare turn around,’ had him swivelling back to face the connecting door again.
Claudia clutched the sheets harder. ‘What did you see?’
‘Claude...’
Claudia wasn’t in any mood to be placated. ‘What. Did. You. See?’
‘Just a...little bit of your...upper...part.’ Luke waited for the lightning bolt to strike him dead.
Claudia shut her eyes. Oh, dear God. He’d seen her breasts. Within a handful of days he’d not only touched them but he’d seen them as well.
Damn, damn, damn.
‘I’m really sorry...’ Luke continued. ‘I thought you were up...I thought I heard your shower pipes. I did knock.’
‘How long were you standing there for?’ she demanded.
Again Luke wasn’t sure what the right answer was—the truth sure as hell wasn’t pretty. ‘Not...long...’
His hesitancy did not fill Claudia with confidence. ‘Oh, God...you were, weren’t you? Just standing there staring at me—naked—while I was asleep.’
‘I...’ He went to turn again.
Claudia pulled the sheet closer. ‘Stop right there!’
Luke stopped mid-turn. ‘This is ridiculous, Claude.’
Why was he facing the door when she’d obviously covered herself? He wanted to be able to plead his case and he needed to look at her for that. He needed her to know that he hadn’t snuck into her room purely to perve on her.
Even if he had, in reality, not been able to tear his eyes off her.
But it hadn’t been premeditated.
‘I’m turning around,’ he announced.
‘No, you’re not,’ Claudia squeaked.
‘Yes,’ he said grimly. ‘I am.’ And did just that.
‘Luke!’ she gasped, outraged.
‘Oh, relax,’ he chided. Claudia had the sheet hiked up to her chin. ‘You’re more dressed than you were five minutes ago.’
Claudia blinked. ‘Oh, nice, real nice, Luke,’ she said scathingly.
Luke took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered, holding up his hands in a sign of contrition. ‘But you’re perfectly decent and I promise I’m not going to leap across the space between us and rip the sheet away so just ease up on it a little or the bloody thing will tear in two and then we’ll be back at square one.’
‘Yes.’ Claudia nodded vigorously. ‘With you gawking at me,’ she said caustically, but she eased off, lowering the sheet to just below her chin.
Luke glared at her. ‘I didn’t...I wasn’t...’ He stopped because he did and he was. But it wasn’t how she made it sound. Her eyebrow kicked up at his hesitancy and he shoved a hand through his hair in frustration.
Like with the grope incident, he was once again on the back foot. And like with the grope incident the best way to settle things was head-on.
‘I came in to talk to you. I thought you were up and about. When I realised you were asleep, realised you were...naked I was temporarily rendered incapable of movement. I was...surprised.’