Luckily, her room had its own connected bathroom so she didn’t have to worry about any awkwardness there. She’d taken her shower before bed and changed into her favorite tank-and-shorts pajama set. It wasn’t sexy by any means, but then she wasn’t trying to seduce him. He’d shown less than zero interest when he’d been in her room and hadn’t lingered when examining the “scene of the crime” as she liked to think of her collection of figurines now. He’d looked at the blank space in the collection and nowhere else. Not at the lingerie she’d been mortified to discover was hanging over the chair or at the romance books on her nightstand.
He’d just done his usual tough, gruff routine. It was too bad she found his deep, gravelly voice so sexy. It would be so much easier if she hated him. If she hadn’t spent half the night wondering about what he was doing on her sofa. Whether he’d stripped off all his clothes to sleep or just gone down to his underwear.
Coffee. If she could just get some caffeine in her system, then maybe she could think practically. About anything other than what Eli wore when he was sleeping.
Kay spared a cursory glance at the clock, then decided it was early enough to chance making a run for it. Eli was probably dead to the world, so it didn’t matter if she looked like hell. Turning on the coffeepot should take two minutes, max. She pulled on a short, silky robe and knotted it in the front. Even if he rolled over and caught a glimpse of her, he wouldn’t see much other than a bunch of pink silk.
In the kitchen, she made quick work of measuring out the coffee. The huge jumble of blankets on the couch didn’t move, so she had to assume that Eli was a pretty sound sleeper. After adding water to the machine, she set the coffeepot to brew. She turned at the sound of a door opening. Startled, she glanced over at the couch. The jumble of covers still hadn’t moved.
“Then where is—”
Kay squeaked in surprise when Eli walked past, a white towel wrapped around his waist. His skin was still damp, as evidenced by the beads of water clinging to his neck. Without the barrier of clothing, his muscles stood out in stark display. His chest was massive, and then there were the perfectly delineated abdominals. Once her eyes made it past those, they landed on the most interesting muscles on his sides, shaped like a V leading straight down to his—
At her gasp, he stopped and looked at her with raised eyebrows. “Morning. Everything okay?”
Stunned, it took her several moments to register the question. Then several moments more to realize she was standing in the middle of the kitchen gaping at him. Worse, gaping at the towel around his waist. The incredibly tiny towel.
“You’re n…naked,” she stammered.
“I am.” Eli didn’t bother to hide or run for cover. Oh no, the jerk had the nerve to come closer. “That’s generally how I take my showers.”
“And really…” She tried in vain to get her eyes to land anywhere other than the broad expanse of his chest. “Really, really big.”
His lips curled up at that statement and Kay immediately realized what she’d just said. “I meant muscular. And really muscular. Is that an eight-pack? I didn’t even know there were that many packs possible…”
There really ought to be some sort of law about how fine a man was allowed to be. Especially men who were gruff and difficult to understand. It was bad enough that she couldn’t figure out his signals, but now she was supposed to think while confronted by a chest that looked like it had been chiseled out of concrete?
“Kay?”
“Hmm,” she breathed.
He crossed his arms. “I meant to bring my clothes with me in the bathroom but I forgot. So I need to finish getting dressed.”
“Right. Of course.”
When she still didn’t move, Eli grabbed the edge of the towel where it was tucked next to his skin. “I generally don’t have an audience for this part, but if you want to stay… “
Now that got her attention.
“Oh my God. Omigod.” Kay stammered something that sounded vaguely like an apology and then ran for her room. She closed the door behind her and rested her head against the door.
Of course Eli was the type to be up at the crack of dawn. As if being built like a linebacker and covered in skin like dark chocolate wasn’t sexy enough, he was an early riser who probably ran three miles every morning just for fun. Was there anything about him that wasn’t completely intimidating?
Her phone beeped on the nightstand. With a sigh, Kay sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to read the text message. It was from Ridley.
Give me a call when you wake up?
Kay quickly texted her back. A few minutes later, her phone rang.
“Hey! I didn’t actually think you’d be awake this early. What’s going on over there?”
“Nothing.” Kay clutched the phone tighter as an image of Eli’s perfect chest flashed through her mind. Suddenly she just had to tell someone. “I just saw Eli naked.”
“What!” Ridley’s shocked squeak was so loud Kay glanced behind her instinctively to make sure Eli hadn’t somehow heard.
“It was an accident. Plus, he wasn’t completely naked. Almost naked. He was wearing a towel, but it didn’t cover much.” Kay sagged back against her pillows and let out a long sigh. “I had no idea my towels were so small.”
Considering that Ridley was married to an Alexander man, she figured her friend would understand exactly why she was so affected.