“Yeah, why not? We have to eat something,” I told him with a casual shrug.
The skepticism on his handsome face remained. “Okay, umm, want me to help?”
I smiled at him. Yes, genuinelysmiled, when I was so used to scowling when he was around. “Nope, I’ve got it.”
I gathered everything together and while I waited for the water to boil, I peeked into the living room. Every once in a while, Ryan would look up towards the kitchen with a thoughtful expression on his face. I was pretty sure I was getting to him. Or at least getting his attention.
Once the food was cooked, I served everything up and brought our plates into the living room so we could eat at the coffee table. I handed him one of the dishes, which he accepted with a polite “thanks”, before I sat down next to him on the couch.
“So, how has work been?” I asked conversationally. I knew he sold fancy, high-end cars but that was the extent of my knowledge.
He gave me a wary side-eye. “We really don’t need to talk while we eat.”
I spooled spaghetti noodles around my fork, and shrugged. “Ok, fine, just trying to be nice.”
“Which is exactly what concerns me,” he said with a slight frown, then went back to eating his food.
A few minutes later, I tried again. “Jeremy mentioned that you recently started playing racquetball together. I’ve never played. Is it fun?”
He sighed irritably. “April, seriously, we don’t need to do this. Thanks for dinner, but let’s not pretend this is anything other than what it is.” Ryan stood up and carried his food into his room and shut the door.
So, not so surprisingly, that plan had backfired. Engaging him in small talk had been a stupid idea, anyway. I wasn’t trying to date him, just screw him.
I would have to try something more overt.
CHAPTER SIX
Ryan
Sometime in the last hour, someone had lobotomized April. That was the only possible explanation for her odd behavior. For most of the day, she’d acted like she normally did around me. Snarky and disdainful. Which was fine. I was used to that.
Hell, I embraced it.
Then, out of nowhere, she started being pleasant to me. Like someone had flipped a switch. We hadn’t said a word to each other since our awkward, boob graze, run-in that happened in the hall, and then she had offered to make us dinner. Us, as in both of us of, not just her. My favorite meal, which she apparently knew. And then she asked me about my life, and hadn’t even snapped at me when I’d cut her off.
To be honest, the change in her was creeping me out. I’d like to think that she had seen the light and decided that being civilized was the only way we’d make it through the next few days. But something felt off, and it was making me suspicious and wary. She was up to something. Until I knew what it was, I planned on staying as far away from her as possible.
I was in my room, reading some old Tom Clancy novel I’d found on the bookshelf, when I heard a knock on the door. I considered pretending to be asleep, but it was only seven in the evening, so that probably wouldn’t be overly convincing. She knocked again, and I knew she wouldn’t give up.
I put the book down and rolled to my feet. “What is it, April. I’m—"
I stopped dead when I opened the door and my traitorous dick perked right up. She was naked. Well, wearing nothing but a tiny towel that barely covered her torso and pushed up the tops of her breasts right to the very edge of spilling out. I assumed that she was completely nude under there. And she was standing in my doorway all nonchalant, like it was a perfectly normal thing for her to do. Like we normally pranced around each other in various states of undress.
Flustered, I looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. I’d already seen way more than I should have.
“I need your help,” she said, sounding much too innocent. “Something is up with the shower.”
“Something, like what?” I asked, still not looking anywhere in her vicinity.
I wanted to ask why she was even taking a shower in the middle of the evening, but I didn’t want to encourage any further conversation until she was dressed from neck to toes.
“Just come here, and I’ll show you.” She spun on her heel to leave, and I made the mistake of watching her go.
Fuck. It was even worse from behind. The skimpy towel showed off her round ass perfectly, and as she walked, I could see almost all the way up to the tops of her toned thighs. It was so goddamn sexy. And I couldnotthink April and sexy in the same sentence. I just couldn’t. My mind was taking off in directions that it had no business traveling.
“Are you going to help me, or what?” she called over her shoulder. “I don’t have all night.”
Still reeling, I ignored the sass in her tone and reluctantly followed her to the bathroom, which, like the rest of the cabin, was tiny. Meaning, there wasn’t really room for both of us to stand without brushing against each other. I tried to make myself as small and possible, and tucked my arms in. After that incident in the hallway, I wasn’t taking any chances.