Justin raised his brows. Despite appearances, they were talking shop. Not that the casual passerby would know that. “Do you have a minute?” he asked.
Emily jumped in her seat, then whirled.
Antonio spun as well. “Sure.” He strode into his office, and Justin followed and kicked the door shut behind them.
“That wasn’t exactly keeping a low profile.” Justin winced at the sharpness of his own voice.
“We’re discussing work.”
Justin’s concerns were purely in the company’s best interest. “But that wasn’t what it looked like.”
“I’ll be more careful in the future.”
Was Justin overreacting? No. This was the worst possible time to question himself. Everything had to go smoothly now, and that included any and all outward appearances looking exactly as they should.
The rest of the week passed without major incidents. Everyone was too busy keeping their heads down and working, for much else to happen. When the weekend rolled around, they were a few days behind, but they’d made up a lot of lost time.
* * * *
EMILY JOINED THEM ATJustin’s house on Saturday, and they dove back into PP work. They didn’t accomplish as much as when he’d had multiple developers on the project, but it was headway, and as long as he saw forward momentum, he could accept it taking longer than he hoped.
The three worked late into the night. Status quo for him and Antonio, but he worried Emily hadn’t realized what she was signing on for.
“Are you ready to let us start paying you?” Justin asked. It was nearly three in the morning, and it took the last of his focus to speak without slurring.
Emily shook her head, then stopped and pressed her palm to her forehead, blinking. “Nope. I meant what I said.” Her words were chipper and flowed out in a jumble.
“You both need sleep.” Antonio’s eyelids drooped, and he didn’t look like he fared much better in the exhaustion department. He stood and reached for Emily’s hand. “Come on. I’ll show you where the guest bedroom is.”
“Then where will you sleep?” She gripped her fingers and let him pull her to her feet.
“Here.” Antonio gestured to the couch.
“That’s not fair. I don’t want to steal your bed.” Despite the tiredness in her movements and her giddy tone, a clarity lay underneath.
“Technically it’s notmybed. It’s Justin’s.”
She grinned. “That’s brilliant.”
Justin stared at her, trying to make sense of a series of mental tangents he couldn’t see or fathom. “What is? Me having a bed?”
“Yes and no. We’ll all sleep in your bed. That way, no one has to sleep alone, and no one has to sleep on the couch.” Her logic was ridiculous.
“Makes sense to me,” Antonio said.
Maybe Justin didn’t have the brain power to process.
No. He was pretty sure there was a flaw in the decision, but he didn’t have the desire to argue. “All right.”
When he woke up the next morning, Emily lay facing him, Antonio behind her with an arm draped over her hip. Her shirt had crept up her stomach in the middle of the night, and the shoulder fallen down, leaving temptation on display.
Justin trailed a finger lightly along her bra strap, not processing how intimate the gesture was until her eyes fluttered open and she grabbed his wrist.
“That tickles.” Despite the words, there was no protest in her voice.
Could they do what they’d done last weekend, and share? Have fun, all three of them? “Would you rather I was doing something else?”
She stretched, which from Justin’s prone angle looked like she pressed back into a now very awake Antonio at the same time. “What did you have in mind?” she asked. “Remembering I learn best in a hands-on environment.”