ChapterTen
Piper
Mindy’s apartment is dark and quiet. I set my keys down and immediately stumble over something on the floor, almost tripping onto my face. I pick up the offending item. Mindy’s purse. She must have dropped it.
I set it on the entry table. That’s weird. Mindy is all about things being in their proper order. She’s constantly cleaning and straightening, adjusting her strategically placed candles, arranging her bookshelf so some are artfully placed with the pages forward instead of the spine.
I tend to be a bit more cluttered, forgetting to put my cups in the sink, leaving the throw heaped on the couch and unfolded, setting my purse on various surfaces even though Mindy has mentioned more than once it belongs on the entry table.
I make my way into the guest bedroom, my mind returning to the latest interaction with Oliver. He must think I’m a lunatic with more baggage than a fully booked cross-continental flight.
I saw his eyes dip to my mouth. He touched my face. He must feel this tug of attraction. It can’t be one sided. At least I hope not. I’m not crazy. Maybe it’s not as overwhelming for him as it is for me.
I brush my teeth and change and get into bed, my mind still swimming around Oliver and how I almost kissed him and he stepped away. My face burns. I didn’t think I could be any more embarrassed than I was the other day. How wrong I was.
But he opened up. He told me a little about his dark past other than the fact that he was hungry a lot. He looked at me with those haunted, dark, hot eyes. He almost smiled when I called him Satan. I couldn’t have imagined it.
Then again, if Regina is his type, I don’t stand a chance. She’s like a sleek shark, and I’m like a shivering chihuahua. Not to mention Emma. When I asked him about her, he basically sent me home.
That’s got to be it. He’s seeing someone else. Yes, he’s attracted to me, but he also has morals. That makes me feel slightly better.
Or I could be completely wrong about everything and he’s not attracted to me at all. He probably thinks I’m a complete moron and he wouldn’t touch me even if he was single. After all, I thought I knew Ben, too, and look how that turned out.
I fall asleep, only to wake up an hour later and spend hours staring at the ceiling and tossing and turning. Eventually, sleep finds me again sometime before dawn, but I wake up only a few hours later to deep masculine laughter.
Oliver? My groggy brain tries to make sense of the sound. Is someone here?
Mindy’s responding giggle has my jaw dropping. Definitely not Oliver. Mindy wouldn’t be laughing if that were the case. She’d more likely be murdering.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a sound emerge from her mouth. A haughty chuckle, a sarcastic snigger, maybe. But Mindy doesn’t giggle.
Curiosity pushes me out of bed. I grab a robe and make my way to the living room. Mindy sits on the couch, her knees inclined toward the man next to her. His arm is stretched out behind her head, his fingers playing with a strand of her hair.
“Hey,” I manage to get out through the shock and confusion swirling thickly in my head and surely clouding my vision.
They both turn in my direction. Mindy is wearing her sleep tank top and shorts, and Blake is in rumpled button-up shirt and faded jeans, no shoes. I’m fairly certain it’s the same outfit he was in last night.
I’ve interrupted the morning-after coffee. Mindy’s drinking morning-after coffee with a married man.
Mindy stands up, her face nearly scarlet. Now she’s blushing? I’ve entered an alternate dimension.
My gaze flips over to Blake. He stands and grins broadly, approaching with a hand extended. “You must be Piper. I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself last night. I’m a big fan of your work.”
Surprise lifts my brow even as I reach out to shake his hand. “Thank you. Um, same?”
He chuckles, and we both glance at Mindy. Her smile is still there but tighter than it was a minute ago.
She crosses her legs, waving a hand. “Blake stopped by to talk about work stuff. He was just leaving.”
I frown at her. Does she think I’m a moron?
Blake, for his part, is unfazed. “Right. I have some other work to get to. Excuse me, ladies.” He disappears into Mindy’s bedroom.
“Mindy, what the hell?” I stage whisper.
She makes a throat-slashing motion, her eyes wide, her head tilting toward where Blake disappeared. “Can we talk about this after he leaves?”
I press my lips together. I don’t know whether to freak out or laugh my ass off. I can’t wait to give her absolute hell. Mindy sleeping with a client—Blake Bonham, who’s supposedly married? It’s so unlike her I don’t even know where to start. Mindy is a rule follower. She doesn’t color outside the lines. She doesn’t even lie about her weight on her driver’s license.