After a minute, I nodded as I heard the sound of it starting up. Turning, I looked at Sasha again, startled at the jolt that sizzled through me.
“Let’s get a fire started in the living room and kitchen. It’s probably gonna take a few hours for the house to warm up. I had no idea you’d be here,” I called over my shoulder as I walked up the stairs.
“Obviously, I didn’t know you were going to be here,” Sasha replied. “Thea offered to let me stay here for a week. I guess I need to make other arrangements.”
We crested the top of the stairs, and she followed me into the kitchen. This home was old enough that we actually had a freaking fireplace in here. When I was growing up, my parents had updated it with a wood stove insert for efficiency. This, in addition to the large fireplace in the living room, would do a nice job of throwing off some heat.
“No need to make other arrangements,” I said as I began to gather wood stacked neatly in a rack right beside the stove. I presumed my older brother, Dallas, who had been here last Christmas, had enough sense to leave the wood behind. He was that kind of guy, always organized and planning ahead.
“Are you sure? Are other people coming?”
“Nobody else will be here until next weekend. Lord knows, there’s plenty of room.”
When I straightened, Sasha was chewing on her bottom lip. Fuck me. She had a mouth made for sin. Her lips were plump and full, and a little dimple was right in the center of her bottom lip. Her teeth dented the smooth pink surface as she stared at me.
“Are you sure?” she repeated.
“Absolutely.”
At that moment, her stomach growled. She slapped her palm over it, her cheeks flushing pink. This woman was a walking distraction. In the corner of my mind, I wondered if it was crazy that I’d just told her it was no problem for her to stay here. But she was one of my sister’s best friends, so I wasn’t about to kick her out in the snowy darkness.
“Hungry?” I asked dryly.
“Apparently,” she said with a sheepish smile.
“I picked up a pizza on the way through town. I’ll help you unload what you have, and then we can heat it.”
* * *
By the time Sasha set the empty paper plate on the coffee table and leaned back into the couch cushions, the living room was warm and cozy. The snow was still falling outside with gusts of wind buffeting the house while we ate. She’d fed Matilda in the kitchen, and Matilda had trotted into the living room with us and was currently napping in front of the fireplace .
“So what are you doing here a week before Christmas?” Sasha asked.
Thus far, we had covered the basics. We’d investigated the options for bedrooms. Only one room actually had a bed in it. My two brothers, my sister, and I were slowly getting the house furnished after almost losing it in a legal mess our father created, but the house had been stripped of everything by the time Dallas had managed to save it from the creditors.
I’d insisted Sasha take the room with the bed, and I would sleep on the couch. Maybe we didn’t have the whole place furnished yet, but Thea and I had picked out this cushy sectional last year. I had no worries about sleeping comfortably on it.
After I’d helped Sasha carry her things in, she’d insisted on helping me with mine. All the while, I managed to notice far too much of Sasha. She was wearing jeans, and the fabric hugged her lush bottom. My palms itched to slide over her curves and savor their feel.
Considering she thought no one would be here, I knew she wasn’t dressed for my attention. Unfortunately for me, and decidedly inconveniently, Sasha in jeans and a faded V-neck T-shirt did nothing but rev my body’s engine.
I remembered Sasha being attractive before, but I was four years ahead of her in school, so I didn’t pay too much attention. Now, she was fucking gorgeous in a sort of messy, haphazard way.
“Noah?” she prompted.
Oh, right. We were having a conversation. “I needed a break from work. You know I work at the FBI, right?”
Sasha nodded. “Yes. You and Dallas. For a while, Thea thought she might do the same, but she decided it was probably more stress than she preferred.”
I chuckled with a bitter twist in my gut. I was too close to that stress these days. “No, she wouldn’t have appreciated the stress. I like my job, but I needed a break, so that’s why I’m here.”
Sasha nodded and brushed a loose hair off the side of her neck, drawing my eyes there. My brain went to another place it wasn’t supposed to go, wondering what she would taste like. I wanted to nibble on that sensitive skin and see how she reacted.
“Noah?” Her prompt punctured my inappropriate train of thought again. While nothing was technically wrong with me thinking my sister’s now thirty-year-old best friend was hot, somehow, I didn’t think that was where Sasha’s mind was at the moment.
ChapterThree
SASHA