“You didn’t. I was half awake.”
“Sleep okay?”
“Not really,” she says honestly, then hurries out with, “Probably all the traveling yesterday.” She taps the mattress. “And the first night in a strange bed always messes me up.”
Teasing her I say, “Oh, you sleep in many strange beds?”
“Numerous,” she says. “I’m the queen puck bunny, remember?”
“Liar.”
She tosses a pillow at me. “Why did you ask if you already knew the answer?”
I open and close the cupboards. “I need coffee.”
“Me too.” As if she suddenly forgot that I’d been mentally undressing her only seconds before, she jumps from the bed and helps me search. I reach over her, grabbing the grounds from the upper shelf. It’s a position we’ve found ourselves in numerous times, but today, the electricity arcing between us is enough to power the gondola for a week straight.
“I’ll fill the carafe,” she says and ducks out from beneath my arm. “You think the water from the tap is good to drink?”
“I’m sure it’s fine, but there is bottled water in the fridge if you want it.”
“You know how I feel about bottled water.”
“I know. I know.” I roll my eyes at her even though I totally agree we shouldn’t be using bottled water, but Ari drinks only Fiji water, so we had it stocked. “We need to protect that planet.”
She glares at me. “Are you saying we don’t?” Before I can answer, she pinches my side, a pleasant reprieve from my nipple, which is what she usually abuses when she’s pissed at me, or trying to make a point about something.
I flinch. “Jesus, that hurts.”
“It’s because you have no fat on your body.”
I turn to her, wait for her to fill the carafe with tap water, then pinch her side. “Hey, that hurts.” She swats my hands away. “What’d you do that for?”
“Why do you get to pinch, and I don’t?” I challenge
She bobs her head. “Oh, is that how it’s going to be?”
“Yeah, it’s exactly how it’s going to be. For the rest of this week, what you to do to me, I get to do to you in return.”
Pink creeps into her cheeks, and I put my hands on either side of her, pinning her against the counter.
She angles her head, draws her bottom lip between her teeth. I can almost hear her mind racking. “Are we still talking about—”
I move closer, and lacking any sort of modesty, push my early morning arousal against her. “I’m talking about everything, Katee.”
“Oh,” she says, and her eyes leave mine to travel down my body. “So you’re saying if I pinch you here,” She pauses and rolls her finger around my nipple.
“Then I get to do the same to you,” I say. “Tit for tat.”
Her eyes go big. “I’m not sure I’d like for you to pinch my nipple.” Her words say one thing but there is a breathless quality to her voice that might suggest otherwise.
“How do you know?”
She opens her mouth like she’s about to say something, then closes it again. Her brow furrows. “I guess I don’t.”
I make a tsking sound. “Katee, I have so much to teach you.” I cup her chin and lift it until her eyes meet mine. “All you have to do is say the word and we can get started.”
Her eyes darken, a storm brewing in their shadowy depths. She opens her mouth, but I put my finger to her lips. “Not yet,” I say. “We actually have ski lessons planned this morning. Part of the package.”