“Yeah.” He nodded and pressed his lips together in what she assumed was an attempt to fight a laugh. “You, Aly Gomez, are not the planner of our team.” By the end of the sentence, he couldn’t fight the laugh anymore, and it flowed from his lips.
“Oh, shut up.” She smacked him lightly on the stomach, her hand lingering on his abs.
His laughter died, and he grabbed her wrist and lifted it. His eyes burned into hers, hot with desire as he pressed his lips, warm and wet, against the pulse pounding in her wrist.
Her breath caught as a bolt of desire shot down her spine.
“For the record,” he whispered against the skin of her wrist, “if you hadn’t put whatever this is on the back burner, I’m not sure I could have resisted finishing our night with my mouth on a lot more of your body.”
The words sent an electric shock ricocheting through her. Humming. Throbbing. Her body ignited with his words. He yanked her wrist, and she moved in, tucking herself against his chest.
Dipping his chin, he whispered, “This was the best date I’ve ever been on. And just because I’m not acting on it doesn’t mean a part of me doesn’t want a lot more here.”
Holy cow. Could a person combust on the spot? Because she just might have.
He stepped back and smirked. “Go to sleep, Aly.” And with that, he went into her brother’s room.
Right, like she could sleep now. She groaned but headed into her room, and a fitful night of sleep left her cranky the next day.
“It’s a good thing I’m so amazing at my job because you, miss, are pale as shit today.” Lily blotted the sponge under Aly’s right eye. “And it’s not even for a good reason. If you’d come in saying ‘sorry I look like dog food because I spent the night letting my hot roommate bone me into oblivion—’”
“Itoldyou that isn’t happening.” Aly slumped back in her chair.
“I know. I know. Andy comes first.”
“Stop mocking that. I’m trying to do the right thing.” She huffed.
Lily stopped and pulled back, leaning against the counter behind her. “I know you are. Since I met you two months ago, all you’ve done is the right thing. You work impossibly hard on set and spend all your free time dealing with your mother’s house or your brother’s issues. You do nothing for you. You don’t go out, you don’t meet people, and you don’t have fun.”
“I have fun,” Aly insisted.
Lily sighed.
But it was true. Dinner with Will the previous night had been a lot of fun. She’d been having fun watching Andy play Minecraft in the evenings, and she’d had the best time watching Clayton’s football game.
“Of course you want the best for your brother, but you deserve to be happy too. You’re afraid that having a fling will mess stuff up with Andy, but Will doesn’t seem like the fling type.”
Aly scoffed.
“Not because he’s not gorgeous and women don’t throw themselves at him. I’m sure they do.” Lily rolled her red glittery eyes—seriously. Red sparkles. Her contacts were crazy. “I don’t know. He just seems like the type of guy who is above all that.”
“Lil, I haven’t told him that I want to move back permanently. I still have to sell the house and then look at my finances. And I’m contractually obligated to finish this next project and close out the season. But all that aside, complicating things with Will seems like an awful idea.”
“I can see how having someone around to help and take care of you is scary when you’ve never had that before,” Lily said. “But that doesn’t mean that I agree with you.” She held both hands out when Aly tipped her chin defiantly. “Okay, I’ve said my piece. Let me finish your makeup. Because you really are pale today.”
“I’m just tired,” she mumbled.
And she didn’t feel any better at almost ten p.m. when she finally walked into Will’s house. Taping had run extra-long because Logan had decided he didn’t like how his hair looked after they’d recorded half a day. In typical three-year-old temper-tantrum fashion, he’d screamed until they’d redone the shots.
“Hey,” Will whispered from the sofa, where he sat with Andy asleep next to him. The room was dark apart from the glow of the TV.
“He still doing okay?” Aly had checked in all day via text.
Will nodded and then yawned.
Guilt racked through her. “Why don’t you head up to bed? I’ll stay down here with him.” Will started to protest, but Aly crossed her arms. “You’ve been doing this for twenty-four hours straight. Let me do something so I don’t feel like a complete waste of space here. Team implies more than one person, Will.”
He squinted into the dark room before he finally stood. He came over and tugged on one of the loose curls she always wore for taping. He twisted it slowly around his finger.