“We both know my bed is more comfortable. My sheets are better and they’re clean.”
Josh opened his mouth and she turned back to him, putting her hands on his face as she had in the hallway, but this time with tenderness instead of lust.
“Let me take care of you,” she said quietly.
Let me love you.
She knew he was tired then, because there was no protest. No snappy comeback. No dirty joke. Josh merely nodded.
In the bedroom, Josh removed his suit, but it was Heather who hung it up for him. Heather who turned down the bed, fluffing the pillow.
He sat on the bed wearing only his boxer briefs, catching her by the waist as she passed by him, lifting her hand and pressing a kiss to the inside of her wrist. “It kills me. Going to sleep instead of taking you up on your . . . offer. Especially when you look as smoking as you do tonight.”
She ran her fingers through his hair. “Tell you what. In a few days when you’re feeling better, we can have a redo. I’ll straighten my hair and repurpose the dress and shoes.”
“Thong?” he asked hopefully.
Heather rolled her eyes. Obviously he wasn’t feeling that sick if he was still obsessed with tiny underwear.
“Yes. And the thong.”
“The little red one,” he said, lying back on the bed. “It’s my favorite.”
“The little red one,” she soothed as she tugged the sheets and blankets up around him.
Josh’s eyes closed the second his head hit the pillow.
By the time Heather finished hanging up her dress, taking off her makeup, and brushing her teeth, it was past three and Josh was sound asleep. She quietly eased into bed beside him, her eyes studying his profile as he slept.
It was rare that she saw him in a moment of vulnerability. Of the two of them, she was always the faster to fall asleep, the last to get out of bed. She took advantage of the rare moment to look at him when he didn’t know she was looking.
He hadn’t moved since he’d first lain down, the covers still tucked against his chin, the white of her blankets contrasting with the dark stubble on his stubborn jaw.
Josh Tanner really was a beautiful male. The long straight nose, the full lips. Even with the shadows under his eyes, his lashes were straight and full.
She felt like they’d taken some sort of step forward tonight, although she didn’t quite know what it meant. Certain as she was now that she loved the damn man, she was glad she hadn’t made the declaration. For starters, doing so in a crowded room just moments before midnight on New Year’s Eve hadn’t been the time.
More than that, though, feminine instinct told her that he wouldn’t have said it back, and that would have been crushing.
For the first time in her life she’d fallen in love, and it was with someone who was determined not to love her back, for reasons she still had no clue about.
Heather laid her head on the pillow, her hand searching under the covers until it found his. She twined her fingers with his, smiling when, even in sleep, he easily fit his hand to hers, drawing her hand forward so their linked hands lay across his hard abs.
“You might not love me yet, 4A, but you will,” she whispered quietly before sitting up slightly to kiss his too-warm cheek. “You will.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
THE NEXT MORNING, JOSH had gone from feeling slightly under the weather to full-on sick.
His head pounded. His throat was on fire every time he swallowed. He was hot, then cold, then hot again.
His entire body ached, from the tips of his hair all the way down to his toenails.
But he wouldn’t admit any of this to Heather.
Hell, he wasn’t even letting himself acknowledge it. Not yet.
“Here you go,” she said, coming into the bedroom, where he sat miserably slumped against the pillows, trying not to look like death, knowing he was likely failing. “Cinnamon tea.”
“I want coffee,” he said with no small amount of grump in his voice.
She arched her eyebrows. “Do you really? I know when I’m sick, it’s the one time I never want coffee. It just doesn’t sound good. But I’m happy to make you some—”
“No, you’re right,” he said glumly, accepting the mug. “It doesn’t sound good. Just sit close to me so I can smell yours while I drink the damn tea.”