Free Ready by Lucy Monroe Page B

back.
    “It’s late. You need to get to bed.”
    She nodded, mute from the kiss and sensual threat of his words.
    “You can have the bathroom first.”
    “Thanks,” she croaked out.
    The shower helped relax her, but no amount of hot water or scrubbing could rid her mind of the image of her and Joshua together on a bed. After drying off, she pulled on a cranberry red t-shirt that had almost faded to pink, she’d had it so long, and a pair of white flannel pajama bottoms covered with miniature rosebuds.
    She considered her image in the mirror ruefully. Sexy she was not. She looked about ten years old. She grimaced and stepped out of the bathroom.
    Joshua was leaning against the wall.
    He looked her up and down and the expression in his eyes made her feel like she was wearing a black silk negligee. So much for looking like a child.
    “It’s free,” she said inanely.
    He said nothing, but walked past her, allowing his arm to brush hers, the contact burning to the core of her.
    She stood outside the closed bathroom door for several minutes as unwanted fantasies of his naked body occupying the same space she had just vacated teased her brain. The shower shut off and she realized she was going to be caught mooning like a love-struck calf if she didn’t get her tail in gear.
    Five minutes later, she stood, stymied, on the verge of the living room with extra bedding and one of her pillows for him to sleep with. If she made up the couch as a bed for either herself or Joshua, Nemesis was bound to realize someone else was in the apartment because part of the couch could be seen through the surveillance camera.
    A sound behind her alerted her that Joshua had come out of the bathroom and she turned. The question she was going to ask about sleeping arrangements flew right out of her head. He was wearing a pair of charcoal gray knit boxers and nothing else.
    His body could have graced the cover of a body builder’s magazine…or Playgirl.
    Not that she’d ever bought one, but if the magazine ever had a series of naked pictures of Joshua, she might.
    He nodded toward the bedding in her arms. “Is that for me?”
    “Ye…” She had to clear her throat. “Yes.”
    “Thanks.” He took a step toward her, his hand extended to take the blankets.
    “Where are you going to sleep?” she squeaked out.
    “In your bedroom.”
    “Oh.” It made sense. He was a big man and needed the big bed more than she did.
    “Where should I sleep?” she asked, as if it were his apartment rather than hers, which irritated her.
    She was not a simpering, shy innocent, even if she did have hot flashes from the sight of Joshua in his skivvies.
    “In your bed.”
    Her mouth fell open. She hadn’t considered sharing a bedroom with Joshua.
    “ I’m not sleeping with you .”
    His brows rose in mockery. “Oh, you will, but not tonight. I’ll take the floor.”
    “But…”
    He didn’t wait for her to finish, but turned and went into her bedroom.
    She followed, not the least calmed by his assurance he’d be sleeping on the floor. “You won’t be comfortable on the floor.”
    “Your plush carpet is a vast improvement over many of the places I’ve slept in the last sixteen years.” He bent over and started making up a pallet.
    She’d never, ever stared at a man’s butt before, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sight of Joshua’s.
    Had Mike even had a butt? She certainly had never noticed it with a surge of lust like the one gripping her insides at the moment. An experience that made his assertion she would sleep with him one day sound entirely too plausible.
    “Is that how long you’ve been a mercenary?” she asked, trying to ignore the furious pounding of her heart as well as the direction of her thoughts.
    “No. I was an Army Ranger for six years.”
    “You must have been really young when you entered the army.”
    He shrugged, straightening. “Eighteen.”
    She’d been the same age when she’d gotten married, but his