The first night she’d gone back to Chuck’s place with him—which was the night after she’d met him, she was slightly embarrassed to admit—they’d sat on his couch. As they’d kissed again, she knew even then that his lips against hers changed everything. They’d gone to dinner before, and when he invited her back to his place after, they both knew her coming was a given without him needing to ask, the same way they knew the couch was just a charade, a pit stop formality, to ease their guilt over jumping into bed after knowing each other hardly twenty-four hours.
His kisses that night were different than the ones outside Mel’s diner had been the night before. In the privacy of his home, he kissed her with more hunger, more desperation. Like she was a deep well he needed to reach the bottom of to find the water that would keep him alive. He’d laid her back on the couch; she’d wrapped her legs around his hips. They were halfway undressed, hearts pounding, when he’d mumbled “Bedroom?” against her throat, and all she could do was nod in response.
He’d carried her to his room simply because he could, and perhaps also because he didn’t want to break contact with her.She remembered drawing this conclusion at the time amid swooning hard enough to pass out becauseshe was being carried to bedby a man so desperate to have her that he couldn’t bear the thought of setting her down. Whatever his reason, she’d clung to him with the same desperation, the same need to seal her body to his, until he’d laid her down on his mattress. Then he’d—
“Olivia?”
The sound of her name jarred her out of the fantasy with the force of a fishhook.
She blinked several times and looked up to see Tyler standing in the living room entryway with a shopping bag looped over his arm. “The door was open, so I came in. I got what you asked for.” He held out the bag with a smile.
Pulling her brain from the lurid memory took an embarrassing amount of effort. She blinked several times more, her face surely flushed, and remembered she was on camera. Benny had set up in the corner already.
“Um, thank you,” she said to Tyler. Her head was still spinning.
“Of course.” He beamed at her. “Need anything else?”
“Not right now, I don’t think. I’m going to take this to Chuck. I’ll be right back.” She headed for the hall and worked to fully pull her mind out of her memory.Damn it,Chuck.His hooks were so deep into her, clothingandfurniture could make her fall victim to memory. She shook it away and entered the bedroom.
“Chuck?” she called. “Good news, I got you something to help you feel better—” She rounded the doorway to find the room empty. “Chuck?”
“I’m in here,” he said from the bathroom.
She turned in that direction, expecting to find him at the sink. “What are you—” She cut off with a gasp.
“I’m taking a bath. The heat helps.”
Olivia dropped the bag and threw her hand over her eyes. “You’re naked!”
“Yes,” he said flatly as if in a trance. “That is generally required for taking a bath.”
Her heart started pounding. She’d seen it all before, of course, but wasn’t expecting to walk in on it unannounced. He sat in the tub up to his chin, and the water only made everything look…enlarged. Forget the couch memory; this was ten thousand times more powerful. “Okay, well, um, here are some Pop-Tarts. I thought you might like a treat. I’ll just leave them here for you.” She scooted the bag with her foot, hand still over her eyes.
“Thank you.”
She couldn’t tell if the thick slowness to his voice was from being in pain or the spell the bath had him under, but he sounded ready to go back to sleep.
“Also, the furniture is here, and they gave us another challenge in an envelope. TJ is set to show up in ten minutes.”
“Oh. Okay. I’ll get out, then.”
The sound of sloshing water made her do an about-face and dash into the bedroom. It took several deep breaths for her to shake the image of him naked in the tub, which was only made harder by the memory she’d been indulging in moments before. She was tempted to fire off her firstyellow bikinitext to Mansi for help but instead decided to head back into the living room.
There, she found that TJ had arrived early.
“Olivia!” he sang in his booming voice. He threw out hisarms and sent a waft of his thick cologne billowing from his blazer. “Good morning. Where’s your other half?”
She made a mental note to start setting an alarm so that she was actuallyawakeif the crew was going to show up crowing like roosters every morning.
“He’s getting out of the bath. He’ll be out in a minute.”
“Ah. And what were you doing back there with him, hmmm? I hope nothingscandalous.” He waggled his brows and shimmied his shoulders with a wink. “Actually, who am I kidding—I hope it was scandalous!” He let out a loud guffaw, and Olivia wanted to go back to bed and start the day over. Scratch that. She wanted to go back to the day she and Chuck broke up and keep their argument inside his apartment so that they’d never land in this ridiculous situation in the first place.
“No scandals, TJ. Sorry,” she said with her best smile for the camera.
TJ eyed her like he didn’t believe her.
Chuck emerged from the hall wearing a black tee shirt and a pair of loose shorts. His skin was rosy from the hot water.