“Lea?”
I screamed when the light came on as Beau’s voice broke through the silence.
“Oh my god, Beau, you scared the shit out of me.” I turned to find him standing a few feet away, staring at me with a puzzled expression as he rubbed his left eye. “JesusChristyou are quiet,” I breathed, trying to get my heart to settle down.
His hair was wild, the longer parts sticking up in every direction, and he looked like he had no idea where or who or when he was as he squinted at me.
Damn it. He looked so adorably rumpled right now.
He raked a hand through his hair. “Sorry. What’s—what happened? What are you doing?” That deep voice of his, roughened with sleep, was utterly sinful.
He stepped toward me, his eyes darting to the bag of vegetables I was holding as he tried to find the problem. “Are you okay?” When his gaze dropped lower to my legs, he sucked in a breath and averted his eyes to his feet as his cheeks turned pink.
Oh, yeah. Oops. I was in my tiny red robe, so my body was barely covered right now. Well, I usually never saw him before I left for work, so I hadn’t even thought about it. I rarely saw him when I got back, either. He liked to hide away in there, and I wanted to lure him out of his little cave.
I let my gaze settle on his feet and got distracted by how big they were. I wasn’t really a foot person, but Beau had nice feet.
“Lea?”
I glanced up to find Beau’s eyes on mine again. “Oh, yeah, I’m okay, I’m just…I accidentally spilled hot coffee on my hand.” I laughed like an idiot, lifting the hand I was still holding the ice pack on. I tried not to flinch when a twinge of pain flared across my skin. This was really starting to hurt badly.
“You—” Beau stepped closer, and when he saw my hand, his plush lips parted and the most genuine expression of concern took over his features. “Oh, Lea,” he said softly, and holy shit, the way he breathily said my name like that was…
It was hot. It was so. Damn. Hot.
He came closer and I caught a hint of his scent. He smelled good, like clean laundry and coconuts.
“Can I see it? You should run it under cold water,” he said, glancing up at me for permission as he reached toward my hand.
As soon as I moved the bag of vegetables away, Beau gasped.
“Oh, god, Lea.” He gently grabbed my wrist with one hand, bringing my fingers so close to his mouth that for a moment I thought he was about to close his lips around the tip of my finger, and a wave of need swept through me.
He pursed his lips and blew on it instead, cooling the burn. But when his eyes darted up and held mine for a beat, my heart audibly thwacked against my rib cage, so hard I actually felt it.
What the fuck?
“Here, come here,” he said, setting his other hand in the middle of my back as he led me to the sink. He quickly turned the water on, made sure it was cold, then guided my hand under the stream of water.
I hissed at the first touch of freezing water, then relaxed when it made the burn feel so much better.
A brief moment of surprise passed quickly—because when was the last time someone had taken care of me like this?—and I smiled.
Beau’s hand was beneath mine now, palm to palm, warm and steady. He was so close, right there, all his attention on my hand as he inspected how bad the burn was.
I lowered my head and inhaled.
He really smelled good. It was a comforting, cozy scent that made me want to bury my face in his warm neck.
I just knew it would be warm. And soft. There were so many fuzzy, fine hairs on the back of his neck, and the intensity of how much I wanted to rub my cheek there was a little frightening.
I lifted my head and said, “Thank you. I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for something like this.”
Beau’s cheeks turned pink when he glanced at me, and he cleared his throat. “It doesn’t look t-too bad, but…does it hurt? If it hurts a lot, you should get it professionally looked at.” He moved his attention back to my hand.
I was coming to learn that he was a problem solver, could practically see the gears turning in his head as he analyzed the situation and figured out the best course of action.
That was insanely attractive.