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“Not remotely. But anyway, I’ve done more than read today. I went to church and got some work finished too. Some illustrations.”
“Can I see them?” I asked. She hadn’t shown me any of her work yet.
“Do you really want to?” She peered at me.
“I want to see absolutely everything you have to show,” I said instantly, raising my brows suggestively.
She took it how I meant it. She rolled her eyes. “God, you’re such a sex pervert!”
“Isn’t that redundant? Did you really need to put the word sex before pervert?” I grinned at her. God, she was adorable.
“No. You can pervert anything.”
“Hell yeah, I can. Show me those pictures.”
“They’re in my room.”
I stood up, waving toward her wing of the house. “Lead on.”
I followed close behind her as she walked. A little too close. Had her hair always been that shiny? I leaned forward slightly and sniffed. Dammit, it did smell like something tropical, like my fantasies were coming to life. Coconut mixed with passionfruit was suddenly my favorite smell.
Was it out of line to ask her to change her shampoo just for my peace of mind?
Her room was spectacularly orderly, just how I’d have guessed.
I started instantly snooping through her drawers while her back was turned. I hit jackpot on the first try. When she turned around, I held up a pair of lacy black panties, feeling betrayed. They weren’t at all wholesome. I wished I’d never looked.
“Does all of your underwear look like that?” I asked, eyes narrowed on her.
“Except for my Care Bear panties,” she said without expression.
“Do you know how much this discovery is going to mess with me?” I asked her. “Do you even have a clue?”
She smirked. She liked that bit of sass.
She’d never cop to it, but she fucking liked it.
It didn’t help. “If you don’t want to know these things, don’t dig through people’s underwear drawers,” she pointed out the obvious.
“I refuse to take responsibility for this! You’re the one with lacy black panties you have no business owning, let alone wearing,” I declared. “It’s shattering all of my illusions about you.”
She wanted to laugh, I could tell, as she said, “You know you have a ridiculous notion of how the world works, right? You’ve spent too much time in fiction land. I think some part of you never comes out of it.”
“Hey! This is my house! I’m the one defining reality around here!”
“Put the panties back and walk away slowly,” she said, laughing.
I tossed them back toward the dresser and threw myself on her bed just to mess it up, rolling around and undoing her covers. As I was still rolling I said, “This room is so neat and tidy. It doesn’t even look like anyone lives here.”
“I like things organized. Are you surprised? Now quit playing in my room. Do you want to see my drawings or not?”
I sat up, noticing the sketchbook she was holding for the first time. I held out my hand. “Gimme.”
I leafed through it.
The subject was an adorable lavender unicorn. The designs were simple and charming. Many were still black and white, but some had been inked with bright, pure colors. There were a lot of sketches, all of the same unicorn in different settings. She was talented, and that talent was a perfect match for her target audience. “It’s… nice.” It was. I meant it literally, with the true use of the word. It was the essence of clean and good. Endearing and unexpected.
“That’s all you have to say?” she asked stiffly.
