Page 76

“It’s a legitimate spa,” heargued. “You got the deluxe treatment. And I expended a lot ofenergy resisting the urge to jack off while I watchedthat.”
A little thrill wentthrough me. I hadn’t done anything, but hearing Matt talk aboutwatching? Made me feel like I’d put on a naughtyperformance.
“You get me.” I hadn’tintended to say it out loud but if I was thinking it, I might aswell voice it. “You totally knew that would get me off.”
“It didn’t get you off,though,” he reminded me. “I specifically asked forthat.”
I gave him a little push.
He turned serious. “I’mglad you feel like I ‘get’ you. I think you get me. As much asanyone can.”
It was a strange thing tosay, loaded with something unspoken that I worried he hadn’tintended to reveal. Maybe he never would.
Being here wasn’t aboutsecrets, though. It was about having casual fun with a guy who’dbecome a good friend.
I took a slice of pizza andgave him a wink. “Here’s to getting to know each other evenbetter.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
(Charlotte)
I woke in Matt’s huge bedwithout much memory of anything past the episode ofNaked and Afraid XLthatI’d dozed off during. Sunlight trickled through the closedplantation shutters, and I leaned up on one elbow, squinting aroundthe room. Still half asleep, I stumbled to the bathroom, brushed myteeth, and did a quick sniff test to make sure I waspresentable.
I smelled like...whatevermade Matt smell so damn good all the time. Cologne? Deodorant? Iresisted the urge to test all his toiletries, pulled on my robe,and shuffled out into the rest of the house. The big doors in theliving room were open to the balcony, where what could only bedescribed as a breakfast buffet crowded a big glass table. Matthewsat at one end, gloriously naked and smoking the fattest joint I’dever seen.
He leaned back and gestured to thetable and the only other available chair, across the corner fromhim.
“Good morning.” He exhaleda blue cloud.
I noticed a smoke of my own beside alighter with the rest of the table setting.
“How long have you beenup?” I asked.
“Take that off. You don’tneed it.”
I tugged at the neck of therobe.
“All of it.”
Since he didn’t seem tocare about the two servers standing by, I didn’t either. I assumedthey saw plenty of naked people—and things far freakier—on anaverage workday. I dropped the robe and pulled my chemise over myhead, then sat down. The sun had warmed the white leather seat, andI gave a startled little jump.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Iasked, lighting up. Eating and smoking at the same time was a majorick; eating before smoking seemed like a waste ofmunchies.
“You looked like you neededsleep,” he said. Then he revised his statement. “I did try to wakeyou up. But you made a caveman noise at me. Trulyterrifying.”
“Ha ha.” I inhaled, thenasked with a tight voice, “I don’t even remember getting in bed.Did you carry me?”
He picked up his cane fromwhere it hooked over the tabletop, then put it back down. “Imanaged to get you conscious enough to walk under your own power.But I was worried we were going to end up sleeping on thecouch.”
“We?” I teased. “You couldhave tucked me in and abandoned me.”
“Then I wouldn’t have hadyou clinging to me all night,” he said. He cast a glance at the twoservers standing by. One was a tall, slender, brunette with deepbronze skin and long hair held back in a prim headband. In heruniform of a white polo and white shorts, she looked like a campcounselor. The man beside her had a gorgeous golden tan and curlyblond hair. Same uniform, but it gave him more of a snottycountry-club tennis player vibe.
“You two are wayoverdressed for this breakfast,” Matt told them. Withouthesitation, the two quickly disrobed while I watched, jawdropped.
“That’s not incense, youknow,” Matt said, nodding toward my burning joint.
“Isn’t that like…sexualharassment?” I asked under my breath, as if the two staff memberscouldn’t hear me. I tried not to look directly at them, out ofpoliteness as well as utter shock at how good theylooked.