Page 131 of Boyfriend of the Hour

He leaned closer. “I think you…”

I sucked in a breath. “I what?”

Nathan’s eyes dilated as they focused on my mouth. “That you…”

But before he could finish, there was a loud knock on the door.

“What?” Nathan barked as he yanked the blankets up to his chest. I did the same, even though I was covered.

The door opened, and Carrick’s head popped around it, one hand pressed to his eyes.

“Look,” he said curtly. “As happy as I am that you’re finally getting laid, you think you can wait until I’m gone to make your woman lose her mind? Otherwise, get some fucking soundproofing. Generally, I’m down, but not when it’s my goddamn brother playing dirty Dom in the room next door. You got me?”

I folded my mouth but couldn’t help but collapse into another fit of giggles, this time shoving my face into Nathan’s deltoid while my body shook uncontrollably.

Nathan’s sides shook as, once again, he rubbed his forehead like he was about to lose his mind. “We understand.”

“Good.”

The door slammed, and we listened to my bedroom door close a moment later.

Nathan turned to me. Something like humor danced in those big brown eyes. “This is going to be a really…hard…week, isn’t it?”

I bit back a laugh. “You and your jokes.”

That quirk turned into a grin. It made me feel like I was floating in the middle of the room.

“It’s gonna be rough,” I confirmed as I grabbed Nathan’s face and stamped a kiss on that chiseled cheek. “But don’t worry, babe. My nonna always says misery loves company, and there’s no one I’d rather be miserable with in this bed than you.”

TWENTY-FOUR

WAYS I COULD MEASURE NATHAN’S DICK

#5 compear it to a pensil when hes sleepng. Or something alot bigger

Iawoke to the sound of birds chirping.

Birds chirping. In Manhattan. In January.

Slowly, I blinked my eyes open to find a bright red bird sitting on the window sill, pecking at a feeder hanging from the fire escape and occasionally bursting into a song loud enough to be heard through the double-paned windows. Like I wasSleeping Beauty, and he was here to escort me through the concrete jungle I called home.

Birds, I realized. Nathan had a thing for birds. Enough that he had taken the time to purchase and install a feeder for them outside his window, in the exact right place for him to watch them when he woke up every morning.

For a split-second, I imagined him tromping through Central Park with a pair of binoculars and one of those utility vests with thousands of pockets. Maybe he would be wearing a backward baseball cap for good measure, and every so often, he’d turnaround and point out a whippoorwill or a chickadee or whatever the heck else was roaming the woods in the middle of the city.

I’d have to add it to my list of Nathan’s surprises.

I didn’t know why a bird fixation only added to his general appeal, but it did. It really did. So much so that my lips suddenly felt swollen with the desire to kiss him, and my heart seemed to beat right between my legs.

That was when I realized that ache wasn’t just because of the nerd porn playing in my head. And I wasn’t just warm because of the cloudlike duvet protecting me from the otherwise chilly morning air.

There was a muscled arm slung over my waist. Another wedged under my neck and pillow. A broad chest pressed against my back, and a heavy leg draped over my hip.

I peeked under the covers to discover that, yes, I was completely and totally wrapped up in Nathan Hunt, who was currently still dead to the world, his long nose buried in the back of my hair while his breath whispered along the nape of my neck.

Was I surprised to wake up spooned by my fake boyfriend?

Yes.