Page 56 of Heat Advisory

“You are engaged, after all,” Morgan teased, and I knew Cora must have told her it was a ruse, based on the look on her face.

“Perfect. Problem solved.” My mother clapped her hands together in excitement and then turned to Cora. “By the way, welcome to the family officially, dear. I couldn’t be happier. He’s definitely marrying up.”

“Wow… I’m standing right here,” I said to my mother in mock offense.

“Well, she’s telling the truth,” my father said as he walked up beside Cora.

He gave her a hug and welcomed her to the family, same as my mother had, and then turned to me.

“About damn time you came home,” my father said, and the weight of what he said settled in my chest.

Cora’s hand linked with mine, and I looked down at her, seeing the small smile on her face as she looked at me.

I knew she was giving me that because she knew I needed it to deal with my family, especially my dad.

Damn, this woman was something.

We made our way to the check-in desk, grabbed our keys, and took the elevator up to our room.

Her hand trembled slightly as she lifted the keycard to unlock the door. Personally, I was thrilled that we would be sharing a room, but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by doing it.

We had a room with two queen beds, a small desk area with a tiny couch, and a bathroom. It wasn’t a tiny room, but it also wasn’t a suite.

“Two beds for just you?” I lifted my brow in question, a little bummed there wasn’t just one big king bed for us to share.

“I originally booked the two queen beds because Morgan had said she might stay with me the night before the wedding. She decided to go with a different plan, but I never bothered to change my room.” She shrugged.

“Which bed do you want?” she asked me as she set her bags just inside the room.

“What about the same one you’re sleeping in? Is that an option?”

She rolled her eyes at me but said nothing.

“Cora, I thoroughly enjoyed our time on the car ride here…especially the part where we stopped and parked.” I paused as I noticed her cheeks getting pinker by the moment as she likely recalled the same memory. “As much as I am dying to do that again, we move at your pace. If you want your own bed, you pick whichever one you want. But I’m hoping by the time this weekend is over, your question will be a moot point.”

She stared up at me silently, but I didn’t miss the heat in her eyes.

“I’m gonna hop in the shower.” I leaned down and gave her a quick peck on the cheek and whispered in her ear. “You’re welcome to join me.”

I heard her deep inhale before I pulled back and winked at her. I grabbed my bag and took it into the bathroom with me.

I’d told her the truth. I wasn’t going to pressure her into anything, but I was also going to take any and every opportunity to tell her how much I wanted her and found her undeniably sexy.

I was also going to take every opportunity to show off my own undeniably sexy body. That included walking out of the bathroom ten minutes later in only a towel wrapped around my waist.

At first, she didn’t notice me, but then she grabbed her own toiletry kit, and her gaze settled on me as she began walking to the bathroom.

“You have…hair on your chest.” It was more of a statement rather than a question, so I stayed quiet as she stood there gawking at my shirtless body. I had never been happier to be fit and toned, based on the way she was staring at me.

“Most men do,” I replied with a cheeky grin.

“Well…yeah…but…don’t a lot of them shave it or something?” she asked, stuttering and clearly nervous.

“Some do.”

I usually did, but I’d gotten lazy this week since I had so much going on. Now I was glad I hadn’t shaved it off since it was clearly keeping her interest.

I took two steps closer to her before dropping my voice low. “If you want, you can check out my other hairy spots, like my arms, legs… and just below my belly button there’s this trail of hair that leads⁠—"