And that was the new source of my annoyance.
I slipped into my room, quietly shutting the door behind me. I stripped off my shirt and pulled on a bralette, something to give the girls support without restraining them. I’d just shimmied on a pair of black jeans when a familiar scent found me.
I inhaled, eyes fluttering shut on the enticing mixture of coffee, bourbon, and sandalwood.
Then, my eyes shot open, and I blinked before turning to find a candle burning on top of my dresser.
A candle I didn’t light.
Or purchase.
I stared at it for a moment like it was a figment of my imagination before crossing my room. I lifted it, careful not to grab it where it was too hot or tilt it so the wax would put out the flames. And when I read the label, when I recognized where it was from, I sat it back down in a numb sort of awareness.
Did he…
Did he buy this candle for me?
I blinked again, and this time, I saw a brown paper bag behind the candle. I reached inside and found three more just like it — all scents that I’d been looking at when Leo found me at the market. There was also a small, folded note.
To cover the stench — though I doubt it will work.
Love, Leo
A rush of heat flooded through me, my stomach lifting on the wings of a thousand butterflies.
I covered my mouth where a smile was already curling.
Then, my hands rolled into fists, and I stomped my foot with a frustrated growl before I whipped my door open and stormed down the hall.
I didn’t let myself stop and think before I twisted the doorknob on Leo’s room and burst inside without so much as a knock. It was only then that I paused, not because good sense had come to me, but because I was now staring down at a very sweaty Leo wearing very little clothes.
He was repping out pushups, and he finished his set with just a glance at me and furrow of his brow. Then, he hopped up to his feet like it was easy, swiping a towel off the back of his desk chair and mopping his face with it. He let it hang over his shoulder then, his hands on his hips, bare chest heaving and slick with sweat.
My mouth parted as I followed each bead that gathered and slid down the mountains of muscles covering his body — his pecs, swollen and smooth and round, his abs, hard and defined, all the way down to the deep-cut V that disappeared under the band of his shorts.
I didn’t mean to wet my lips, didn’t mean to take so much time as I slowly lifted my eyes up to find his, pausing on where his chains stuck to his chest on the way. His mouth seemed just as dry as mine, and I thought I saw him bite the inside of the lower one before he arched a thick, dark brow.
“Need help finding your shirt, roomie?”
Leo
Mary was a vision of wrath and desire in my doorway, her brows bent in rage while her breasts heaved against the barely there scrap of fabric containing them. The button and zipper of her jeans were undone, too, the lacy fabric of her forest green thong peeking through the V-shaped opening.
When she saw my eyes stick there, her face flushed with color and she hastily zipped and buttoned her jeans before folding her arms over her chest, as if that could hide her curves from my view.
“No,” she spat through her teeth. “What I need is for you to stay the hell out of my room.”
I held up my hands. “Hey, I’ve respected that rule since the moment you put it into place.”
“Oh yeah? Then why is there a fucking candle burning on my dresser? Because I sure as hell didn’t put it there.”
I smiled at that, folding my arms under my chest. The way Mary’s eyes flicked to my pecs told me my upper body pump was distracting, and that made me smile wider.
“It’s a gift.”
“One I didn’t ask for.”
“Well, that’s typically how gifts work. Otherwise, it would just be a transaction, wouldn’t it? You ask for something, I get it for you.” I waved my hand over the space between us. “Doesn’t seem as fun.”
Something washed over Mary, smoothing the line between her brows. I took that, along with the stretch of silence, as an invitation to explain.
“I saw you looking at them at the market,” I said. “And I saw how you put them down, likely because you’re trying to save. I listen when you talk to me, contrary to what you might believe.”
Her jaw tensed like she was grinding her teeth together.
“So, I peeked at what scents you had picked up and went back the next day to get them for you.”
She blinked, quiet for a long moment before she whispered one word.
“Why?”
“Why not?” I shrugged. “I wanted to do something nice.”
Again, there was that softening, one that made me want to cross the distance between us and wrap her in my arms. I couldn’t explain it, but I wanted so desperately to hold her and watch all that tension melt, feel her relax in my hold and rest her head against my chest and whisper thank you. I wanted to know what it would feel like to show her a little kindness, a little care, and her actually accept it.
The need was so strong I almost succumbed to it, but at the subtle shift of my body, she hardened again, her spiky shell snapping back in place.
“I don’t need your pity,” she said, taking two full steps toward me and pointing her finger at my chest.
“It’s not pi—”
“Or your gifts,” she said, cutting me off. “Stop being nice to me.”
I pressed right back into her space, making her back down only an inch, but she stood her ground just enough that my chest brushed hers. The metal of her piercings hit the top of my abdomen and I suffocated the groan I wanted to let loose at the touch.
“Why?” I challenged, staring down at her over the bridge of my nose. “Because it makes it harder to hate me so damn much?”
Her mouth parted, eyelids fluttering so softly I questioned whether they did at all before she narrowed her gaze and pressed harder into me. “Trust me — that is always going to be easy for me.”
“And why is that, exactly? What did I do to earn such passionate disaffection from you?”
She opened her mouth like she was ready to scream the answer at me, and I willed her to do it. I wanted the fight.
Give me that fire, I silently begged.
But the ire and passion drained out of her, her face relaxing, expression blank in an instant — like she decided I wasn’t worth it.
She pulled away, taking all the heat and tension with her as the cool air of my room swept between us.
“Stay out of my room,” she said pointedly, and then she spun on her heel and blew through my door, slamming it closed behind her.
Mary
My spoiled mood only soured more as the night went on.
The shop was typically my refuge, the one place where I felt safe and at ease to be one-hundred percent myself. I looked forward to my shifts. Hell — I came in even when I wasn’t scheduled to. I didn’t care if I was cleaning or sketching or studying an artist, every minute in the shop felt like it was meaningful, like it had purpose.
Like I had purpose.
But tonight, about the only thing I felt was annoyed.
Sifting through my feelings felt like too much work. Why, exactly, was I so upset that Leo bought me some damn candles? It wasn’t a big deal. He saw that I liked them, and he went back and got them for me. I should have been appreciative. I should have smiled and thanked him.