Claire jerked back and pushed Graham to his feet. Reagan walked past, eyes on her phone screen.
Wide-eyed, Claire just stared at Graham, who now had an amused expression on his face. Mixed with the rapid rise and fall of his chest and the dilation of his pupils, he made quite the picture.
“I’m sorry,” she said in a low voice, smoothing her hair. “I, um…”
“Don’t want Reagan to know?”
She shook her head, thankful he kept his voice down.
“That might pose a problem, seeing as how we live with her.”
“I know. But I can be discreet if you can.”
“She was there when we discussed this, you know.”
“That was when we were waiting several years. At which point I figured we wouldn’t all be living under the same roof anymore.”
“Planning to get rid of me?”
“Gertrude nearly gets you kicked out of this condo on the daily. I have seniority and call the shots around here.”
Graham wisely remained silent, but the corner of his mouth twitched.
“Reagan will be done with graduate school by then. Surely she’ll have moved on. Anyway, that’s not the point. I just…don’t want to make a spectacle of ourselves, okay?”
Graham stuffed his hands into his pockets. “For this to work, the first thing you’ll need to do is tell yourself it’s not a big deal. That’s how an arrangement like this works.”
Claire smoothed her hair back. “I know that in theory, but…I’ve never done this before. I didn’t think I had it in me, but tonight at dinner Mia convinced me—”
“Mia convinced you?”
The disbelief in his tone forced a knowing laugh from her. “I was shocked as hell, too. I’m the one who made the decision, though. I want to do this and give it a try, but I didn’t mean for us to like…start now.”
It had just been difficult to resist when he was sitting that close and smelled that good, and leaned in like that…
“The way you were looking at me said otherwise.”
“Well!” She flung a hand in his direction. “Look at you!”
Oh, hell. That smile.
“Maybe this is a bad idea,” she blurted out, suddenly worried about her ability to keep her hands off him. Two kisses and her hormones were revolting and demanding satisfaction.
Graham, that spectacular smile still lighting up his face, slowly shook his head. “You don’t mean that.”
“Maybe I do. I’m already stressed out.”
“You weren’t when it was just us and you weren’t thinking about anything else.”
Her eyes slid closed as she thought about it.
Accurate.
He kept going, probably so she didn’t have even more time to do something as awful as think. “I’m going to my room now. When you’re ready, just let me know.”
“Reagan leaves next week to visit her family in Florida and she’ll be gone for almost a month. I think I’ll be more comfortable if it’s just us.”
Graham shrugged and turned, giving her a sexy wink over his shoulder as he went. “Sure, if you think you can wait that long.”
6
Graham’s roommate was having a negative impact on his sleep routine.
Not Reagan. She was nice and all, and probably cute, too, but she was more than a decade younger than him.
His brain didn’t even consider going there.
No, it was one hundred percent Claire.
Sweet fuck, he wanted to touch her everywhere. He’d always found her attractive and respected her confident, take-no-shit attitude, which only made her hotter. He’d never seriously considered more than friendship, though, because he knew he couldn’t give her what she wanted.
Not long-term.
Then, last year when she’d suggested that ridiculous marriage pact, it seemed like the perfect solution. He’d never have guessed she’d be down for an arrangement of convenience, simply agreeing to be someone’s companion because they’d hit a certain age where they’d be considered past their prime.
Who set that benchmark, anyway? He was closing in on forty and still looked pretty damn good.
Either way, it worked perfectly for him since he wasn’t looking for an emotional connection. He was all for committing to someone he trusted, liked （most of the time）， and was attracted to, as long as they understood he wouldn’t be talking about his feelings and all that.
Thus far, women hadn’t seem interested in that.
So Claire’s idea was a perfect solution. Because despite his disinterest in a serious relationship, he still preferred not to be alone. He enjoyed the company of others. Thrived in it, actually. And while he was all for getting Noah and Mia together back then, he’d thought she was serious about their part, too.