Rosie had a big day today and he needed his beauty rest.

The living room, dining room and kitchen were open plan in an L shape. The condo was on a corner, the entirety of it had a balcony wrapped around. French doors from the dining room which was across from the kitchen, French doors from the living room which was an extension of the dining room and French doors in the bedrooms. Big money for this kind of location, the huge, airy rooms and the view afforded.

The kitchen was state-of-the-art and mostly hidden from the living room behind the wall that made up the bathroom and extra bedroom.

Still, I had to be quiet.

Normally, I’d have the coffee ready to roll the night before so I could just flip a switch after I’d stumbled out of bed and down the stairs.

Normally, my coffeemaker had a cup under the spout rather than a pot so I could just stand there and wait until it was done filling the cup and then switch it over to the pot so I didn’t have to wait until the pot was full.

Normally, I didn’t function properly until cup number two.

Caffeine was my drug of choice.

It took me awhile to find all the coffee paraphernalia. I lucked out because obviously Lee liked his coffee and he had a high quality bag of java.

I made it strong and did the cup thing. It was pretty clear from his Mr. Grouch impersonation that Lee wasn’t getting up anytime soon and there was not a sound from the couch so I could be greedy and selfish with the coffee.

I was concentrating on the stream of life-affirming joe filling the cup so I was a little surprised when hands settled on the counter on either side of me and I felt the warmth of a body against my back.

They weren’t Rosie’s hands.

I looked over my shoulder.

Lee had fenced me in.

His dark hair was wild in a very sexy way and his eyes were soft as were his features. His chest was bare. I knew this because I could see his shoulders.

I didn’t dare look down.

After ten years of practice, I was able (barely) to put the wild, sexy hair out of my mind and to ignore (barely) the fact he was bare-chested. However, it was kind of hard to ignore his proximity.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He glanced over my shoulder.

“You makin’ coffee for everyone, or just you?”

There were certain times when honesty was the best policy. In my life, those times didn’t come very often but if there was the possibility that you might not get the first cup of coffee, and brutal honesty would get it for you, you had to be brutally honest.

“Just me, for now.”

I turned back to the coffee, deciding I didn’t want an answer to my question about what he was doing. Something was going on and I was three quarts low on caffeine, not to mention sleep. I could hardly think past the next second, much less figure out what game Lee was playing. Likely he was still pissed at me for bringing trouble to his doorstep and decided to make my life miserable as repayment. I could understand that, I’d probably do the same.

I went back to ignoring him as the coffee cup was full. I expertly switched out the cup for the pot, intent on my first sip all the while wondering why Lee still hadn’t moved.

Then he did, a hand disappeared and a second later I felt my hair being swept off my left shoulder, around my neck and over my right.

I jumped at this intimate gesture and so did other parts of my anatomy. I didn’t even try to ignore it. Any effort would have been futile.

Lee’s chin went to where my hair used to be just as his hand slid across my abdomen and pulled me to him.

My entire body went still.

“We need to talk,” he said into my ear.

I stood there, frozen, coffee cup aloft, nowhere near awake enough to process his extraordinary actions and also in kind of total shock.

I said the only thing I could think to say.

“I need milk.”

Without moving his body or head, his hand left my middle, I heard the fridge open and the glug of milk against plastic and then the fridge closed again.

Lee set the milk in front of me and his hand went back to the counter, keeping me where I was.

Real slick.

My stomach fluttered.

“Thank you,” I said politely, blinking a lot and wondering if I was still asleep and dreaming.

I poured some milk in my joe concentrating on not letting my body tremble. I was trying to be cool but I was confused. This kind of behavior from Lee had never happened before.

As in, ever.

I took a sip of coffee and tried to get my mind in gear.

“Do you want to explain to me why you have me pressed up against the counter?” I asked, using what I hoped was a questioning-yet-diplomatic tone rather than a freaked-out, ohmigod, hell-has-just-frozen-over tone.

This was hard for me. I needed to be alert and aware in any situation involving Lee in order not to snap and declare my undying love for him but I’d only had one sip of coffee.

And somehow, this was definitely a situation involving Lee, in fact, it was more like a dangerous situation involving Lee.

I took another sip, going for the gusto and burned my tongue.

“Yeow!”

While I was recovering, Lee turned me around and moved further into me.

He did this well, considering there wasn’t a lot of space to move and even less space to move into. Not to mention, I had the coffee cup between us. He settled his hands on the counter on either side of me again.

“Why have you been avoiding me?”

Yikes.

Direct shot.

He didn’t even lead into it.

Although his eyes and features were still gentle, it wasn’t from just waking up. I could tell Lee was as alert and aware as you could get. The gentleness was from something else.

Shit, shit, shit.

What in holy hell was going on?

I decided to play stupid.

“What?” I asked.

“You heard me,” he answered.

Then there are those times when honesty was not the best policy.

“I haven’t been avoiding you,” I took another sip thinking I should have put another scoop or two of coffee in the filter.

“You’re lying. The last time we were both at dinner, you got up in the middle of Mom’s fajita presentation and said you forgot to feed your cat.”

Uh-oh.

“So?”

“You don’t have a cat.”

“I was cat-sitting,” I lied.

He smiled.

He smiled The Smile.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Man, Lee could smile.

Then he said, “All right, I’m all out of patience with this one. You have two choices. Either you talk to me about what’s been botherin’ you for the last decade or I tell you how you’re gonna pay me back for this Rosie debacle.”

“Is there a choice number three?” I asked.

He shook his head.

I slid my eyes to the right, chewed the inside of my bottom lip and thought about my choices. I did my best to forget about the glimpse of hard, muscled chest and six-pack I’d seen in the weak moment I allowed myself to look down.

And, he was wearing faded jeans with the top button not done up.

Yikes.

Okay.

Focus.

Choices.

Firstly, I was never, never, never in a million years going to tell Lee Nightingale that I’d been in love with him since I was five and he sat next to me during my Mom’s memorial service and held my hand. I was never going to tell him it was a Bon Jovi-style shot through the heart when he told me he wasn’t interested in me because I was his little sister’s best friend. And I was never, never, never, ever going to tell him that something had changed in him and he scared the pants off me.

Secondly, no matter what he said, he was Lee and he was right all those years ago, in a way, we were family. We did all our holidays together as family and went to Broncos games with our Dads when we were kids. We had barbeques at each other’s houses nearly every Saturday during the summer, even now. Hell, it was mid-June and I’d just had the barbeque at my house two weeks ago and Lee had been there. Even though he’d changed, he would always be Lee. He probably wanted cheap maid service or something. Someone to do his laundry. Take his car to have the oil changed.

I could do that.

All this business with sleeping together and swiping at my hair and talking in my ear was just him trying to intimidate me. He probably wouldn’t let Ally sleep with Rosie or on the floor either.

“I’ll choose door number two,” I decided.

The smile widened and something happened to his eyes that made my nether regions quiver.

Uh-oh.

Clearly, I made the wrong choice.

“I was hopin’ you’d say that.”

I scrambled.

“Maybe I’ll rethink my choice.”

“Too late.”

I scrunched my nose and narrowed my eyes at him.

“Why can’t you just be a nice guy?”

“I’ve never been a nice guy.”

This was true, mostly.

“Yes you have. You used to come pick Ally and me up from parties so we wouldn’t get in trouble.”

“I hate to burst your bubble but that was for entertainment value. You and Ally were hilarious drunks. Once, you sang ‘My Favorite Things’ all the way home and got all the words wrong.”

I made a frustrated noise.

“There was that time when I was grounded and I was climbing out of my window so I could go to Darren Pilcher’s party and I got stuck between the tree and the house and you came over to get me down.”

“I could see up your skirt.”

I gasped.

Then I sighed.

Only I would try to climb out of a window in a skirt.

I knew better than to argue. The only time Lee could say for certain he was a good guy was when he was in the Army and during some of that time I was ignoring him and most of his missions were top secret so I had no examples to give.

I took another sip of coffee. “All right, what do I have to do to pay you back for Rosie? And I’ll warn you, I won’t clean your bathroom.”

“You sure that’s the only stipulation you wanna make?”

I thought about it for a second, wondering what else I should throw in when he said, “Time’s up.”

He was playing with me and I was losing my temper.

“Oh for goodness sake, just tell me!” I snapped.

No sooner had I got out the word “me”, he moved.

And he moved fast, faster than I think I’ve ever seen anyone move, especially at that hour of the morning.

My coffee cup was gone, he had his hands at my ass and then I was going up, my behind settled on the counter and Lee moved in. Both his arms went around my back, I had no choice but to spread my legs or I’d gouge his abs with my knees, his arms pulled me to him, my nether regions pressed to his crotch and he bent his head and kissed me.

The first time in my life that Lee kissed me.

Holy shit.

Holy, holy, shit, shit, shit.

He was a fine kisser.

In fact, just that one kiss blew the entire Joe Perry experience out of the water and that’s saying something.

When he lifted his head, I said (or kinda shouted, at this point I’d totally forgotten Rosie), “What the hell was that?”

I was covering and recovering. My mouth was the only thing that worked, every other part of my body had been reduced to Jell-o.

“Advance payment on services rendered.”

I stared at him, thrown.

He looked down, likely to further assess my reaction.

“Is this my shirt?” His hand came from around my back and lifted to touch the wife beater, very close to my breast. I slapped it away, feeling my nipple harden and thanking the Lord above for lightly padded bras that hid hard nipples.

“Yes, it’s your shirt, and what do you mean, advance payment on services rendered?”

His hand went to the side of my breast rather than to the actual breast which was only a relief for about five seconds as it then slid around my back, pulling me to him again.

This was not brother-sister behavior.

What was he playing at?

He told me.

And he told me bluntly.

“I do this thing for Rosie, you sleep with me.”

I stared at him, open-mouthed and in stunned silence.

I did, of course, understand what he meant but he explained further.

“Not like last night, we’ll both be naked and sexual acts will be performed.”

My expression didn’t change except maybe my mouth opened wider.