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He was going to kill Gretchen Petty when he returned, that was for damn sure

Fiveinto bed when there was a knock at the adjoining door He tensed, alarh him, and headed to the door "Maylee?" he called, worried Had so the door open, she was standing there, still in his shirt A pilloas clutched to her chest, and she looked up at hi with unshed tears

"Can I" She paused and gulped, then continued "Can I come sleep with you?"

Lordamercy, but Griffin Verdi was a pretty man when he was in a state of undress

Not that he wasn’t normally pretty, Maylee reasoned In his jacketed suits and his proper ties, his hair slicked down so not a bit was untaht nice Of course, when he was all done up, he was also incredibly unapproachable Noas freshly showered, his hair wet and a bit awk at all those muscles that a bookworm shouldn’t have

Griffin had a real nice chest Real nice Broad, with strong, triangular shoulders that tapered down to a narroaist His chest wasup fro He also had a black skull tattoo without of the eye sockets on one shoulder that surprised her--His Royal Stuffiness certainly hadn’t see it It made him human Like ed hith to knock on his door again after he’d gone back to bed She’d hesitated, terrified he’d say no and then give her a verbal putdown to let her knohat he thought of her suggestion And in her rather shaky state of mind at the moment, it’d probably break her

But at her ridiculous question, he hadn’t laughed, hadn’tof that sort

He’d simply opened his door a bit wider to let her in

And Maylee felt so relieved that she could have kissed him She didn’t, but she would have if he’d have been even the slightest bit receptive to soirl like her

"Thank you," she murmured as she stepped into his roo at how much nicer his room was than hers He had fancy couches and fancy tables and an enormous ith a balcony that would probably have an incredible view of the city The as shut, the curtains drawn It was late and getting later by the lanced around the room "I can take the couch You can have the bed"

Her eyes widened at his suggestion Sir Stuffy was going to give up his bed for her? Iuilty That hadn’t been her intention She’d siht out of her closet with a caht we’d both sleep together"

"Did you" The tords were flat

Maylee blushed "Not like that But look at this bed It’s the size of my apartment back home We can just put soht as rain Kinda like camp You know?"

Griffin sihty uncomfortable," she admitted "Especially for a ain Why had she saidto look at his happy trail She was not "I mean, if anyone should take the couch, it should be me"

The rooestured at the pillow she was clutching "Go get your pillows out of your roorabbed all the pillows, then returned to Griffin

He took the a barrier between theht," he said, the imperious note back in his voice "It’s closer to the door"

"Thank you," she said softly

"And I’er I trust that won’t bother you?"

She shook her head "I’?"

He shrugged his shoulders and cli it back up again, ignoring her This was perfect, really If he was going to pretend like she wasn’t there, she wouldn’t feel so weird about asking to sleep with hirabbed her knitting, and scurried back into his room For some reason, her own hotel rooh his door, she felt like she could relax Breathing a happy sigh of relief, she bounded back into bed, dragged the blankets up around her, and then sat up, crossed her legs, and began to knit The feel of the yarn and the needles was soothing to her, as were the repetitive an to chain her yarn with easy lanced over at Griffin, but he was silent, reading a book with tons of tiny words on the page Looked like heavy reading Huh Interesting that he was so s

A co tilanced over, and was startled to see that he was looking in her direction His thick book was flat on that divine chest, and his hair had dried into a light brown tousle that looked different now that it wasn’t slicked down by a pound of hair gel He looked different Younger Easier to approach

Cute, even

She felt herself blushing, though she continued to knit, her needles"You really want to know?"

"Would I have inquired if I didn’t?"

"Youpolite"

He snorted "I can assure you that I don’t ask people about themselves unless I’uess I should be , really My apartot broken into when I first moved to the city I’d only been in New York a few days I went on a job interview and when I cah all o to the police?"

"I went toher yarn around one needle as she spoke "He toldme three dollars a square foot, I shouldn’t expect ot myself a baseball bat, but it was scary for the first few days"

He was silent She looked over fro at her

"What?" she asked

"I don’t knohat part of that story is theto decide"