“Hey there?” Natalya’s voice came out as a tight squeak.
He shrugged. “Don’t really know where else to go with it, Gnat.”
“You could have said something when I came in the room.”
“Like what?” He could see her building up a head of steam, but didn’t know how to defuse it. Though he did figure it wasn’t quite the right moment to point out that her robe had slipped open enough for him to tell that she wore neither t-shirt nor b*a.
“Like, oh, I don’t know. How about, ‘Hey, Gnat.’ Would that have killed you?”
“Not a problem, if I could have spoken.” Because sleepy-eyed, elk-slippered, and wrapped in a terrycloth bathrobe as dark as her eyes, she’d knocked the wind right out of him. Twice he’d gotten to hold her and wake up beside her. And it wasn’t until this moment that he understood quit
