I swipe my bag off the floor and leave him and his hangover on the couch. He lifts his head so his heated gaze can trail me across the room, reminding me why I left early last night without telling him.

When we moved in together last year, our relationship was far less blurred lines. I’d needed a new place; he had a steady girlfriend. Since he’d taken over as Heath’s TA after I started interning, we already knew we got along. Then his relationship ended, and we realized we got along in other, naked ways.

It usually happens when we’re drunk and neither of us has brought someone home. A backup body when another falls through. But last night his eyes stayed on me, his hand sinking low on my back and pulling my body against his at the bar.

I was the girl he wanted to take home, the toy he wanted because soon he wasn’t going to be able to have me. Isn’t that part of the human condition? Wanting what we can’t touch.

“Hey.” Xander follows me to the door and tugs me against his hot chest. “I’m going to miss you.”

I sigh, allowing myself to relax into him. “Just keep the girls out of my bed.”

“Not a promise I would ever make.”

He cracks a grin as I push him away, everything seeming to shift back to the way it should be between us as he gathers up my bags. This is the Xander I signed up for—no strings, no emotions.

I hold the door open for him, and he bounces down the stairs with me right behind him. I’m pulling my messenger bag off his shoulder when a black van pulls to the curb.

The door swings open, and a familiar smile appears. Colton gets out in a short-sleeve black tee, his biceps more intimidating than I remembered. His black hair glistens in the morning sun, and he leaves his sunglasses on and strides over to us, bending for my luggage on the sidewalk.

“Lioness,” he says. He slips his shades down to wink at me over the top of them before pushing them back up and grabbing the strap out of my hand.

“I want that one,” I tell him.

Rather than answer, he hands the messenger bag off to Christian, who’s climbing out of the back seat. He loads the others while the band’s manager hooks the button of his jacket. His gaze completes what I’m sure is going to be a habitual scan of my legs.

Ignoring the return of borderline inappropriate Christian, I turn to Xander. “Keep Heath alive for me?”

Even after the hell of being Heath’s TA, he agreed to fill in when needed while I’m away. If he thought it was bad before, he has no idea what’s waiting for him as an assistant.