“Because Sir isn’t a pet, I don’t have a litter box,” I said. “I have to leave the door open for him so he can go about his business and not mess up the house.”

“You’re not going to shut your door, are you?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“You could leave a window open,” he suggested. Then he made a confused face as if he couldn’t believe he’d just said such a thing.

“They all have screens,” I said.

He was quiet, watching me while I moved around the room. There was a heat in his gaze, and I saw him study my face as well as my body. His look was appreciative, as if he was fully aware of me without being impolite, and it made my insides hum in response.

“All right.” He drew the word out with obvious reluctance. “We’ll have to come to some sort of arrangement.”

“Yes!” I jumped, almost as high as Soph would have, and clapped. I stepped forward to—I don’t know, go hug him?—but my skirt got caught on the rack of weights. It yanked me backward and I fell against the shelf. Hard. I hit it just right, in the center of my back, enough to knock the wind out of me, and I landed on the shelves in a heap, which sent the entire structure crashing to the ground with me.

“Annabelle!”

I was fighting so hard to regain my balance and avoid getting crushed by the free weights, I barely registered my name being called. One massive arm swept into the rolling avalanche of dumbbells and plucked me out. My head was covered by a thickly muscled arm and there was a horrific tearing sound as the fabric of my skirt gave way. I clenched my eyes shut, preparing for impact, and instead found myself rolled across the floor, landing in a heap on a mat with Nick Daire on top of me, protecting my body with his.

When the horrific sounds of weights smashing into the floor stopped, I slowly opened my eyes. And there he was. His face hovered over mine. A frown marred his forehead, but it was the first time I could really see his eyes. They were a pretty hazel, velvet brown surrounded by leaf green, and they made me think of a dewy morning hike in the thick of a forest.

“Are you all right?” he asked. He braced himself up on one elbow while he stared down at me, running his free hand over my body in a perfunctory way that was obviously looking for damage but was still devastatingly sexy.

I sucked in a breath. “Yeah, I’m okay.” I flopped against the mat and gestured at the weights. “I’m so sorry about that.”