Charlie was certain that Miles had nothing to do with her and Danny being invited over for lunch that Saturday, considering his original plan had been to hope that she wouldn't be around during Bass's visit so that she wouldn't find out he was Sebastian Monroe.

She couldn't make up her tangled mess of a mind, both hoping for and dreading the possibility he would be there. Sure, she wanted the chance to see him again and prove that she wouldn't be as flustered again. At the same time, she was terrified of seeing him after how embarrassing their first encounter had been.

Her brother seemed to find the whole situation hilarious. After she'd gone home, she had told him about it, excluding the details of how attracted to him she was, but explaining how they had first met each other and how much he seemed to have enjoyed bothering her. She regretted sharing that information as soon as Danny had told her that Nora had invited them to come over for lunch. He had taunted her more than enough beforehand and she was sure he was only going to embarrass her more if Monroe turned out to be there.

As she and Danny entered their uncle's apartment, Charlie tried to subtly peek around to see if the actor was there. She both felt a sense of relief and disappointment when she found that he wasn't.

Bass had gone for a long run and had worked up more than a little sweat in the process. By the time he got back to Miles and Nora's place, his hair was wet with sweat and he was starving.

He followed the smell wafting from the kitchen where Nora was cooking and Miles was leaning against the countertop watching like the obedient and utterly cooking impaired boyfriend he was.

Bass reached out to grab something to eat. It wasn't what he wanted and his stomach was growling at him to go for something bigger, but he figured that he should be able to get away with grabbing a carrot out of the salad. Clearly he thought wrong, since Nora quickly swatted his hand away.

"Not a chance," she told him.

"I already tried," Miles pointed out. It was clear from his tone it had not gone much better for him, but he seemed amused now that it was Bass getting in trouble. "She's not going to let you eat anything until it's done."

Nora crinkled her nose as she stepped a little too close to Bass. She turned to face him as she bluntly pointed out, "You stink. If you want food, then you had better shower before lunch."

He stifled a laugh. Nora never was one to pussy-foot around what she wanted to tell you. "Whatever you say."

"And don't even think about sitting on any of my furniture like that," she warned him.

"Yes ma' am." He called over his shoulder as he exited the room.

The first thing that caught his eye when he stepped into the living room was Miles' niece. She was sitting, legs folded beneath her, on the couch next to a boy with sandy blonde hair. He let his eyes linger on her for a little too long, sizing her up, before his lip quirked up and he turned for the hallway. This should be fun, at the very least he would get a kick out of seeing how uncomfortable he could make her.

"I thought he'd be taller," Danny pointed out, once the actor was out of the room.

His very presence seemed to loom over her. Charlie couldn't agree with her brother, but she cracked a smile anyways at her brother's underwhelmed response. She wished she could be so blasé around Monroe.

She had spent longer than she cared to admit wondering what she should wear, lest Sebastian Monroe attend lunch, but in the end had opted for her favourite pair of quite possibly over-worn jeans and a somewhat faded navy tank top she frequently wore with it. She wasn't about to dress up to try and impress the guy, but she also wasn't about to stoop to dressing down to prove how little she cared about what he thought of her... Or at least how little she wished she cared.

Now, she was rethinking her whole outfit after the way his eyes had raked up and down her form before he had passed out of the room. It wasn't fair. He had shown up drenched in sweat, with his tight green v-neck clinging to his frame, and her heart had started pounding like Jimmy King had pounded into Hayden Rivers after she had saved him from execution by her own clan.

Great. Now her mind was already slipping to the sex scenes he knew she had seen him in. This was going to be a long lunch.

Ten minutes later, Bass emerged from the hallway with a towel resting low on his hips and his hair still wet enough that it was almost dripping.

Charlie's eyes immediately gravitated to his form as he swaggered into the room. Her eyes grazed down his hairless chest, then took a particular interest the muscular V where his towel dipped a little too low, and yet not low enough. Was he really trying to torture her personally or did he just feel the need to be the centre of attention at all times?

"I'm not feeding you if you don't put clothes on," Nora warned him. She'd finished cooking now and they were all waiting on him. Miles and Nora had joined the other two in the living room while Monroe had been in the shower and the scowl on Miles' face said he was not impressed with his friend's lack of clothing.

"Yeah, yeah," he responded, as if this was a complaint he was used to getting. "Just let me grab some. It's not my fault you invited people into my bedroom."

"Funny, last I checked it was my living room," Miles retorted.

The actor stepped further in the room and practically brushed past Charlie on his way to grab his bag off the floor. She marvelled at how confident he was in his towel's ability to stay on as she felt the heat radiating off of him against her leg.

She came back to her senses some, as he turned and set his bag down in an armchair. But as he leaned over to dig through his bag, she found herself staring at the towel over his ass and silently willing it to drop.

Something hit her in the side and she turned her head to find that Danny had elbowed her and now was giving her an incredulous look. While she was a little embarrassed that her brother had caught her blatantly ogling, she was glad that he had stopped her before she had embarrassed herself around Monroe any further or before Miles had looked in her direction and noticed where her eyes were resting. Maybe Danny could be a help to her instead of just revelling in her pain.

Okay, maybe Bass was taking a little longer to pick out clothes than he normally would have. But that's because he wanted to mess with Miles, who always seemed to wish that Bass would act at least a little ashamed of the body that he had gotten countless women with. Alright, and maybe he wanted to give Charlie the chance to stare a little and see if he could catch her getting all flustered again. After all, he needed some kind of entertainment here, and playing with her had the potential to be quite enjoyable.

He tossed a shirt onto the arm of the chair as he settled on it, then his phone began to ring loudly from where he had left it on the coffee table. One glance in its direction brought a tilted smile to his lips.

Bass tapped his phone to answer it and set it on speaker, then set it back down on the table so he could look through his bag for a decent pair of jeans.

"What's up, Duncan?" He questioned.

Duncan. As in Duncan Page. The woman who played Hayden, his character's on again/off again sexual partner. Charlie's interest was piqued.

"What are you wearing?" A silky voice asked through the phone.

"I just got out of a shower, so a towel," he responded.

"Want to work up a sweat all over again?" Duncan purred, causing him to let out a laugh. "How long until you can get here?"

"I'm in Chicago, so I think I'm going to have to take a rain-check," he told her.

"Alright, then phone sex?"

Miles' face fell into his hand.

"You're on speakerphone," Bass responded in a gruff tone.

"You're ready to go. Aren't you?" She asked. "Going to need both hands, huh?"

"Actually, I meant you're on speaker, so other people can hear you," he corrected.

"Kinky," Duncan commented in an amused tone.

He let out a low chuckle. "I think I'm going to have to take a rain-check on that too."

A sigh came from the other side of the phone. "You mean I have to go out and actually find someone to sleep with? I mean, not that it'll be that hard, but I'd prefer not leaving the house."

"Sorry," Bass told her in a not entirely apologetic tone. "You could try calling Scanlon. He clearly has a thing for you and would probably drop everything to come over."

"Thanks," she commented. "I'll talk to you later about what the hell you're doing in Chicago. Have fun with whatever you're up to."

"Do you think you could not take phone calls about sex on speakerphone?" Miles questioned the moment his friend hung up. "Especially while Charlie and Danny are here?"

Bass turned to Charlie as he pointed out, "Okay, first, she's seen the show so I know she's seen and heard worse. And second, I know for a fact that I've seen and heard worse from you and Nora on numerous occasions."

"He has a point," Nora responded with a shrug.

"Just put some clothes on," Miles grumbled out. "Before I change my mind about being happy you're here."

A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to JM2788, yrut, Kggla, TexasRevoFan, maritza, and the two anonymous guests for reviewing last chapter! :)