“What the fuck are you wearing?” he asked, stepping closer. I could feel heat coming off him in waves. My nipples got hard and I broke out in goosebumps. I felt mortified. We had gone too far. He probably thought I looked like a clown.
Still, he didn’t have to be a jerk about it.
“The girls loaned me something to wear. For the party,” I said, my voice sounding breathless and scared. I shook it off. I hadn’t done anything wrong. The girls had said I looked pretty. Why was he looking at me like I was something that crawled out from under a rock? “It’s a dress,” I added stupidly.
“No. I mean this,” he dragged his thumb across my lips and I gasped at the contact. His hand fell away and he stared at me, mere inches away.
“It’s . . . it’s lipstick. Kelly did it.”
He grunted, seemingly in a trance. I rubbed my lips together nervously.
“It’s my birthday.”
“Happy birthday,” he said without taking his eyes from my lips. He looked less angry now. More . . . hungry. I shivered again. He’s going to kiss me, I thought. Maybe he wasn’t repulsed. Maybe he was—
“Okay, time for more shots,” Kelly said, dragging me away. I looked back at Shane and he was staring at me, looking absolutely dumbfounded. Mason handed him a drink and guided him to a table. I sat with the girls and drank, trying to ignore the laser beams shooting out of Shane’s eyes.
Cass started giggling.
“Oh, this is too good. I’ve never seen him even look at a woman before. The poor man looks stupefied.”
“He watches her all the time,” Michelle added, looking worried. “I think we may have pushed him a little too far.”
“Too far?” Kelly scoffed. “No such thing.”
“He looks like he’s going to explode.”
The girls all giggled at that. I was too nervous to get the joke. My palms were sweating and my cheeks were bright red.
“He didn’t like my lipstick.”
“Oh, honey, yes he did. He just wants to see it all over his—”
Michelle cut Cass off with a glance in my direction.
“Hush now, you are going to scare the girl. Virgin, remember?”
“All over his what?” I asked. But no one answered. They were looking over my shoulder at something. I turned and almost jumped out of my skin when I saw how close Shane was standing.
“I need to talk to you. Now.”
I nodded, and he gripped my arm, pulling me up and out of my seat. I was just able to keep up in the borrowed high-heeled boots, but barely.
“Shane?” I asked as he propelled me to the front door and outside. “What’s wrong?”
He let go of me when we were around the corner and away from prying eyes. He started at me, then up and down my body. His jaw twitched when he saw me tugging my skirt down.
“What is this?”
“The girls thought it would be fun to dress up . . .” I trailed off, feeling miserable. My shoulders drooped. He didn’t like the way I looked. “I told them it was too much.”
He stepped closer and I looked up at him in surprise.
“Fun? You think it’s fun to make me lose my mind?”
His voice was raw and husky as he backed me up until I bumped into the wall. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I swallowed nervously, not sure how to read him.
“Lose your . . . mind?”
“I can’t . . .” He put his hands on either side of me, boxing me in against the wall. “I can’t keep my hands off you if you’re going to flaunt yourself like this.”
“Flaunt?” I asked, suddenly getting annoyed. “It’s just an outfit for a party.”
“Yes.” He clenched his jaw, his eyes raking over my face and down my body. “Flaunt. You are going to make me do something very, very bad.”
I lifted my chin and stared at him. To hell with this, I decided. He was sending me mixed signals and I was tired of it!
“I can’t make you do anything, Shane. I can’t even make you like me.”
“Like you?” He laughed harshly. He sobered almost immediately. His fingers came up and traced my jaw. “I more than fucking like you.”
“You don’t act like it!”
He got even closer to me, our chests touching. I inhaled sharply at the feeling of him against me. His mouth hung dangerously above mine, moving inches away from my skin as he spoke in a raw, tortured voice.
“Because I don’t want to like you. I don’t want to . . .” He looked down my body, dragging one hand down my front and then yanking it away. It landed back against the wall with a thud. “Feel anything. You make me feel too much, Parker. You make me want things a guy like me can’t have.”