She straightened, grabbed her bag off the passenger seat, and stared at the front door again. She was supposed to meet Darcy at the club later, and so instead of having to head back home after the tutoring session, she’d shoved some “club clothes” as Darcy had called them, into her bag and would just change at Alex’s.
After climbing out of the car and heading toward the front door, she stood there for a moment just staring at the white scarred wood. Bringing her knuckles down on the door in three hard raps, she immediately clasped her hands together in front of her to try and still the shaking nervousness that seemed to settle in them.
A second later the door flew open and Adam stood on the other side. The sound of the television blaring from the other room blasted through the house. “Hey,” he said and grinned as he leaned against the doorframe.
“Hi, Adam.” Her nervousness lessened as she stood in front of Adam. He was cocky for sure, but she’d always gotten these goofy vibes from him that he never seemed like any kind of threat to her, even if she’d seen him check her out on more than one occasion.
“Come on in.” He moved to the side, and she stepped in, the scent of old sweat and something funky filling the interior caused her nose to tingle and scrunch up at how sour it smelled.
“I’m here to tutor Alex.” She turned around to face Adam just as he shut the front door and tipped his chin toward the stairs.
“Yeah, he’s upstairs primping.”
Primping? She felt her lips twitch at the image that conjured up. No way could she imagine a larger-than-life Alex Sheppard primping. “Excuse me?”
Adam grinned and shook his head. “He’ll beat my ass if he knew I said that to you.” He started laughing. “But yeah. He’s getting all pretty for his date tonight.”
Her amusement faded and something twisted hard and painful in her stomach at Adam’s words.
“Oh,” she said and cleared her throat. She hoped Adam hadn’t picked up on how uncomfortable she’d gotten just thinking about Alex with someone else, which was ridiculous given the fact they weren’t anything to each other. “Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that. I’m just here to help him study.”
Adam was staring at her strangely, and she hoped her sudden and irrational disappointment wasn’t written across her face. Before anything else was said the sound of heavy footsteps descending the stairs filled her ears and she turned her focus away from Adam, but she heard him grumble something under his breath before he left her alone.
Mary’s heart was in her throat as she watched Alex make his way down the stairs. A man shouldn’t look so good in a pair of faded jeans and a button-down shirt. The sleeves were rolled up his forearms, showing off the muscular, tanned flesh, and the thick veins that ran up the length. The first two buttons were undone at the collar, and dammit that revealed strip of flesh shouldn’t have made her… wet.
And when she finally focused on his face, a small, distressed noise left her at the nasty bruise that marred his cheek and the gash right above his right eye.
“Hey,” he said low and deep, and a voice shouldn’t have sounded that good, shouldn’t have had her skin prickling in a really pleasurable way.
“God, are you okay?”
“I’m good, Mary.” He said the words a little too fast and with a little too much enthusiasm in his voice.
She wanted to ask what happened, but it was clear by his quick response and blinding smile that it wasn’t a topic he wanted to talk about so she kept her mouth shut.
He was close, far too close for her comfort because a rush of heat filled her from his close proximity. The scent of soap and a light undertone of cologne filled her nose, and she actually felt herself leaning toward him, but she cleared her throat and shifted direction, moving a step back so she didn’t make a fool out of herself.
Heat rushed up her neck and covered her face and she cleared her throat again and quickly looked toward the living room. Adam and a few other guys sat in front of a big screen TV, a football game on the screen. When she looked back at Alex, he was watching her with a strange expression on his face and the muscle under his cheek clenched tight.
When she looked to her right and into the kitchen, there were a couple of guys sitting around a table playing cards. “Maybe tutoring on a Friday night wasn’t the best plan.” She meant it as a joke, but when she caught the look in Alex’s eyes and saw something flash behind them, she suddenly felt far too dizzy and breathless.