He shut the door and my inner walls clenched as I pictured him sheathing himself with protection. I had no idea if he’d meant it as a subtle innuendo, but that’s how my body was taking it.
My breaths were shallow as I reached behind me and tugged the seatbelt out and across my chest. As soon as I clicked it into place Cheyenne’s head fell onto my shoulder.
It stayed there the entire drive back to Billy’s house. The cab of the truck was silent except for the radio playing the latest country hits. I didn’t know why he wasn’t talking, but I sure as hell knew why I wasn’t. I just couldn’t think of a damn thing to say.
This situation was so far out of my experience up to this point that I couldn’t work out the small talk etiquette for the pre-naked portion of a hookup evening. Especially when the sister of your hookup target happened to be sleeping right in between the two of you.
I figured…better to just keep my mouth closed.
We pulled up in front of a small, two-story beachfront cottage. Billy shut the engine off and said. “Wait here.”
As I watched him walk up the front steps, I wondered if he was going to do what Laura Linney’s character Sarah had done in Love Actually when she cleans up her loft before Karl comes upstairs. He didn’t strike me as the type to be messy, but maybe he just wanted to get rid of the evidence of previous hookups.
It turned out neither of my guesses were right. He just unlocked and opened the door before coming back to the truck and opening the passenger side door. Once again, he held out his hand. I took it and felt the same jolt of electricity that I felt every time he touched me. I tried not to show how affected I was as I stepped down out of the truck.
Instead of focusing on how I was feeling, I turned my attention to my other senses. I listened to the waves crashing against the shore over my pounding heartbeat. I inhaled the fresh air and could taste the salt in it as my mouth watered in anticipation of his kiss.
This wasn’t working. No matter how hard I tried to divert my attention, I couldn’t ignore the energy between us crackling with electricity.
Billy carried Cheyenne into the house, and just like I had at the bar, I followed behind him, clutching her purse. As he got his sister settled on the couch, I couldn’t help but look around. His home was cozy, warm, and looked well lived in.
A couch ran along one wall, facing a large flat screen that hung above a brick fireplace. There were throw pillows on the armchair, a plant in the corner, and a piece of art hanging on the far wall. The only thing that screamed “bachelor pad” was the black gaming chair that sat directly in front of the TV and the multiple gaming consoles on the shelves beside the fireplace.
Besides that singular piece of furniture, it just looked like a home. A grown-up, adult home. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, but this wasn’t it. It’s not like I thought there’d be a sex swing or anything, but I’d figured it would be a little more…I don’t know…set up for seduction.
As I looked around, my nerves were popping like kernels in an Orville Redenbacher bag that had been in the microwave for two minutes. What if I’d read things wrong? What if he’d had no intention of anything happening between us? What if I’d built this attraction that I’d felt between us up into something that it wasn’t?
He hadn’t said anything that would make me think his intentions were anything other than honorable, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t want honorable. But I’d definitely gone as far as I could possibly go, short of spelling it out for him, and I knew there was no way that I could do that.
I knew my limits, even if I had surprised myself by pushing the edges of some of them tonight. At this point, I’d taken all the steps I could on my walk on the wild side. There was no way I was going to do anything bolder than I’d already done, and he didn’t seem to be picking up what I was throwing down. The best thing to do was cut my losses. Get out of there before I embarrassed myself further.
“Okay, well…” I whispered as I set Cheyenne’s purse beside the couch.
Billy put his hand on my arm, and jolts shot up it like I’d just touched the doorknob after one hundred laps around a carpeted floor in wool socks. My eyes shot to his, and I immediately sensed the lust in them. Heat flowed through me from the top of my head to the tips of my fingers and right on down to my toes, and I realized what an idiot I’d been to ever think he wasn’t interested. There was interest behind those eyes, that was for sure. More than interest. Hunger.
“Reagan, honey,” he rasped, his voice sounding like it was being dragged from him over the sharp edge of a knife, “How about some coffee?”
Coffee?I would’ve preferred to have him throw me over his shoulder and carry me to his bed, but I guessed that coffee would work, too.