The moment she was inside, he kicked the door shut behind her. A strange uncertainty and something she’d never seen before hid behind his look. “I really wondered if I’d see you again.”
She clenched her jaw, unsure how to respond. His uncertainty added to hers, making it difficult to collect her thoughts.
“I...” He furrowed his brow and clenched his hands into fists. He took a deep breath, then another and another. His frame relaxed. He looked at her again, a new clarity in his expression. Resting his hands on both sides of her face, he pressed his lips softly to hers.
The whimper she’d been trying to hold back escaped at the tender gesture. She closed her eyes and sank into the kiss, heart hammering against her ribcage. How had she ever doubted this was anything other than electric? She pressed closer, wanting to feel all of him.
He slid his hands down her arms, raising goose bumps everywhere he touched, and rested them on her hips. He traced a slow line along her jaw to her neck with his lips, and she tilted her head back, lost in the sensation.
He pushed the bottom of her T-shirt up and rested his palms on her bare waist. Was this his way of distracting her? Turning any chance at conversation into sex, so he had an excuse to kick her out again when it was over?
She wanted him so desperately, but not if she wasn’t the only one. Not this time. Not with him. She covered his hands with hers and pushed him away. “Not tonight.”
He stepped back, hurt mingling with that something she still hadn’t identified in his expression. “Of course not. I shouldn’t have assumed.”
She forced a smile. “It’s not that.” She fumbled for the right words. The best way to tell him why she was here. Nothing came to mind though. Frustration welled inside. What now?
Chapter Seventeen
Zane beat back hisaggravation. Of course. He’d tried to cross that line one too many times with her, and she was getting tired of it. The realization pulsed through him, and he tried to grab any lingering emotion from inside, wrap it in a ball, and tuck it away in the bottom of his gut. “What is it, then?”
She perched on the edge of the futon he’d never folded back into a couch the night before. She was several feet away, ankles crossed and knees tucked to the side. “I was hoping we could just hang out.”
“Watch movies or something?”
She shrugged. “Or talk or something.”
Like they used to do back in high school. When they both pretended they didn’t have a crush on each other, and neither of them knew it. He didn’t miss those days. Except maybe the bits when she fell asleep in his bed. That was always nice. Though it had been innocent, he’d loved being able to curl around her like they were the only two people in the world.
He pushed the thought away. Childish fantasy. He dropped onto the opposite edge of the futon from her, the battered quilt wrinkling under him. “I can do that. How’s your sister?”
There. That was neutral, right?So why did she look like she swallowed a mouthful of bad milk?
“She’s good. Great. I think she’s the kind of person who was made to get married. I’m pretty certain this whole planning thing is just one orgasm after another for her.” She clamped her jaw shut. “I mean...You know what I mean.”
“I do.”