His brows draw together over his nose. "They must've bollocksed up the order."
I shimmy closer to the sofa's edge, rubbing my hands together and humming with hungry delight as I lay eyes on our snack. "Mm, yummy. They got it exactly right."
"But this isn't pizza." Reese lifts a slice, eying it like teeth might erupt out of it to bite his nose off. "No cheese. No meat. It's some sort of pastry crust with what looks like applesauce all over it."
"Yep. It's an apple strudel pizza." I grab a slice and take a bite, moaning because it tastes sooooooo good. Cinnamon and sugar and apples, all mushed into one warm, gooey slice of food heaven. I close my eyes while I chew, moaning some more because, damn, I'm so hungry and this is like an orgasm in my mouth. After I swallow my large bite, I say, "Try some. It's the most delicious thing I've ever put in my mouth."
Reese says nothing. He sits there with a slice of gooey goodness in his hand, but he's not staring at the pizza. He's staring at me.
"What's wrong?" I ask. "Don't you like strudel?"
"I love it," he says, his voice huskier and deeper, the sound of it shivering heat through me. "But I'd rather devour you."
"No sex. Remember? I'm staying a virgin until---"
"Then you shouldn't consume dessert pizza like you're about to climax." He sets down his slice and inches closer to me. "A bloke only has so much willpower, you know."
I gaze into his hooded eyes for a long, long moment, struck by the intensity of his desire for me. No guy has ever looked at me that way. Suddenly, I want to toss the pizza and mount him right here on the sofa. Reese Dixon might prove to be the biggest temptation I've ever laid eyes on, and I'm having trouble remembering why I need to discourage him.
Twenty-eight years old and still untouched. Maybe a night of hot, meaningless sex with Reese Dixon is what I need to help me unwind after nine months of living with an Ecuadorian family.
Sleeping with Reese wouldn't be simple sex, though, would it? His family and my friend make it complicated as hell.
In my mind, I mutter a thousand nasty curses as I leap off the sofa and retrieve a plate and a can of beer from the kitchen. While Reese watches me with a curious expression, I slap three pieces of strudel pizza onto the plate and march back to my room. Okay, maybe I'm sashaying. Like I said, that's my normal way of moving, and I can't help it.
Though I might be exaggerating it a little to torture Reese.
Chapter Three
Reese
Arden is gone when I wake up in the morning. Her bedroom door is open, and her bed is neatly made, but she's not there. I wander into the kitchen and find a note taped to the refrigerator. It says, "Out getting breakfast. You're welcome." I can't decide if she's saying "you're welcome" because she's bringing breakfast home for me too or if she wrote that strictly because she's off her rocker.
I sort of like her insanity. It's adorable, in a very strange and slightly disturbing way.
While I wait for Arden to bring food---I assume that was the meaning of her note, not that she's out eating at a cafe while I'm starving to death here---I have a shower and then ring my brother Chance. Since his almost wife and almost brother-in-law got me into this mess, I decide he should be the one to fix it.Find me another flat, I plan to tell him.
But as I'm scrolling down my list of contacts to find Chance's number, I reflect on last night and the sexy little American dressed in nothing but her underwear. Maybe I don't want to move. Yet. Not until I see if I can get Arden naked and make that hot body sweat and writhe. She's a virgin and my almost sister-in-law's best friend. Does that make it wrong to seduce her?
Probably. But what if...
I growl at myself, because even I'm not that much of an arse, and tap my phone's screen to dial Chance's number.
"What's wrong?" Chance asks, his tone giving away the fact he's smirking from the safety of our parents' house in the English countryside, too far away for me to tackle him to the ground for being cheeky.
"Nothing's wrong," I say. "Didn't Elena tell you about the Linwood family blunder?"
"Yes, and I assumed you would be a gentleman and get yourself to a hotel."
"Why would you assume that? It's me you're talking to. Reese, not Dane the boring and uptight brother. It's me, the fun one in the family."
"Right. What was I thinking?" Chance sighs. "Please don't harass Arden. I haven't met her yet, but Elena loves the girl to bits. If you do your usual shag-and-run routine, my fiancée will not be pleased."
"What sort of dick do you think I am? I never run. I kiss them goodbye and walk out the door at a normal pace."
"Elena told me Arden is, ah, not like the other women you've been with."
I drop onto the sofa. "Do you mean because she's barmy, or because she's a virgin?"