I set my coffee on the counter, my stunned gaze never leaving his face as I think of the T-shirt he must’ve pulled over me after I passed out, the blankets tucked in around me. “Tyler—“
“Annie! Your dad wants to talk to you.” Ryan’s voice comes from down thehall.
“Be right there!” I shout back, then lower my voice. “I didn’t mean what I said about you living in the pool house. It was cruel and insensitive, and I’m sorry. You said that thing about my garbage bag, and I lashedout.”
The machine finishes brewing, and Tyler reaches past me to toss the pod. His shoulder brushes my breasts in a way that sends awareness flowing through me. I tuck my hair behind my ear, swallowing as I sneak a look up at him, but he’s oblivious, and before I can respond, hecontinues.
“We all do shit when we’re hurting. It’s a good reason to keep from getting hurt in the firstplace.”
I go to the giant fridge for cream, setting it in front of him. He stares at it as if he’s surprised I know how he takes hiscoffee.
I turn away, going to the cupboard for cereal. “I said I hate you. I don’t. I envy you. You take what you want, and you don’t feel bad about demolishing whatever’s in the way. Likefriendships.”
“If we’re not friends, tell me how we’ve talked more this week than in the past fourmonths.”
I freeze in the middle of the kitchen, watching him add cream to his coffee. “Because lately whenever I get into trouble, there youare.”
He puts the cream back in the fridge without so much as an indication he’s heard me. I shake my head to clear it as I set the cereal on the counter. “Listen—don’t tell my dad aboutKellan.”
“Orwhat?”
His words have mestiffening.
If my dad finds out I can’t handle myself, it’s more evidence I’m not as capable as I should be, as capable asTyler.
Tyler might be the Prince of Oakwood, but he’s in my castlenow.
I close the distance between us, stopping when my bare purple-painted toenails graze Tyler’s socks. I tilt my head up to take in every line of his handsome face, his chocolate eyes bright withchallenge.
“If you tell Dad about Kellan,” I murmur, “I’ll tell him I woke up in yourbed.”
My dad is protective. The day he finds out I’m not innocent, heads willroll.
Tyler’s jaw tics because he knows that too. He reaches up to brush a thumb along my cheek, tracing beneath the pale red scratch I saw in the mirror thismorning.
“You’re not built for games,” he replies at last, his breath light on my face. “You’re tooearnest.”
“You don’t know me anymore. You said it yourself. Dad would freak if you let me ride your bike. He’d lose his mind if he found out I was ridingyou.”
Tyler reaches for his coffee on the counter and takes a long sip while I waitimpatiently.
“What?” I say sharply, and his mouthtwitches.
“I thinkyou’dlose your mind if you were riding me,too.”
His gaze traps mine, and heat floods my body, hardening my nipples, settling between mythighs.
My small victory gets smaller because I’m vibrating from hiswords.
Our friendship never came with barely veiled innuendos. No sexy, loadedprovocation.
So, what the hell isthis?
The rules of what’s between us arechanging…
But I’m not the one who changedthem.
“Annie!” Ryan hollersagain.