The Intimacy Experiment (The Roommate #2) - Rosie Danan Page 0,78
If he’d sink to his knees at the halfway point. If she’d make up the rest of the distance.
In the end, he reached his destination and let her loop the feathers around his neck.
“What did Josh say?” Her eyes were guarded, and she’d folded her lips together while she waited for him to answer.
“He offered me some poker advice.”
Relief washed over her face in a wave. “I don’t know why. He’s terrible. Should we try to dance?”
Ethan forced himself to relax too. Just because the stakes kept ratcheting higher didn’t mean this relationship would end in disaster.
“It’s a party. Dancing is practically mandatory,” he said, taking her hand and leading her back outside. The music wasn’t strictly slow enough for the way he tugged her against him, but she leaned into him anyway, her hair soft and floral under his nose as she let her cheek rest against his neck.
He didn’t want to hurt her, but with his track record of neglecting the people he cared for most, the odds didn’t look good.
Chapter Twenty-Four
ETHAN WAS SUPPOSED to drive Naomi home after the party. That had been the plan, anyway.
But then he’d been so good all night. So sweet and surprisingly funny with her friends. Smiling for goofy pictures. Bringing Naomi lemonade before she even knew she wanted lemonade.
Her coworker Lance, one of their male tutorialists for Shameless, had come up to her in the middle of the dance floor, beaming, to tell her Ethan had invited him to play bass at the reception after Shabbat services next week.
It almost wasn’t weird. Having him blend into her comfort zone.
Naomi had forgotten the luxury of having a date at a party. The way you could roll your eyes at them when someone made an inane comment. The delight of finding them with your coat already slung over their arm when you were ready to leave. The closeness, gentle and fond, of having them hold it behind you, arms straight, while you slipped inside.
She’d lost him for a while during the end of the night, only to find him at the kitchen sink, up to his elbows in dishes.
“It always sucks waking up to a mess the next morning,” he explained sheepishly. “Also, your friends kept trying to get me to play drinking games.” He ducked his chin.
Naomi kissed him until someone walked in.
They made it as far as the exit before hers on the highway, but when Ethan flipped on his blinker, Naomi put her hand on his forearm.
He seemed to understand the question in it. The Are we ready for this? Naomi couldn’t push past her lips.
“Yeah?” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
Naomi swallowed. “Yeah.”
On the way into his house, she touched the mezuzah by the door without thinking. Two fingers, pressed against the marble and then brought quickly to her lips before she pulled them away. As if he wouldn’t notice if she managed to shove them back in her pocket fast enough. Not something she would have done a few months ago, but now she moved without thinking.
She liked his place, despite the old-money cues that didn’t quite fit with the way she saw Ethan in her head. It wasn’t that he didn’t look good against all the dark cherry wood and granite countertops. He did. But there was something about the chandelier hanging over a dining room table big enough to seat eight that felt aggressively vacant, formal and expectant. As if at any moment it would ask her just what exactly she thought she was doing here.
The other rooms were better. Easier. Books filled almost every available surface and spilled out of places she didn’t expect. Left open to specific passages or closed but sporting sticky notes like flags out the side. While he hung up their coats, she ran her fingertips across a heavy leather one left open beside the coffeemaker.
“You’re like a dog who sheds pages,” she told him when he came back.
He laughed in a way that made her think he enjoyed the characterization, head thrown back, eyes crinkled at the corners.
She had so many grand plans to ravish him.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, and escaped to the bathroom to run cold water on her wrists, trying to cool down. Her nerves multiplied when she reached for a hand towel and saw he had good ones. Thick and clean smelling. She’d never dated anyone with such nice accessories in their powder room.