Sweet Little Lies (Heartbreaker Bay, #1) - Jill Shalvis Page 0,81

her a crooked smile. “I guess that makes us the blind leading the blind then. I don’t do a lot of sleepovers, Pru.”

“But you’ve been in a long relationship before,” she said. “With Mellie.”

He paused. “Someone’s been telling tales.”

“It’s true though, right?” she asked.

“What is it that you’re asking me, Pru?”

Okay, so he clearly didn’t want to discuss Mellie. Got it. Understood it. Hell, she had plenty of things she didn’t want to discuss either. “I’m trying to say that not only am I not good at sleepovers, I . . . haven’t really had any.” She bit her lip. Dammit. That made her sound pathetic. She tried again. “It’s more that you’re my one and only—” Nope, now she was just making it worse. “Okay, you know what? Never mind.” She started to walk off. “I’m going back to work.”

He caught her and turned her to face him. “Wait a minute.”

“Can’t,” she said. ‘I’ve gotten—”

“Pru,” he said with terrifying tenderness as he bulldozed right over her with his dogged determination, cupping her face. “Are you saying you’ve never—”

“No, of course I have.” She closed her eyes. “It’s just been awhile since Jake—and he wasn’t a one-night stand. Or even a two-night stand. He was a week-long stand—” She covered her mouth. “Oh my God,” she said around her fingers. “Please tell me to stop talking!”

He gently pulled her hand from her mouth. “You and Jake were together only a week?”

“Yes.”

“And before that, you’d not been with anyone else?”

“I had a boyfriend in high school,” she said defensively.

“But . . .”

“But he dumped me after my parents died,” she admitted. “I was a complete wreck, and—”

“That shouldn’t have happened to you,” he said quietly, stroking her upper arms, his warm hands somehow reaching deep inside her and warming a spot she hadn’t even realized was chilled. “That shouldn’t have happened to anyone,” he said very gently. “So other than your high school asshole boyfriend and one week with Jake, there’s been no one else?”

If she’d ever felt more vulnerable or exposed, she couldn’t remember it. It was horribly embarrassing, having her sexual history—or lack thereof—laid out, and with it came an avalanche of insecurities. She shook her head and stared at his throat instead of in his eyes, which was easier. Because he had a very sexy throat and—

“Pru. Babe, look at me.”

She reluctantly lifted her gaze to his.

“I think I’m starting to understand more about what’s going on,” he said.

Oh good. Maybe he could explain it to her. That would be supremely helpful.

“What happened between us,” he said, “it never occurred to me that you thought it was a one-night stand.”

She stared at him, confused. “No?”

“Hell, no,” he said. “Not with our chemistry. I knew from the beginning that one night wasn’t going to be enough. Or two. Or ten. I thought you knew it too.”

She swallowed hard. She did know it. That wasn’t the problem. No, the problem was that the time they’d already spent together . . . it had to be enough. It was all she would, could, allow herself. “I didn’t allow myself to think that far. Finn—”

“Look, I know we’ve done things ass-backwards, but I want to fix that.” He smiled at her. “Go out with me tonight.”

She stared at him. “Like . . . a date?”

“Exactly like a date.”

“But—”

His mouth brushed along her jaw to her ear, his words whispered hot against her. “Say ‘yes, Finn.’”

“Yes, Finn,” escaped her before she could stop herself. Damn. Her mouth really needed to meet her brain sometime. But the truth was, she needed this, needed him. She wanted this moment and she wanted to enjoy it. Selfish as it was, she was going to think about herself for once, just for tonight. Besides, thinking was overrated. “You make it hard to think,” she said.

She felt him smile knowingly against her skin. “Pru, I’m going to be so good to you tonight that there’ll be no thinking required.

It’s a good thing that thinking was overrated.

He picked her up at six. She was nervous as hell, which was silly. It was Finn. And it was just a date.

At a red light, he glanced over at her and flashed a grin. “You look pretty.”

She was in a simple sundress and flats. Hair down. “You’ve seen this dress,” she said.

His eyes heated. Clearly he was remembering that it was the dress he’d made her hold at her waist while he’d had his merry way with her. “I know,” he murmured.