Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,64
the time.
With a little smile, I stripped out of my clothes and turned the shower on.
The hot water felt amazing, but my mind wouldn’t leave Nick. I kept picturing how he’d looked at me, how he’d tasted, and I couldn’t keep from imagining what he must be thinking. I worried most that I seemed like a tease. I’d been the one to kiss him on the bed, and now it probably felt like I was dangling that temptation in front of his face.
Once I finished up in the shower, I wrapped a towel around myself and stuck my head out the door just enough to look for him. “Did you find them?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Nick said. He walked right up to the door and handed me a little pile of my clothes. “I wasn’t sure what you prefer to sleep in, but I did my best. I also let Thug out for a quick walk and brought him to my room for the night too.”
“Oh, wow. I’m glad you remembered him. Thanks,” I said. Once I closed the door, I saw Nick had decided to pick out what probably seemed like my most casual top—a faded-blue tank top that I had to tie in the back to keep from sliding off my shoulders. He’d grabbed a pair of loose-fitting sweatpants, and . . .
I laughed softly. A lacy red thong with a matching bra. Nick, you pervert.
I thought about calling him on his choice, but the idea of him looking through my underwear and choosing this was oddly hot. I slipped into my clothes and stepped back into the hotel room. Nick was already sitting under the comforter on one side of the bed, with his phone in his lap.
“Hey,” I said. “Do you mind if I borrow one of your shirts to sleep in? The knot on the back of this one isn’t really comfortable to sleep on.”
Nick dug out a white T-shirt from his suitcase. “How’s that?” he asked.
I switched to his shirt in the bathroom and sneaked a few deep sniffs of the material. It smelled faintly like him, and I found the scent to be incredibly comforting.
The room seemed too quiet. Nick was lying on his back again, but I heard him put his phone down on the nightstand when I got in bed.
“Am I being a tease?” I asked suddenly.
“No. Why would you think that?”
“Because I wouldn’t blame you for thinking so. I wanted to be up-front and honest with you. It’s not that I don’t want to . . . you know. It’s that I am worried I’d be doing it for the wrong reasons. And I’m worried there’d be no turning back once we . . . did.”
He chuckled. I twitched when his warm hand pressed into my shoulder, squeezing gently. “It’s sexy how you’re a formidable businesswoman on one hand, but you’re also too shy to say sex. You’re worried there’d be no turning back once we had sex? I’m not going to lie. I have no idea what would happen, but I know what I’m hoping would happen.”
“What?” I asked.
“I’m hoping it won’t be the last time.”
I smiled, even though he couldn’t see it. “I guess that’s a step in the right direction. At least you’re not planning on the old ‘hit it and forget it’ strategy that seemed to be your MO lately.”
“That wasn’t what it probably looked like. I watched my brothers pair off and saw how happy it made them. Then when I looked in the mirror, I saw how much I wanted it. I wanted somebody who could make me feel like Kira and Iris make my brothers feel. Whole, I guess. And I didn’t actually sleep with any of those women I dated the past few months. In case you were wondering.”
I smiled to myself even more at that. “I might’ve wondered a little bit. Why not?”
“Whether I realized it or not, I think I only ever wanted you.”
I swallowed hard at that. As much as my brain wanted to accept all the things he was saying, it was too much to process all at once. “You said you wanted to feel whole,” I said slowly. “But how do you know you’re not just shoving something in the empty spot? What if it’s shaped like a square, and I’m a triangle? How would you know?”
He laughed. “I think I’d know if I tried to shove a triangle inside a square-shaped hole.”