next to him, but he caught her wrist. The warmth of his hand, slightly slick with dish soap, made her heart skip a beat. She met his gaze, steel determination forcing her not to mentally cower.
“Consider it an apology for whatever I may have said or done last night and for disrupting your sleep. I really wasn’t supposed to come back last night, but we closed our sale on time without any issues, so I was able to come back early.”
Apology? Was he serious? He’d saved her from a drunken stormtrooper and a Playboy Bunny. She’d felt completely safe with him, like she had her very own knight in shining armor guarding her while she slept. That wasn’t the sort of thing a girl like her would forget. She’d never been the damsel-in-distress type, but she had to admit she liked knowing someone had her back, that she wasn’t alone. But it wasn’t meant to be. She was hoping her boss at her art gallery was going to give her a personal recommendation for a position at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA as it was called. If she got that job, she’d be leaving Chicago at the end of the school year when she graduated. That meant no dating, no love—not here, not with him.
“Look, this is really—” She pulled out of his grasp, unnerved by how unafraid of his touch she was.
“Let a man be chivalrous once in a while. We like it. Makes us feel needed.” He dried his hands off and tucked the money in the front of her jeans.
Heat exploded through her in an almost violent rush as he invaded her space yet again. Why was she letting him affect her like that?
“No argument?” he teased.
She shook her head, her mind a little blank as she got lost in the splinters of gold and the flecks of green in his eyes. She hadn’t seen that before. They weren’t hazel, but the brown had a myriad of subtle colors in it. His eyes made her think of summer sun and lazy afternoons, the few in her life she’d been able to enjoy. She licked her lips, trying to erase the cotton-dry feeling in her mouth.
“Go get your stuff and get out of here. I don’t want you to miss out on the colonial artwork.” He winked.
Felicity finally found control of her body, and she hastily left the kitchen to pack her things. She left her change of clothes in her gym bag in Jared’s room, even though she wanted to leave it with Layla. There was no way she was interrupting Layla and Tanner in bed. Right now she had to focus on her term paper. She couldn’t afford to jeopardize her scholarship. Not even to linger one more minute in the presence of a handsome man who was just a little too sexy and a little too dangerous. Not scary dangerous, but the sort of dangerous that, if she wasn’t careful, she might fall hopelessly in love with him. She’d had her heart broken already, and trust wasn’t easy for her. The last thing she needed was Jared destroying her carefully-constructed fortress.
Yeah, he was dangerous all right.
Chapter 3
Felicity haunted his thoughts. A flicker of light against the windows reminded him of her flashing gray eyes. God, she was something else. Jared grinned. It had been a long time since he’d had so much fun teasing a girl. The look on her face when he’d tucked the cab money back in her pocket—she’d been all flushed and wide-eyed. Damn. He’d gotten hard as a rock imagining how else he could have made her all pink and hot. But she was young. A graduate student.
So why did he keep reliving last night like some teenager in a fantasy? There was more to it than a warm body in bed beside him. It was the way she’d fallen asleep almost instantly, showing complete trust. Sharing a bed for the night with another person was more intimate than sex. You let your guard down, had no ready defenses. Most people refused to let themselves become that vulnerable. He was one of them.
But last night, he could have stayed next to her forever. The sweet smell of her, the rhythm of her light breathing, and the way she’d curled up against him until just before dawn. Jared doubted she remembered that part of the night. He’d have to remind her later, just to see a blush creep