she’d tell the first person she saw. I had to appear uninterested, as if this sort of thing happened every day.
“Does it matter?” I shrugged and a dart of pain coursed down my back. I bit back a grimace.
She crossed her arms over her breasts—small, perky breasts that shifted under her soft gray shirt. No bra. My dick stirred to life, and if that didn’t surprise me, the next words out of her mouth did.
“It matters to me. I’m not letting you go out there and freeze to death. Tonight’s low temperature is twenty-two degrees, you know.” As if I hadn’t puzzled out the meaning behind this, she added, “That’s cold.”
She was so damned adorable I had to bite my lip to keep my smile from emerging. Smiling by accident hadn’t been a problem for me. Ever. Sort of novel, that whole concept. And nothing surprised me anymore.
Growing up fast had taught me there were three types of people in the world. Those who didn’t have their shit together, those who did, and those who would eventually. Rena struck me as the latter. And, other than tonight’s slight upset, mine had been together since my dad died.
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You want to take care of me, sweetheart?” I meant to insult her. Most women I encountered were borderline feminists and a line like that usually made them shy away at best, or slap me at worst. I needed Rena to see me as a class-A prick. Arguably, I was.
She took the bait, her head jerking on her neck in surprise, eyes going so wide I saw the whites circle the browns. Dark eyes, dark hair, fair skin. Nothing like the girls I took home. I liked girls with spray tans, tons of makeup, everything waxed from end to end. Horny and needy and temporary. That was my style. Or so I’d told myself.
My dick twitched in disagreement.
Rena’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I do.”
My turn to look surprised. No feminist rant, no haughty correction… just a look of determination and the damn unicorn-pencil sticking out of her hair. A sharp laugh—mine—cracked from my throat. I stepped closer, into her personal space. She bristled. She should. She didn’t know me.
My eyes strayed from her face to her throat, then, like they couldn’t help themselves, they went to her braless breasts. I bet they tasted like cotton candy, her nipples bubble-gum pink.
Her eyes darted around the room. A sketchpad rested on a sofa cushion, a few faint pencil lines that hadn’t become anything yet, and a lit candle on the coffee table—the same one I’d nearly knocked over when she helped me inside.
Damn. Why had she done that? Hauled me in and dumped me on her sofa? Why had she touched me like she cared? As if she’d read my thoughts, her palm landed on my arm. I’d never before been a sucker for a gentle touch, but there it was, the pull of longing from my gut on contact.
Unless the pull came from my balls. Her eyes met mine, her hand squeezed my skin. Instead of twitching this time, my dick stood and saluted.
Rena
Devlin looked at my hand on his arm before his eyebrows centered over his nose. “No deal, sweetheart.”
His voice was hard, his eyes as cold as when I’d towed him inside earlier. But, if I wasn’t imagining it, his eyes hadn’t been that way a second ago, when his gaze had traveled slowly down my body, making me feel exposed, and a little dirty… in the best way possible. He held the promise of rough kisses and strong hands tightening around my upper arms. Of being pushed against a piece of furniture and ravished.
I wanted to be ravished.
Snatching my hand away, I waited for shame to wash over me like an acidic shower, but it didn’t come. Only the same unexpected want I felt whenever I was around him. Even in a bloody T-shirt and jeans, Devlin did it for me.
No man “does it” for you, I reminded myself.
The throbbing between my thighs pounded out an argument I couldn’t ignore.
“I will borrow your phone one more time.” He held out a hand. His palm still looked raw but gravel was no longer sticking to his skin.
I pulled the cell from my pocket and gingerly placed it in his hand. Head down, he paused dialing to flick me a glance that could only be described as bemused. One brow lifted slightly higher than the other and his mouth