Oh, Keep Your Shirt On - Michelle Pennington Page 0,33

be promoted, and who should be fired. This wasn’t exactly the best situation for a romance. The optics around the office would be so bad. Well, if Tessa needed a boyfriend, someone who would convince people she’d actually be interested in him instead of Mr. Jennings, I knew just the guy. The only problem was that my only hope of getting Damien to do such a big favor was to do one for him in trade.

He just got himself a date to the wedding.

I braced myself for the inevitable and said, “Clearly you need to bring in the guy you’re dating.”

***

When I got home from work, my whole body jangled with nerves. As logical as it had seemed at work, and as willing as I was to do this for Tessa, actually talking to Damien about it had me completely keyed up. I still didn’t want to go with him, and I knew he would tease me ruthlessly about capitulating.

Maybe he would just agree, and I wouldn’t have to offer a trade of favors. Yes. I definitely needed to keep my desperation in my back pocket.

After parking in my garage, I folded my arms across my chest in an effort to stay warm against the freezing evening air and quick-walked over to Damien’s front door. Surely he was back from his camping trip by now.

I rang the doorbell and waited, rocking back and forth on my heels since I was sure I’d turn to ice if I stayed still. By the time I finally heard movement inside, I had lost my grip on the frayed edges of my temper. When the door opened to reveal Damien in all his golden-sheened, bare-abs glory again, I snapped. “Why aren’t you ever wearing a shirt when you answer the door?”

His brows lifted in surprise. “Why do you always ring my doorbell when I don’t have a shirt on?”

“Argh.” I gave such delightful, feminine responses when I was in a bad mood. “I’m freezing cold.”

“That’s because it’s thirty degrees outside.” He was so helpful.

I threw him a raging glare and pushed him backwards with both hands braced against his chest, because clearly he was more worried about giving me a hard time than letting me inside. But after stepping to the side to let me in, he stared down at my palms spread across his bare, shower-heated skin for several impossibly long seconds, then reached out and shut the door with more force than I expected.

Whether I jumped from that or the potent but unreadable expression in his eyes when he finally looked up, I didn’t know. Was this how pretty girls felt when men admired them?

Whoa! I needed to break the skin-to-skin contact with his amazing pectorals before my hands caught on fire.

Clenching them into fists at my side, I ignored the strange atmosphere in the air around us and said, “I came to ask for a favor.”

“Well, you certainly know how to open negotiations.”

The combination of humor and understated innuendo in his voice derailed my composure. “It’s not like I planned on…” Helpless for words that wouldn’t make me blush, I waved in his general direction. “…facing a naked torso.”

As always, I was a tense, confused wreck while Damien managed to laugh. “You didn’t just face a naked torso, you grabbed it.”

“I didn’t grab it. I pushed it out of the way. There is a very big difference. Now, can we please go into your living room and have a calm, mature conversation?”

“It’s doubtful, but I don’t mind going to the living room. Although, the hallway is definitely cozier.”

Since there was barely a foot between us, cozy wasn’t something I could handle right then. I led the way, desperate for more space and more oxygen. As I headed for the couch, I saw one of his hoodies draped over the back of the big armchair next to the couch. Feeling like I’d found a life raft in the middle of the ocean, I grabbed it. “Put this on.”

Even though I chucked it at him with no warning, he caught it easily. As he pulled it on and tugged it down to cover his exposed skin, he smirked at me. “Seeing me without a shirt on must really unsettle you.”

“No. It’s just distracting.”

“It wouldn’t be if you didn’t like what you saw.”

I sat down on the very edge of the couch cushion furthest away from where he stood and glared up at him. “I’m not in the mood to feed your arrogance.”

“How else