strong and steady.
“I’ve got something to say,” he murmured, his hands sliding down to palm and then squeeze her ass.
She wriggled a little bit, just to hear that low growl and feel his fingers tighten on her. But while his body was giving her one message, his words gave another.
“You helped Sean out and that means a lot to me,” he said.
She froze and lifted her head to look at him. “He told you? He didn’t have to do that.”
“I’m glad he did. I already knew you’re warm and sexy, funny and smart, but what you did, Pru, having his back like that—and by extension, my back as well—that told me everything I need to know about you.”
She shook her head. “Anyone would have—”
“No,” he said. “They wouldn’t. I’ve got my brother and a select core group of friends that would do anything for me, and that’s been it. But now I’ve got you too. Means a lot to me, Pru. You mean a lot to me.”
Oh God. “I feel the same,” she whispered. “But Finn, you don’t know everything about me.”
“I know what I need to.”
If only that was true. “Finn—” But before she could finish that statement, the one where she told him the truth, the one that would surely change everything and erase their friendship and trust and . . . everything, someone knocked on her door.
“Ignore it,” Finn said.
“Pru,” came a deep male voice from the other side of her door.
Jake.
Oh, God. Jake.
This was bad. Very, very bad. If Jake found Finn here with that look on his face, there’d be no holding back the storm. Jake had told her to tell Finn before things went too far, and when Jake told someone to do something, they did it.
But she hadn’t.
And things had gone far with Finn. Just about as far as a man and a woman could get . . .
She was in trouble. Big trouble. One of the problems with having a wounded warrior as a BFF is that he saw everything as a conflict to fix. She had no doubt he’d take one glimpse at them and very possibly butt his big nosy nose in and enlighten Finn himself.
And that would be bad. Very, very bad. She jumped up and straightened her dress before whirling to Finn. He’d pulled up his jeans, but hadn’t fastened them. Nor had he put on his shirt, which meant he sat there in nothing but Levi’s, literally, his hair completely tousled from her fingers—bad fingers!—an unmistakable just-got-laid sated expression all over his face.
Not moving.
She waved her hands at him. “What are you doing? Get dressed!”
“Working on it.” He stretched lazily, slowly, like he had all the fricking time in the fracking world.
Jake knocked again, annoyance reverberating through the wood. Jake had many good qualities but patience wasn’t one of them. “Pru, what the hell are you doing in there—and it’d better not be Finn,” he said.
She’d just sent her hands on Finn’s chest to give him a little hurry-up nudge, so she had a front-row view of his brows shooting up.
Well, crap.
Then, from outside her door, came the unmistakable sounds of keys rattling, which reminded her of the unfortunate time on moving day when she’d given Jake her damn key. What had she been thinking? “You’ve got to hide!” she whispered frantically to Finn.
“What the hell for?”
With a sound of exasperation she whirled around and eyeballed potential hiding places.
She had little to no furniture.
“Dammit!” Then she focused on the dumbwaiter. Perfect. “Here,” she said, opening it and then pushing him toward it. “I need you to get in here for just a minute—”
Finn, solid and steady, didn’t move when she’d pushed him. What was it with her and big, badass alphas who only could be budged when they wanted to be budged?
He looked down into her face and seemed to take in her clear panic because he gave a slight head shake. “You’ve lost it.”
“Yes, now you fully understand! I’ve completely lost it, but to be honest, I lost it a long time ago!”
“I meant me, babe,” he said. “I’ve lost it to even be melted by those eyes of yours, enough that I’ll do just about anything for you.”
“Good,” she said quickly. “Go with that. Please, I can’t explain right now, but I need you to hide, for just a minute, I promise.”
He shook his head again, muttered some more, something that sounded like “you’re a complete dumbass, O’Riley,” but then God bless him, he folded