Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
“He did. And it turned out she had a huge crush on his best friend. We teased her about it mercilessly.”
“That’s awful,” I said, shaking my head. “Boys are awful. Poor Mabel.”
“She survived. But anyway, I don’t have any secret diary of feelings. Sorry to disappoint you. What you see is what you get.”
“Come on. We all have parts of ourselves we guard closer than others. We all choose which sides of ourselves to share and which to protect.”
“Maybe I don’t have a side that needs protection,” he said. “Maybe I feel perfectly comfortable exposing all of my parts.”
I laughed. “Except to me.”
“Hey, listen.” He got gruff with me again. “Protecting myself and protecting you are two different things. Don’t confuse them.”
“I’m not confused.” I grinned and held out my arms, Xander Buckley-style. “I’m just telling it like it is.”
By the time we got home, the rain was torrential, and the wind blew it in on a hard, pelting slant. We jumped out of the car and bolted for the porch, where Xander held his bag over my head while I typed in the code. “Shoot,” I said as we rushed in. “We did leave the windows open!”
“Get the ones in the bedroom,” he ordered, quickly turning a lamp on. “I’ll get these.”
I raced down the dark hallway into the bedroom, slipping on the wood floor in my wet boots. Luckily, the rain was angling away from the windows above the bed, so nothing had gotten wet. I cranked them shut, then sat down, tugged off my wet boots, and peeled off my damp socks. I thought about changing out of my soggy dress, but Xander seemed to like it. I’d caught him staring at me a lot today.
Heading back to the living room barefoot, I stopped short when I saw Xander’s naked back across the room. He tossed his wet shirt aside and reached into his bag for another one. The muscles beneath his tattooed skin worked as he lifted the plain white T-shirt and pulled it over his head. He turned around before it was all the way on, giving me the briefest glimpse of his bare chest and abs. Lots of ink. Lots of muscles. Lots of delicious little hills and valleys I could imagine running my hands over. Or my tongue.
I might have licked my lips.
“Is anything wet?” he asked.
It took me a second. “Oh, you mean the bed? No.”
“What did you think I meant?”
“Nothing.”
Behind him, the lamp flickered. The house groaned in the wind. “Think we’ll lose power?” I asked.
“We might.”
A loud crack of lightning split the air. “Ooh!” Touching my chest, I laughed nervously as thunder shook the cabin walls. “That one spooked me.”
He gave me a boyish smile that made my stomach flutter. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just a little jumpy, I guess.”
We stood there for a moment, looking at each other from opposite ends of the room while rain hammered on the roof. If my life were a movie, I thought, I’d rush toward him and he’d rush toward me and we’d close the gap between us in two heartbeats, our bodies and mouths colliding fast and hard.
But I wasn’t about to take that first step and risk his hand shooting out to stop me. He’d made his position clear last night, and I’d promised to respect it.
“Well,” I said, “I guess I’ll turn in and get cozy with a paperback.”
“Okay.”
I waved stupidly. “Goodnight.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Night.”
Hesitating for a couple more seconds, I gave him ample opportunity to stop me, but he didn’t. Rooted to the spot, his body was rigid and tense, the cords in his neck taut with restraint.
I could feel his eyes on me as I moved down the hall.
FOURTEEN
xander
She disappeared from view and I exhaled with relief. Only when I heard the bathroom door close did I pull my hands from my pockets. For a moment there, the compulsion to kiss her again had been almost unbearable. In three strides I could have crossed the floor and swept her into my arms, carried her off to bed, and stripped that wet dress from her skin.
My head could be buried between her thighs already.
Stifling a groan, I rubbed my face with both hands as the power flickered, then went off again. And this time, it didn’t come back on.
The bathroom door opened a moment later. “Xander?”
Immediately I moved toward her worried voice. “I’m here.”
“It’s so dark. I can’t see.”
“I’ve got you.” Trained as a combat swimmer, I was used to navigating in total darkness. Reaching the bathroom doorway, I took her by the arm. “You okay?”
“Yeah, it just took me by surprise. And I don’t—I don’t love thunderstorms. I’m actually a little afraid of them.”
“Yeah?” I led her across the hall into the bedroom.
“As a kid, I used to sleep in Kevin’s room during the bad ones.”