CHAPTER 13 #3
“Whichever way that is.”
I nodded. “I still hate lying to my parents about all of this, even by omission.”
He pulled the hem of his shirt loose from his slacks and started unbuttoning it. “Would you rather tell them and risk embroiling them in city politics?”
“No. They don’t need that level of stress in their lives. And they definitely don’t need to worry about me any more than they already are.”
The last button undone, he tugged his shirt off. Beneath it he wore a sleeveless white tank. His hands fell to his belt, and I turned away, busying myself with my own luggage.
“Where is this sudden discomfort coming from?” he asked.
Fricking bond. Couldn’t I have anything to myself?
I decided to face his question head-on, since we were still being honest. “It’s coming from the sight of you stripping. Ignore me. I don’t know why I’m having a hard time. It’s not anything I haven’t seen before.”
“I blame our forced intimacy,” he said. “I don’t know how often I pause to check in on your emotional well-being. That hypersensitivity extends to your physical health as well, which leads to me being… overtly aware of your entire body.”
Dear Goddess. Cannot unhear.
I really didn’t want to know that I wasn’t the only one struggling. It was much easier to think of him as an untouchable prude. It put distance between us that we desperately needed right now.
“Hopefully it’s like touching, and the more we’re around each other, the less of an impact it will have,” I said.
He huffed in what sounded like disbelief.
I turned to see him standing in nothing but his boxer briefs, hands on his hips.
My gaze went straight to the outline of his dick, because of course it did, and I jerked my focus up before he could catch me ogling him.
Too late. His eyes were on me. There was no way he missed the look.
Or the zing of surprise and interest that followed.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you sorry?”
“For staring at your…” I waved a hand toward his crotch.
“I thought we were recognizing our attraction and proceeding as adults? That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
Was it? “Uh… yeah.”
He took a pair of jeans out of his bag. They sat low on his hips when he tugged them on, and I nearly hummed in appreciation.
His stomach had that glorious V-line of abs that draws the eye down, lower, to right where I’d been looking before.
He grabbed a red T-shirt with a faded college logo next and pulled it over his head, messing up his hair.
For once, he didn’t bother to smooth it back in place.
Like this, he seemed different: younger, a little unkempt, a little wild, and far too accessible.
He turned and slipped his suit into a garment bag.
Goddess, his ass looked phenomenal in jeans.
I wanted to bite it. When he was done, he hung the bag from the window frame and then shoved his feet into sneakers.
He turned back to me. “There’s nothing to apologize for.”
Huh? What were we talking about? Oh, right. Acting like adults. Which I was totally nailing at the moment.
Ha. Nailing.
He started forward, legs flexing beneath the worn fabric of old jeans.
His T-shirt pulled taut across the breadth of his chest, and the hem of the sleeves cut into his biceps, putting all those glorious muscles on display.
He was moving differently, too. In the city, he held his spine rigid, as if bracing for an attack.
His limbs were looser here, more graceful.
He didn’t walk; he stalked, like the predator he truly was had finally come out to play.
He slowed to a stop when he reached me, as if suddenly feeling my regard.
Our gazes caught and held. I should have looked away.
The Goddess only knew what my expression was.
My pupils were probably blown wide. I was breathing heavily, which meant he was, too.
The bond lay open between us, my surprise at seeing him like this making me slow to suppress what it was doing to me.
Something unfathomable swam within the deep pools of his eyes.
He leaned closer, gaze locked on mine, nose inches from my neck, and took a deep breath, scenting my attraction to him.
His eyelids fluttered shut, like he was savoring the smell, and then a borderline arrogant grin lifted the corners of his lips, his dimples turning the look into something devastating.
“Do let me know if you change your mind,” he said, voice so low it purred. He opened his eyes and raked his gaze over me. “Your legs look phenomenal in those shorts, by the way.”
And then he was gone.
I stared out the door at his retreating back, pulse thundering with lust. My face felt like it was on fire.
What the hell just happened? Did Michael just hit on me?
He turned midstride and sent me a ruthless grin. “Now who blushes easily?”
My jaw dropped. He’d been messing with me!
“I take it back!” I yelled at him. “You’re not even remotely funny!”
He laughed and jogged over to help my dad.