“You got black panties and a black shirt, which makes your lily-white ass stand out and tempt me over there, Ally. I’m trying to be a gentleman, but there hasn’t been a single moment since we met that I’ve pretended I didn’t want you.”
“You’re going to have to control your urges.” I let my skirt drop to the floor, then pulling a pair of jeans from one of the hangers, I step into them and regret how tight they are. “I’m trying to dress for anti-burglary, and you watching me do so is—”
“An aphrodisiac?” he inserts on a gritty rumble. “So close,” he continues. “So sexy. But you’re all the way over there, and I’m over here. It’s like a peep show, but classy as fuck, and tempting, the way water is tempting to a man dying of thirst.”
“That’s poetic of you.”
I jump to get my jeans the rest of the way up, then working on the button, I turn around and swallow when I find his hand resting over his cock. My eyes shoot to the movement, to the bulge in his pants, and the way his hand tries fruitlessly to cover it all.
“Luke…”
“We’d both be so much happier if you’d just give us an hour, Ally. Let me touch you, let us be selfish and wild. And then…”
“And then, what?” I go back to my closet to select shoes. I came home in heels, and I’ll leave again in sneakers. “Huh? And then I leave town, because I’ve broken another rule for my job. Therapists aren’t supposed to sleep with their clients, Luke. It’s an ethical thing. I doubt you’d understand.”
“Small-town hick.” He drops a hand back behind himself so he can lounge and rest on my bed. “Probably doesn’t know anything outside his small group of friends. If it ain’t a gym or someone jabbing someone else in the face, then he can’t wrap his tiny brain around it.”
“That’s not what I said.” I take a pair of socks from the drawer, my shoes from the closet, and sitting on the floor, I go to work putting them on. “If you’re insecure about being small-town, then that’s on you. I’ve never said anything of the sort…” I swallow. “To your face.”
“Wow!” He thrusts up from the bed and mocks my use of the word. “You talk shit behind my back? You enjoy ridiculing my town?”
“You’re being dramatic. Quit it.”
“I won’t quit it, Ally! I also won’t talk shit behind your back. If I have beef, I face my problems toe to toe.”
“You’re being seriously loud right now. I’ve never talked shit about you or anyone else in this town behind your backs. Just like you, if I have a problem, I tell that person. You are the only person who’s annoyed me since I got here, and I haven’t tried to hide that from you. I’ve told you a thousand times. I can’t sleep with you, Luke, because I’d really like to make a career out of this job I’ve been studying for so long. But if it soothes your fragile male ego, then sure, I would if I could.”
That catches his attention and slows the tirade he was gearing up to screech about.
“You’re sexy, okay?” I roll my eyes. “You’re annoyingly charming. You’re funny, and when you force me to hug you, or hold your hand, you still manage to make me feel safe and delicate, even when I’m trying to escape.”
“Annoyingly charming?” He moves toward me now, and crouches down so we’re just a foot apart. “You think I’m charming?”
“Mostly the annoying thing. You annoy me so much that if we made it to bed together, you’d probably wake to find me trying to smother you under a pillow.”
“But would your pillow smell like you? Because if so, we could probably negotiate.”
“You gave me your number. Zero pressure, no strings attached. You just said to hold on to it, to feel safe. And now…”
“And now?” He leans a little closer. Mint plays on his tongue, and somehow, I can feel his stubble in the air. It’s impossible. But still… “What do you feel, Ally?”
“Safe,” I admit on a sigh. “I feel safe, because I know that if I call, you’ll come to me.”
“I’ll run.” He leans closer still, so his breath feathers along my chin. “I would run to you, Ally. And whatever was scaring you, I would fix it.”
Startling me, Luke smacks a kiss onto my cheek, grins when I squeak out my surprise, then he pushes to his feet and darts back to the front door.
Or, more accurately, to the gift bag I left by the front door.
“You still didn’t open this.”
“Because it doesn’t make sense.” Instead of reaching out for the gift he offers, I tie the laces on one sneaker. “That bag pre-dates us ever meeting, so opening it feels like, one, an invasion of privacy, and two, weird.”
“Weird?” He snorts. “Is that your fancy education speaking, or…?”
“You were accusing me of being a snob not five minutes ago, but you have no clue you’re the snob right in this moment. Am I supposed to be ashamed of seeking a higher education? Should I be stoned in the street for wanting to do something important?”
“Depends…” He grins, and tempts me to pop him on the chin with a fast jab. “This stoning… clothed, or no?”
“I’m gonna run you down with my car. Swear to god.” I shove him back and slide my foot into the second sneaker.
Working on the laces with jerking movements, I try not to look into his eyes. I swear I try not to look.
“Are you often this angry, Allyson? Or do you save the best for me?”
“How’s your brother?”
He jerks back a little and scowls. “Huh?”
“He busy today?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does he usually find himself attracted to the same types of women you are?”
“I don’t—” And then it hits him. “Don’t even!”
“Rob is like you, right? Identical twin brothers. I bet he could run here and make good time.”
“Ally—”
“I bet when he hugs me, he could make me feel delicate and beautiful.”
“Stop analyzing me!”
“You love your brother probably more than you love anyone else on this planet. You wouldn’t begrudge him his happiness, would you?”
“Yes I would! If you were his happiness, I’d begrudge the shit outta that. He can find his own. I have dibs.”
“On me?”
“Yes!”
“On a human being? Really?”
“Yes,” he growls. “Just like you were ready to throw down the other morning in my kitchen when you thought some other chick was laying claim on me.”
“That was—”
“It counts, and you want me so fucking much that your chest hurts. Open your fucking present.” He tosses the bag into my lap and pushes up to his feet to walk laps along the carpet. “Never try with the brother shit again. I’d feel a little guilty if I was forced to toss him in front of a train.”
“For a girl?” I dig my hand into the gift bag, past scrunches of soft paper, and frown when my fingers wrap around a delicate chain.