No weird vibes. No awkward tension.
It’s nice. Normal.
Okay, yes, maybe I’m aware of Wade on a level I wasn’t before.
And maybe I’m thinking about the things we did and how incredibly good he was at doing them. Yes.
But that’s to be expected.
It would be more weird if I didn’t, especially since the man took me to places no man has taken me before.
So… a weirdly normal start to a day I was worried might be just plain weird.
We have pancakes at this cute place in the next town over. Wade is all grins, some wolfish flirting, and as easygoing as a girl aiming for a single night of fun could ask for.
Sure, every so often, I need a minute to shake off a memory so carnal, so visceral I can still practically feel him inside of me. But again… to be expected.
Last night didn’t change anything other than to restore the ego he’s always accusing me of trying to take out.
We spend most of the afternoon and evening helping Walt and Janie move into the house they won’t be living in until they get back from their honeymoon. After, we eat pizza on the floor in the empty space where the dining room set will go and play Monopoly surrounded by boxes in the living room. With the limited audience, there’s a minimum of showy relationship stuff, but the frequent contact that’s become almost second nature between us remains.
The laughter still comes as easily as the conversation. And those glancing check-ins still feel as uncomplicated and reassuring as they have since Wade picked me up that first afternoon. Maybe more.
For a woman who’s never really had the opportunity for casual sex, I’m kind of feeling like I nailed this thing.
Yes, yes, maybe I find my eyes on him a bit more often. But now I know what’s under those clothes, and it’s impressive.
Which is a completely reasonable, normal, and objective observation.
I totally nailed this thing.
That’s what I’m thinking as we pull into the hotel. It’s after ten and the stars are out. The lot’s as empty as it was when we got in last night. We walk up to the front, but I can still hear the echoes of our breathless laughter and feel the urgency and pull of all that hurry, faster, please lingering in the air around us.
Wade chats in the elevator, his arm thrown around me in a casual hold. No big deal.
So why are there three hundred butterflies batting around my belly?
The doors slide open at our floor. The hall is empty, silent. No trace of our stumbling desperation from the night before. But I can feel the achy twist inside and phantom press of his body against mine as we pass the wall between 303 and 305.
Inside our room, Wade closes the door behind us and pulls me in for a hug, thanking me for helping out today. Some distant part of my brain registers that if I hadn’t been there, Kelsey would have. That there’s a reason I’m in this hotel with him…
I try to concentrate, except Wade’s arms are still around me, leaving me awash in the clean masculine scent of the man who spent the majority of last night making me moan.
God, he smells so good. I want to bury my face in his chest, strip off his shirt and—
His arms tighten, pulling me that much closer.
It’s so good.
It’s too good, setting off a slow churn deep in my center. The awareness I’ve been dismissing all day runs hot like an electric charge beneath my skin, shorting out everything beyond hurry, faster, please.
He’s still talking. “… don’t see my brother enough, and to be able to sit and hear about his plans. Get a glimpse of the life ahead of him. It means a lot to me.”
Right. I take a shallow breath.
He loosens and pulls back. “You okay?”
Dodging the eye contact, I force a laugh. Wave a hand. “Totally. Yes. Fine.”
His eyes narrow and I can feel him studying me.
I will not make this weird.
Which means I won’t think about the bed being less than ten feet away or how our bodies are making more contact than not. Gah.
That stitch between his eyes smooths and he steps back.
Never have I been so grateful for a single foot of space.
I take a deep breath. Let it out, still reeling from my reaction to being this close to the scene of the crime. I didn’t expect it to affect me this way.
“Well, I’m glad it was a good day.” I’m glad it was normal and not weird, and that Wade seems as comfortable putting our one night behind us as I am.
“Considering how it started, I’m going with this being a great day.” Wade reaches over his shoulder and grabs a fistful of his shirt, yanking it overhead.
I think I make a noise that’s not totally unaffected, but thankfully, he doesn’t notice. He wads the shirt into a ball and tosses it into the other room. “I’d even go so far as to say it was a phenomenal day if it ended the way it began.”
“Wha—”
He cuts me off with a quick kiss at my temple and another too-potent hit of concentrated sexy. “But I respect that you aren’t interested. So we’re sticking with a solid great.”
This time I don’t even know what I say.
“I’m going to grab a quick shower.” Unbuckling his belt, he heads back.
Which is normal too, I think.
Then stopping at the door, he turns and props his forearm against the frame in a pose so potently masculine I lose my breath. How can anyone be that hot? Absently, he rubs his free hand over the packed muscles of his chest and down the hills and valleys of his abdomen before hooking his thumb in the already dangerously low waist of his shorts.
I open my mouth.
Hear the click of my throat.
Close it.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to Janie’s parents’ in the afternoon. You’ll like it. Nice place on Big Lake. We used to swim there when we were kids… I think Walt’s got a few more guys coming into town…”
I nod, not quite sure what he said. Stare as he pushes off the doorframe, the movement highlighting the flex and give of too many muscles at once.
He turns on the shower, sticking his hand under the spray before grabbing a towel from the rack.
It’s not weird that he hasn’t closed the door yet.
“…but if it’s too long of a day, I can pick you up later.” He swings the door closed about three-quarters of the way, leaving a gap that gives me a sliver view of the sink and mirror.
I mean, we’ve seen all there is to see. Maybe this is normal now?
I hear the clank and thud of his shorts hitting the floor and then the metallic slide of curtain rings across the rod and back. My skin erupts in goose bumps as images of Wade, soapy and wet, bombard my brain.
“What do you think?” he calls from beneath the spray.
“I—uhh—umm—” I give up.
“Hey, Good Girl, you still out there?”
Good Girl. I’ll never hear those words again without thinking of all the ways Wade and I were bad.
“Harlow?”
My head snaps up, eyes shooting to that gap from the open door and the mirror beyond. To the blue eyes watching me through the reflection.
“Fine. Yes,” I answer hoarsely, no idea what I’ve agreed to. Not caring.
His smile spreads and then he tips his head back beneath the spray to rinse while I try to find enough air in the room to breathe.