She scrunched up her nose and took a sip of her beer, and my eyes lingered on the way her lips looked as they pressed against the bottle.
“I’ve never really liked it,” she admitted. “I started school in the hopes that my father wouldn’t smother me to death while I went. I just traded one thing that was smothering for another. I’m seriously considering just going to work with my bachelor’s instead of my master’s. I’m sure I can find something.”
Before I could ask what her degree was in, she was walking out the door and back toward Avery’s house.
I followed her, hating that she was walking out of my place when I wanted her to stay.
I took a drink of my beer to hide my disappointment as I followed her back over to Derek’s place.
All the while she walked, though, I kept my gaze squarely on her.
Chapter 3
Did the inventor of sweatpants ever consider what he was doing to the female population? Or do you think he knew exactly what he was doing, and just smiled? Because I think he just smiled.
-Amelia’s secret thoughts
Amelia
“I need a drink,” I muttered under my breath.
I was hyperventilating.
Seriously, I was freaking out, and there was nothing I could do about it.
When Avery had said she had a volunteer, I had no clue what I’d been thinking.
I mean, sure, I figured he’d be in shape seeing as he was on the SWAT team with her husband.
I guess I just didn’t figure he’d be in that good of shape, you know?
“What was that?”
I looked over my shoulder at the man that was so sexy that it physically hurt to look at him.
“Umm.” I licked my lips. “Nothing. I thought I heard Avery call us.”
That was a total lie.
But it didn’t hurt that Avery was standing on the front porch as we came back in her direction.
I stopped again to gather another honeysuckle flower—just like I always did when I passed one—and sucked the sweetness out.
Instead of tossing the flower onto the ground, though, I was startled to find it taken straight out of my hands.
I blinked as Adam caught the flower before it could fall from my fingers.
Before I could say so much as a word, he tucked the flower behind my ear, then started walking again, leaving me standing there watching him go.
Stunned.
I was stunned.
What the hell?
My eyes took in his form, and I nearly moaned.
Adam was tall. And by tall, I meant well over my five-foot-three height.
He had to be at least a foot taller than me, if not a bit more.
But there was just so much of Adam to take in that I hadn’t particularly focused on any one thing just yet.
And the man was in sweatpants.
Why, in all that’s holy, was he in sweatpants?
Did he not know what sweatpants did to the female population?
As if he’d heard my unspoken question, he started talking, explaining his attire.
“I was going to wear jeans and shit over here, but then I decided that maybe I should ask because I wasn’t sure. And since I took a quick shower at the station before coming home, it was all I had,” Adam said when he got up to Avery.
Avery shrugged. “I want real life. Wear what you want to wear.”
Adam turned back to me, his eyes taking me in, and I felt a full-body shiver start to rock through me.
His lips tipped up at the corners as he took a sip of his beer.
I watched his tanned neck work and had to stop myself from walking to him and pressing my lips to his sexy as hell throat.
Other than the sweatpants that Adam had on—gray sweatpants that left very little to the imagination when it came to a certain member of his anatomy—he was in a black skin-tight t-shirt that showed off his perfect body. His muscular arms, bulky chest, broad shoulders, and his perfect abs.
He was also wearing combat boots to round out the outfit.
It was kind of funny when you saw it all paired together, but somehow Adam worked the outfit well.
I took another swift drink of my beer and coughed lightly when I drew in too much too fast.
Adam’s lips twitched, and I rolled my eyes, laughing at my awkwardness. To hide my embarrassment, I set the extra beer that I had down onto the concrete next to where he’d parked his bike. He followed suit, keeping his opened one solidly in his hand.
“How about some photos out here on your bike?” Avery suggested as she practically bounced on the tips of her toes upon seeing us smiling and laughing.
She was happy that we were here and getting along so well.
I could tell that she was ecstatic.
“I don’t mind,” Adam said, voice deep and raspy.
God, what the hell was it with men like that?
I was doing so damn well, but then he had to go and open his mouth and remind me that his voice was like the verbal version of sex.
And God, he had a chin dimple.
And cheek dimples.
And he had a five o’clock shadow that looked like it would feel great against my…
“Great,” Avery chirped. “Y’all get started. Do whatever. Don’t mind me. I’ll just be background music, okay?”
I felt the tension in my belly go to a fever pitch as Adam laughed.
Jesus H. Christ.
“What?” Adam asked at the look on my face. “Do you want to jump on the bike? Me get on it in front of you? Is that okay, Avery?”
Seriously, the low timbre of his voice made shivers race down my spine, and made me think about what it would feel like to have him speaking against my throat as he thrust…
“Sounds good,” Avery said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Now, I want y’all to act like I’m not here. Just, do life. Talk. Get to know each other. Act like y’all have known each other forever. Act like y’all are getting married tomorrow. Or, hell, act like y’all have been together forever. Y’all have known each other since y’all were children, and you know each other’s deepest fantasies. Just… whatever you want. I’ll snap photos. You do you.”
Avery’s words made me smile. But they also made me nervous because the way Adam made me feel. It was like I had known him forever.
As if he did know my deepest and darkest thoughts.
As if he knew that I wanted to jump his bones, and he felt the exact same way when it came to me.
I’d never, not ever, had these kinds of feelings before.
I’d slept with one man, and one man only, my entire life.
And that had been in the back seat of his mother’s van when we were seventeen.
It’d been awful, and honestly, I’d never wanted to do it again since.
Until Adam.
Until I’d walked in the door and seen his dark brown eyes taking me in as if he wanted to pull me into his body and show me what it was like to have a real man.
I licked my lips and walked toward the bike, trailing my finger across the soft, buttery leather of the seat.