"Sorry about that, Scarlet," he said, his voice low and rumbly.
I glanced between him and the door he'd just exited, my eyes wide. "Did you stay the night?" I asked, disbelief coloring my tone.
"What?" he asked, confused.
I pointed toward the door behind us. "Did you stay the night with Audrey or Sadie?"
His brows rose in recognition. "Oh, you think I'm just now leaving after a night with one of them? Yeah, no. You know I don't do sleepovers."
"Then what are you doing here so early in the morning?"
A smile tipped one side of his mouth. "First, it's not early in the morning, it's almost ten. And second, I don’t limit my needs to only the nighttime."
I scrunched up my face. "You know you're disgusting, right?"
"Disgusting? That's not how they," he said, emphasizing the word they and gesturing back at the door, "would describe me."
"They?" My brain did not want to think about what he was obviously implying.
He threw his arm around my shoulder and guided us toward the stairs to the front doors. "Oh, sweet and innocent Scarlet, there are so many things you are missing out on."
I shook my head at his words. "I don't consider sleeping around as missing out on anything."
"You might think differently if you gave it a chance," he said. "It's freeing not to be tied down to one person, to not worry about finding the right person, and to not get your true emotions involved." He opened the door for me and I walked out into the crisp air, him following behind and catching up to walk by my side. "If things were different, I could show you a night—or a morning—you wouldn't forget."
I didn't doubt that he could, but there was no way I was sleeping with Slate. He was one of the sexiest men I'd ever seen, and had a well-known reputation of satisfying a woman, but I didn't want just sex. I wanted to be in a relationship with someone, to feel a deeper connection.
"Oh, conceited and arrogant Slate," I said, hooking my arm through his and looking up at him with an exaggerated demure look. "You act like you'd have a chance with me if it wasn't for the fact that Olivia and Wilder would kill you if you ever touched me in a non-platonic way."
His mouth quirked up on one side. "That's another reason why I won't turn the full Slate Donahue on for you. But if I did, you'd melt faster than butter on a hot biscuit," he said, his voice taking on a Southern accent on his last phrase.
I laughed and playfully shoved him away. He was always making up what he thought should be common Southern phrases. "You and your made-up Southern metaphors."
He laughed too. "Trust me, that one is going to catch on one day. And you get to say Southern phrases all the time."
I laughed again. "That's because I'm from the south."
I hated to admit it, but he was good. It was no wonder that women did melt faster than butter on a hot biscuit when they were around him. If we weren't such good friends and he wasn't such a big man-whore, we might have been able to be in a relationship together. Maybe.
Nah, probably not. He didn't make my skin tingle or make my heart race. My eyes enjoyed the view, but that was about it.
"Tomato, tomahto," he said, ignoring my very valid reason. "Why do only people from the south get to have all the cool sayings?"
I patted him on the shoulder in mock sympathy. "Life's just not fair."
"You can say that again," he said, turning somber.
His swift mood changes always caught me off guard. It wasn't uncommon for him to be happy and joking around one second, and then in the next second, quiet and closed-off. Taking in his face, I could see that his eyebrows were creased and his eyes looked sad, his lips in a grim line.
I didn't know where he went in those moments, but my heart ached for him. I wished he had someone he could talk to about whatever it was. He and Wilder were close, like brothers, but sometimes even Wilder couldn't reach him.
He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'd better head home and shower before I need to be in my next class."
I laid my hand on his arm to stop him from walking away. "You okay?"
A grin quickly replaced the frown that had been on his face, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Yeah, of course. I just remembered that I forgot about an assignment I have due today."
I doubted that was the cause of his sudden shift in mood, but I didn't say anything.
