“That’s nowhere near true. It’s decent. I mean, I think you look great, but?—”
“Yeah? You do?” There was something in the tone of his voice. All husky and deep. My stomach spun.
He did look good. I could see the lines of his face better. His eyes. The skin of his neck was all pink, contrasting the brown tone of mine, and I wanted to dip my head and kiss him there.
“Yep.” The word shook on its way out. “It’s good. There’s hair everywhere. Better get this cleaned up.”
Dean grabbed the vacuum to help. Once we’d tidied up, he still stood in my room. Shirtless. Hands on his hips just over the waistband of his low-slung sweats.
And I realized what a mistake I’d made.
Dean with that long, messy hair had been hot. But with this style, short enough to show off the undeniable handsomeness of all his features? He had nothing to hide behind now, and the way he was looking at me was naked with desire.
I’d told him there would be no more kissing.
I’d toldmyselfwe were just friends.
But a girl could only take so much.
I stepped closer to him, and my fingers met his stomach. Walked their way up the ladder of his abs. Then I pressed mypalm flat to one round pec over his nipple, which made me gasp.
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. But there was no way I could stop.
“Keira,” Dean groaned.
My lips found his jaw and brushed over the rough stubble there. His arm closed around my waist, drawing me right up against him. Our bodies met like we were dancing, except the way we were breathing was so much more intense. We panted like we’d both just run Dean’s obstacle course.
Like we were already making love.
He was warm, and he smelled like soap and himself, and I wanted him to surround me. Blot out the rest of the world like my own personal eclipse. That was how much space Dean took up in my head and my heart.
But when I lifted my chin, he was looking away from me.
Dean took my hand from his chest and pressed a kiss to my palm instead of my lips. “I want to, but I can’t,” he rasped. “I’m sorry.”
When he backed toward the doorway, I didn’t stop him. Then my door clicked shut, and he was gone.
I fell back onto my bed, the mattress bouncing under me. “This is so bad,” I muttered, covering my hands with my face. “Why did I do that?”
I’d made things so much more awkward between us. He wanted me, but he wouldn’t let himself have me. It broke my heart that Dean was so hard on himself.
But this was probably for the best. I could already tell if Dean and Ididwind up in bed together, there’d be no coming back from it.
I’d had a couple of boyfriends in my life. I wasn’t a virgin. But since the day I’d met Dean, I had barely looked at another guy. I hadn’t been with anyone in so long that I’dforgotten what actual sex was like, not that my few sexual experiences were anything to brag about.
This wasn’t a dry spell. More like a dryera.
If I finally had Dean in my bed, he was going to ruin me forever for anyone but him. But what the hell? Maybe I wanted to be ruined by Dean Reynolds.
There was a knock at my bedroom door.
“Keira?” a rough voice said on the other side.
Leaping up, I reached for the bedroom door handle. Then paused. My heart thumped a chaotic rhythm.
When I yanked the door open, Dean was there.
He stood with one arm braced against the frame. Sweats hanging below his hip bones. His chest and stomach on display, like before. There were a couple of tiny stray hairs on his shoulders from the haircut.
