Or at least he almost fell off his barstool. He would have fallen off his barstool, knocked silly by Samantha’s vehement proclamation, if he hadn’t instinctively curled his fingers around the edge of the countertop.
For a second, he thought he might have misheard. But then he realized he hadn’t misheard; he’d just misunderstood. His heart sank. Down. To. His. Knees. It took his stomach with it.
I should never have said anything. Should never have flirted. Should never have—
“I get it,” he said, trying to hide the hurt in his voice. His omelet was suddenly threatening a reappearance. He had been so worried that taking Samantha to bed would lose him her friendship that he hadn’t considered their friendship might be one-sided. “You’ve got plenty of friends already. You probably don’t need one more. And it’s not like we have all that much in common, so—”
“No, you idiot.” She harrumphed, crossing her arms. “What I mean is I don’t just want to be friends. Not counting today’s misunderstanding, I’ve been waiting for you to jump my bones or even just…even just touch me for…well, forever!”
This time, he did fall off his barstool. Luckily, he caught himself, so he hoped it looked like he’d intended to dismount. He pushed, albeit it a little shakily, to his full height. And his heart? Well, it’d bounced from his knees up into his throat, where it proceeded to strangle him.
He assumed that was why his voice was hoarse when he said, “You have?”
“For a guy who’s supposed to have a high IQ, you sure are dumb.”
“I am?”
“What’s the matter with you?” She frowned at him. “Did you pop an aneurysm or something?” She waved four fingers in front of his face. “How many fingers am I holding up? What day is it? Name a compound that contains both ionic and covalent bonds.”
“Uh…four, Thursday morning, and sodium phosphate. Am I right?”
“I can only vouch for the first two. It’s been too long since I took chemistry.”
He realized he’d been stock-still and blinking for a really long time when Samantha threw her hands in the air.
“Well, don’t just stand there. Say something!”
“I…” Haven’t the first clue what to say. He was both ecstatic and scared to death. Ecstatic because…well, it was obvious why he was ecstatic. Just look at her. She was everything, and she was interested in him. Scared to death because…what happened after he jumped her bones? Would she leave after her itch was scratched? Stop calling and drift away?
She made a disgusted sound. “Great. Wonderful. I’ve rendered you speechless. That’s just what a woman hopes for when she makes her intentions toward a man known. Look.” She pushed up from the barstool and grabbed her plate. “I get it.” She walked over to the trash can and used her fork to scrape off the leftovers. “You have women chasing you all the time.” She deposited her plate in the sink and turned to lean a hip against the counter.
“The last thing you need is another one. You’ve probably looked at me all these months and thought, ‘Now here’s a woman who doesn’t want to rock my bod. A woman I can relax and be myself around.’”
His lips twitched at her fairly spot-on impersonation of him, then he frowned when he realized the second half of that sentence was true. He was himself around her. His old self.
“Sorry to disappoint you. But I’m no better than all the others. You’re funny. You’re smart. You’re brave and courageous. And you’re hot. And I do want to rock your bod. But—”
“Samantha…” He tried to cut in, even though he had no idea what he wanted to say. She thought he was smart and brave and courageous and hot? He wanted to howl! He wanted to jump in the air and click his heels! He wanted to…screw her brains out.
“I’d much rather lose you as a lover than a friend.” She spoke over him. “So can we just forget the last five minutes? Can we go back to the way things were?”
“No,” he said. Or rather croaked.
Her shoulders slumped. “Damnit.” She stared dejectedly at her sparkly toes.
He’d never been a foot man, but right then he wanted nothing more than to kiss every one of those dainty digits.
“I should never have—”
“I don’t want to go back,” he interrupted. And like so many times that night, the minute he said the words aloud was the minute he realized they were true. But there were so many obstacles between them. There’d been so much deception. And what about afterward? What happened then?
“You don’t?” Her eyes searched his face. Her breaths came short and fast.
He was sure he could see the gentle jut of her nipples against the fabric of her sweatshirt. His dick, which had been seesawing between semihard and rock-hard all night, took one look at those sweet peaks and rose to the challenge.
“No.” He shook his head. In that moment, he didn’t care about the obstacles or the deception. In that moment, he couldn’t think about the future. There was only now. Only her. Wonderful, adorable Samantha.
She wants me! She wants…ME!
