“I’ll be back.” I walk into his bathroom, pulling my tank top over my head. Once I’ve gotten it nice and damp in the sink, I squeeze out the water and struggle to get it back over my head. Then I walk back into the bedroom.
Hunter hasn’t moved from the bed. He looks like he’s struggling to believe what he’s seeing when his eyes land on my see-through tank top.
His eyes shoot to my face when I clear my throat.
“I’d get one of my pies from downstairs, but I’m not putting my pie up high on a shelf and getting cobwebs on it. I know it was in your dream, but this is real life with real pie, and I’m not ruining my hard work like that. If I have to stick my finger in anything, I could do it in a jar of grape jelly. And I’ll put something else up on a shelf while you stare at my ass. Just not pie.”
As I finish speaking, he gets up from the bed, smiling as he approaches me.
He pins me against the doorframe with both hands on my hips and lowers his head to mine. “I love you,” he says, a soft smile in his eyes.
I was expecting him to laugh in my face, not say something that makes me want to cry. “Because I want to live out one of your dirty dreams?”
“Because you’re you. No other woman could turn me on, make me laugh, and make me want to hug them all at the same time. Just you.”
He kisses me, then takes his hands off my hips and backs up. “Arms up, baby.”
I raise my eyebrow. “Myarms?”
“Yes, your arms,” he says, giving nothing away.
Figuring this must be a part of the dream he didn’t tell me before, I raise my arms over my head.
He stares at my breasts and swallows hard. Then he grips the bottom of my wet tank top and peels it off me, his eyes returning to my bare breasts with a hunger that makes me press my thighs together.
“Hunter?”
He tears his gaze away. “Wait there.”
He disappears into the bathroom with my shirt and returns seconds later with a large, soft-looking blue towel, dropping tohis knees in front of me. He’s taller than I am, nearly six-three to my five-three, so being on his knees puts him a little below boob level.
When he starts drying my damp chest, it's efficient rather than sensual. “You in a wet shirt turns me on like nothing else.”
“But?”
He dries my back and sets the towel down to look at me. His expression is surprisingly concerned. “I don’t want you to get a cold wearing a wet t-shirt, baby. This is real life and not a dirty dream, which means you—not sex—will always be my priority.”
That’s sweet.
When I cup his face, his eyes drift closed and he leans into my touch. “Thank you for being patient with me while I got over my insecurities and for not just loving me, but being my friend as well. I love you, too.”
Smiling with his eyes closed, he turns his face toward my hand and kisses the inside of my wrist. “You’re worth waiting for, and I willalwaysbe your friend.” He opens his eyes and his gaze flicks to my chest. “I’m gonna to be real honest with you, Maisie. Standing topless in front of me like this is killing off brain cells. I amshockedI got through this conversation without convincing you that I’m an idiot.”
“Sorry.” I yank my hand from his face and spin around.
His muffled groan suggests turning my back hasn’t improved the situation. It might have even made things worse. I’ve put my ass practically in his face, and I’m wearing the shorts that inspired his dirty dreams. I’m flashing him my boobs if I turn around or my ass if I stay as I am.
“Um, I didn’t think things through before I did that,” I tell him, face hot. “I’d pick up the towel but that would involve bending over. Should I turn to my side or run into the bathroom?”
His bark of laughter draws a smile to my lips.
“There’s no need for that,” he says, chuckling.
My breath hitches as he wraps his arm around my middle, tucking my back against his chest and walking us backward. I gasp when he throws himself back on the bed and kisses the back of my shoulder.
I shiver, my eyes fluttering shut. “Maybe you shouldn’t kiss me there,” I suggest breathlessly, my mind full of images from his dirty dream I’m desperate to live out.
“Why? Having inappropriate thoughts about me with a tail?” he whispers, smiling as he kisses my neck. All the while, his right hand goes on a slow and lazy exploration of my chest.
