“Yes, I did.” Her heart raced and her cheeks heated as she continued to rake his body with her gaze. Thank goodness she hid behind the light of the flashlight.
“Yes, you did,” he said.
“Are you okay? The hot chocolate was pretty hot.” Sure he might heal fast, but that didn’t make him a masochist. She scooped up the fallen candles, taking the time to get a hold of herself.
Eric turned to her, giving her memory a full frontal view to archive. “I’m fine. Though I wonder now if you did it on purpose.”
“I did no such thing.” She tucked the last candle under her arm and straightened.
“No? My mistake. Though we both know I deserved it.”
She took a deep breath and willed her gaze away from his naked body. Sweat prickled along her skin while Maisie kept howling inappropriately in her head. Brenna intended to keep hating him and wanting to slap her naked body against his wasn’t exactly going to help. Nothing would happen between them and the sooner she accepted that, the sooner she could move on. “Are you going to put something on?”
Eric grinned, flashing even white teeth. “For someone shocked and insulted by my near-naked state, you’re certainly keeping the spotlight on me.” He held his hand, palm out, as if to block out the light.
She aimed the flashlight at the couch. “Sorry.” Forcing her gaze away from his rippled abs, again, she took in the couch. He’d cleaned up. Nice. She hadn’t looked forward to dousing the couch to get the hot chocolate out. She’d assumed he’d leave it to her. Most of the men she dated would have.
“You’re not forgiven,” he said.
Her muscles tensed. “Huh?”
Eric ran his hand down his bare chest. “I’ll forgive you for trying to scald off my first layer of skinafteryou help me finish cleaning up the mess you made.”
“Looks like you’ve already done a good job.”
“Brenna?”
She kept her gaze pasted on the couch. “Yes?”
“I’m still dirty.”
She turned the flashlight back to him. He squinted in the light, but it did little to deter his cheeky grin.
“Dirty mind, maybe,” she muttered.
His sexy mouth twitched, and his grin widened. “Give me a sponge bath?”
Need flooded her body, and her stomach lurched with need. Inwardly, her mind screamed, “Yes, yes, yes!” But she kept her mouth firmly shut and stalked to the kitchen to place the candles on the counter. She set them down, one by one, on the granite surface and took deep breaths in between.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course. Why do you ask?”
“You’re very aggressive with your candle placement.”
Aggressive with her candle placement? Really? She sputtered. How dare he critique her ability to handle a candle? She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. That wasn’t what bothered her.
How dare he proposition her now? He had his chance.
“Here,” she said, and plucked a soaked sponge from the sink. “Let’s compromise.” She chucked the sponge at him from across the room. Thanks to high school softball, and social adult leagues, her aim was spot on. Eric laughed as he caught it.
“Fair enough,” he said.
He ran the wet sponge over his corded muscles, the trail of moisture evident in the flickering light from the fireplace.
She tore her gaze away and turned back to the kitchen. Bracing herself on the counter, she took a few deep breaths to calm her raging libido. She hated Eric.
Didn’t she?
