“I’ll use it,” she protested.
“Really?” North drawled. “Because right now you’re pale, tense, and breathing fast, yet you’ve not said anything about the fact that Jared stripping is freaking you out.”
Holy moly.
“It is not fair that the two of you can read me so easily!” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“We need all the advantages we can get,” Jared said.
His pants were off but he was still wearing a pair of black, tight boxers.
And part of her wanted to get up and lick every inch of his body. The other part of her, the cautious, fearful part, told her to stay where she was.
She swallowed heavily.
“Like what you see?” North asked, stealing her attention back to him.
He was staring at Jared. He didn’t seem like he was affected by the other man’s near-nakedness. But she got the feeling that he was just as turned on as she was.
Well, you’d have to be blind not to be.
Because . . . hello, Jared was a piece of art. North turned his gaze to her. “Well? Do you?”
“I don’t think ‘like’ is the right word,” she said. “He’s so gorgeous it’s intimidating.”
“You shouldn’t be intimidated. You’re just as gorgeous,” North told her.
She immediately shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
“Don’t do that,” North told her coldly.
“Do what?”
“Don’t deny a compliment like that with lies. You are gorgeous. If you believe otherwise, then there is something wrong with your eyes or head. Did someone tell you that you weren’t beautiful? You should stop listening to them and listen to me. Because I’m far smarter and more honest. I wouldn’t have said that if I didn’t believe it. So take the compliment and don’t try to deny it. That will just annoy me.”
Right.
“North is right. You are exceptionally beautiful, sweetheart,” Jared told her in a soft voice.
She gaped up at him, her mouth open. Keira had told her nice things, of course. But she’d never really believed her.
Keira was her sister, she had to say those things about her. But these guys didn’t.
Which meant . . . they did see her as beautiful.
Jared kneeled on the bed, gently pushing her legs apart. “Baby, you are fucking stunning. And anyone who told you otherwise was lying to you. Understand? Just fucking beautiful.”
“I . . . I am?”
“You are,” North said. “It’s annoying you can’t see it.”
“North,” Jared warned. “It just means that she needs us to tell her. Often.”
“She should know it. She should look in the mirror and see how beautiful she is. And then she should own it. Walk around with her head held high.”
“Yes, she should and she will.” Jared cupped the side of her face with his hand. “She’ll know that she’s gorgeous on the outside and on the inside.”
“I’m really not. On the inside, I mean,” she added hastily as North made a disgruntled noise. “I don’t always think nice things about people. I call them bad names. I can be selfish. And stubborn.”
