"You could tell them we're waiting?"
Her gaze raked him again, this time with heated appraisal that didn't help the gym shorts situation at all. When she met his eyes, her mouth and tone were both dry and wry. "No onewould believe that."
Luke felt his ears go hot, always a sure warning sign that he was about to blush over every visible surface of his body. Sure enough, a couple seconds later he was scalding hot to his collarbones, and the worst part was, they were in agym. There were mirrorseverywhere. It was actually possible for him to seethat his shoulders were turning red. He tried very hard not to look, but it was visible even from the corners of his eyes. He mumbled something, not sure if he should be saying 'thank you' or not, and fastened his gaze on his feet, waiting for the blush to fade.
Sabrina, in gently awed astonishment, said, "Wow. I don't think I've ever seen someone'sanklesblush before." He could just barely see her lean to the side, looking around him toward his sister. "So he doesn't take compliments well?"
Emmy, who was really a very good sister, said, "You could say that," with kind-hearted rue. "I don't know why. It's not like he doesn't work super hard to keep in that kind of shape, but he's always been mortified when people notice."
Luke was fairly certain he was going to go down in history as a case of genuine spontaneous combustion. The entire gym would see him go up in flames without any external source of ignition. Attention still on his toes, he mumbled, "I don't do it for compliments."
"I know," Emmy said fondly. "You're just a weirdo who really likes exercise. He does," she added to Sabrina. "I have to drag my fluffy butt to the gym every day but he's always been one of those bounce out of bed and go for a run types."
"Oh, God," Sabrina said in mild, amused horror. "All right, fine, you can come to Vegas with me, because this is clearly never going to work anyway. Amorningexerciser, that's just uncivilized. I'll show you off and then we can have a messy breakup."
His bunny's horror was much more acute than Sabrina's.What? But—no! She can't—no! It can't work that way! What is she saying? We're mates! Itwillwork out! That's how fate works! Explain it to her! Quick, before she breaks up with us! Oh,God! What are we going to do!?!?!?
Luke didn't have it in him to reassure the rabbit just then. He glanced up, finding Sabrina smiling crookedly at him, and felt his blush begin to fade. Usually people tried to reassure him or compliment him more when he got blushy and tongue-tangled, which was the worst possible thing they could do. Sabrina's gentle, wry humor was much more helpful in allowing him to get through it. "If you want I can insist you get up to join me in the hotel gym every morning."
She laughed aloud again, that same great big sound he already adored. "My girls are likely to have me up until four or five every morning, you get that, right?"
"Perfect reason to break up with me, then," Luke said hoarsely.
His rabbit's eyes rolled back and it fainted.
CHAPTER 3
Poor Luke Jones was the most gorgeous and sensitive guy Sabrina had ever met. She'd known him for all of about ten minutes, and both of those things were already very clear. She wanted to giggle and hug him and knock her shoulder into his reassuringly, and also to curl up around him forever and bite anybody who was mean to him.
Which was ridiculous. For one thing, he was literally more than a foot taller than she. There was no universe in which she could curl aroundhim.
Well. There were some ways she definitely could and she wasabsolutely not thinking about that, shut up, Sabrina,she told herself.
Protectively.There was no way she could curl around him in a meaningfullyprotectiveway. That was what she meant, and she should not be considering a hot weekend of banging Emmy's brother just because he was nice enough to be her fake boyfriend for a wedding. It would make the friendship with Emmy awkward, especially if Luke went and caughtfeelings, or something. So definitely no hooking up with her friend's hot brother.
And also no biting people who were mean to him, Sabrina told herself. Not that she actually would. But she did kind of feel like maybe he should have somebody who was willing to do that for him, if he blushed that easily.
Somebody else, obviously. She couldn't base a long-term relationship on the impulse to bite people who were mean to a hot guy. Especially when they were talking about a very specific short-term relationship for a very specific short-term purpose.
What onearthwas she doing, thinking about long-term relationships and protecting big strong handsome men? Sabrina shook her head at herself while Luke glanced upward, almost like he was looking into his own mind, and got over whatever embarrassment he'd had with a gigantic sigh.
She felt her own eyebrows go up. "You okay?"
"Oh, fine. I'm just being…" Luke paused a long moment, then wet his lips. "Do you ever feel like you have a very theatrical version of yourself in your mind, leaning into all your worst impulses?"
Given that she'd just spent several seconds on considering the prospects of protecting, biting, hookups, and their potential effects on her girly friendships, Sabrina chortled. "Sometimes, yes."
"Yes, well…" Luke gestured at his head, indicating he'd had something similar going on in his own mind.
Emmy's gaze was poinging back and forth between Sabrina and Luke, her eyes alight with hopeful enthusiasm. "You know what, I think you two should definitely take it from here. Luke, why don't you take Sabrina over to Kate's and you can have some carbs and figure out your itinerary for the weekend?"
"I don'tneedcarbs, I'm supposed to fit in one of Mindy's damn bridesmaid gowns—" Sabrina broke off, because Luke had matched the first four words there and she had a sudden, vivid, giggling idea of him trying to fit into one of the gowns, too.
"You do fit into it," Emmy said to her. "I've seen you in it and you look fabulous. And you probablydon'tneed carbs, because you eat the most thoughtfully well-balanced meals of anybody I've ever met," she said to her brother with an air of resigned irritation. "Go have some anyway."
Luke was grinning at Sabrina, like he'd shared her thought. "I'm pretty sure I'm too tall for it."
"You haven't seen it," she told him. "The length would be the least of the problems. I don't think the waist would fit around your thigh." She couldn't help checking out his thighs again, available for inspection as they were in those shorts. Genuinely excellent, she decided. Powerfully muscled, though he didn't seem muscle-bound as so many big guys were. He somehowlookedflexible, despite his big broad frame.
