Dominic sighed, turning his head in my direction. “Because, Ry?—”
He stopped mid-sentence. His eyes widened as they swept over me. “Is there a reason why you’re practically naked?”
I looked down to see my jeans around my ankles.Oh fuck.Dominic was right. I’d literally been stood here shedding my clothes while talking to him.
What the fuck was I thinking?
It’s simple. I wasn’t.
Embarrassment seared me as I fought the urge to cover myself with my hands. Instead, I brazened it out. Stepping out of my jeans, I strode for my chest of drawers and grabbed a pair of joggers. “I’m getting ready for bed. If you don’t like it you can leave. It’s not like I asked you to be in here.”
Dominic rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Do you frequently strip for people in your room?”
“Only the ones I can’t stand,” I said breezily. My tone was a lie. I was anything other than fucking breezy. Right now I was practically hyperventilating over the knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to sleep in my boxers. Like fuck was I removing them in front of Dominic. He’d already seen enough this evening.
Speaking of which… “Will you stop fucking staring? It’s not like you haven’t seen it before.”
After debating for a second more, I shoved my legs into the joggers. Fuck it. I could take my boxers off after Dominic left.
When I turned to face him, his head was cocked quizzically. “I haven’t seen you naked before.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve seen me in swim shorts.”
“Not in a couple of years.”
That was probably true. It wasn’t like I went anywhere with him and Max that required swimwear these days. “Well, you’ve seen Max in a similar state. We’re identical twins, remember?”
“Trust me, your body is nothing like Max’s.”
I laughed bitterly. “Yeah, I’m aware. I don’t need to be reminded.”
I went to move past him but his hand on my arm stopped me.
“Wait, why does that bother you?”
I searched his eyes. Was he serious? Surely he must know why.
But all I saw was genuine confusion. Honestly, Dominic claimed to be intelligent, but shit like this made me doubt it.
“Because Max spends several hours a week working out and it shows,” I said slowly, enunciating each word. “I don’t have his muscles or build, obviously.”
The crinkle between his brows deepened. “You walk a lot on your paper round.”
I huffed. “And if it caused the same level of definition, perhaps we’d look the same. But as you pointed out, we don’t.”
The hand not on my arm touched my stomach lightly, just above my belly button. A twitch kicked out where it landed, my muscles contracting.
“You don’t have the same body,” his voice rasped. “But there’s nothing wrong with yours, Ry. You’re defined in all the right places. You’ve not got anything to be ashamed of.”
His fingers dusted lower, brushing over the fine hair of my happy trail. Hot magma followed in his wake. It made me jerk away, taking several steps backwards until I was well out of his reach.
I crossed my arms, suddenly feeling more self-conscious than I had in just my underwear. “Why are you here, Dominic?”
Dom cleared his throat, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Wanted to see how your date went.”
“You wanted to see if I fucked it up?”
I could almost feel the heat rolling off of him as he met my gaze. “No. I want to know if you kissed her.”
