Page 63
His eyes trailed over her like a gentle caress, taking in her appearance from her blouse to her legs, making her want to squirm. He shook his head. “Yeah. You look nice,” he said.
Her brows twitched, her lips thinned, and her fingers flexed as she resisted the urge to tug on the hem of her shorts. Did he think she looked dumb? The outfit was new. Something she allowed herself as a treat—and because the coloring felt appropriate for the heat. But with the way Aiden gave such a flat response, she couldn’t help but feel self-conscious.
Her eyes met his, and something in his expression shuttered. She’d missed something.
This was ridiculous.
“Do I look that bad?”
His mouth parted in shock at her sharp tone. Canting his head, he squinted in confusion. “Do what?”
“You’re looking at me funny.”
“I’m not.”
“And you said I look nice.”
“You do.”
She curled her toes into the area rug beneath her feet. So saying nice wasn’t all that bad, but the delivery left a lot to be desired.
“Still sounded funny, just like the look.”
A wry grin spread across his face. Her cheeks puffed with her indignation, making him break into a full-on laugh. She hated it. To be fair, it was a nice laugh, but she hated it on principle.
“Don’t laugh at me.”
“Okay, Kitten.”
His laughter roared back to the surface as she gaped at him.
“I’m not a damn kitten.” Her hands went to her hips. “I just bought this outfit. You don’t ever say anything about how I look. And you were just… staring. I assumed that meant I looked bad.”
“Aw, jeez.” He leaned back and ran a hand over his face.
Her gaze latched onto his bicep flexing in his tight T-shirt.
She didn’t know how often he exercised, but anyone could see how well Aiden took care of himself. Aside from his large arms, wide set shoulders, and chest stretching his T-shirt, he had a narrow waist and thick thighs—which she remembered from the way he looked spread out napping on her bed last night in only a pair of snug-fitting boxers, looking like a buffet for one.
All signs he worked out and ate right.
Her face heated when she recalled how his naked backside flexed when he dropped his shorts during their beach trip to perform a dare in the drinking game she had taken part in with Blaire, him, and their friends. Oh, he definitely works out. She hadn’t meant to look, but it took her longer to look away when she did.
Even now, she tried not to stare too much, but it would be rude to ignore a work of art.
Aiden Easton defined beauty in more ways than one. His midnight hair appeared artfully messed with long locks both over his forehead and pushed back. Long lashes most women would kill for framed his intense forest green eyes. They almost touched his cheeks when he closed his eyes, drawing attention to high cheekbones that led down to a sharp, squared jawline.
Someone called in favors when he was conceived, because not only did he have gorgeous looks, but he held the heart of a saint.
It was another reason she questioned his reaction to her outfit. She never thought him to be mean.
“Are you even listening to me?”
“Huh?” She blinked, his voice breaking through the haze around her mind. It’s like he carried his own Charlotte-attracting gravity, and she was helpless to it whenever she focused too hard on him. Had she seriously moved closer to the loveseat? She straightened and took a step back.
“I said I was sorry if you thought I didn’t like it. I said it was nice because it really suits you.” His tongue barely grazed his lip in an unconscious gesture he surely didn’t know came across as panty-melting to women around him. “You’re beautiful. Don’t know why you’d think otherwise.”
She didn’t mean she was ugly, but she wasn’t about to brush off the compliment. Even if he was her friend, she wasn’t immune to him. If things were different—if her status were different—maybe she’d try her hand at flirting back, but she needed to resist those urges now that they were spending more time in front of each other, either in person or video. Texting before heading off for her big college adventure was one thing, letting it go farther was another can of worms entirely.
