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“No,” he admitted. And she hadn’t changed all that much either. She’d never been good at letting go of an idea. He’d learned that lesson the night of her eighteenth birthday when she’d made him an offer his younger self hadn’t been able to refuse.
“Do you have any better ideas?” Leah asked, arching one eyebrow at him.
He drank. It was something to do that didn’t involve thinking too hard about the topic of their conversation. The fact that Leah had the hots for him. The fact that the feeling was apparently mutual. The fact that he was an idiot of massive proportions.
“I’ll take silence as ‘no,’ Leah said. “Well, I have one.”
“Please don’t tell me,” he said, voice rasping. He didn’t know what he’d do if she said what he thought she was about to say.
“Sorry, that’s just dumb.” She paused. Took a deep breath, which only drew his eyes to the curve of her breasts under her tank top. “There’s always no-strings-attached hot-sweaty sex until you leave town again.”
He almost choked on his beer. Had to put it down and stay bent over for a moment, as he tried to remember how to breathe. How to breathe and how to ignore the fact he was now hard as a rock.
Leah snorted. “Sorry, did I upset your delicate male sensibilities?”
He straightened slowly. Shit, she was determined to talk about this. “No, but you did surprise me.”
“Really? I would have thought that a big rock star would be used to being propositioned by now.”
Well, he couldn’t deny that women made passes. But women whose names he didn’t know asking him to sleep with them apparently wasn’t half as … unsettling?… intriguing?… downright tantalizing?… as Leah doing it. “I think you’re overestimating my fame.”
That earned him an eye-roll.
“Hello, have you seen you?” Leah said.
“I don’t stand around admiring my reflection, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I don’t think you’re Narcissus, Zach. I think you’re a hot guy who would have to be an idiot not to know he was hot. Especially since you’ve been hot for quite some time.”
“Oh, really?” He wasn’t an idiot. But he had to admit, there was something about Leah standing there telling him she thought he was that was … pleasing.
“Stop fishing for compliments. I’m the woman who propositioned you at eighteen. You already know I think you’re hot.”
He shook his head, trying to quell the heat rising through his body and tame the hard-on that was making him very glad his T-shirt was long. Apparently part of him was very happy with Leah’s announcement. “I didn’t know you still felt that way.” Not entirely true. There’d been too many little moments of chemistry since he’d come home to ignore that there was something there between them. But he hadn’t imagined she’d want to actually do anything about it. “Or that you wanted to do something about it.”
That part was true. It hadn’t crossed his mind she’d even think about sleeping with him again. He’d known, at least some part of him had, that when he’d said “yes” to her all those years ago that he was going to hurt her. That part of her didn’t think he’d really leave and had spun teenage girl dreams about what would happen next. But he hadn’t said “no.” Maybe that made him an asshole, but he’d been young and Leah, at eighteen, had been gorgeous. And she’d asked.
She shrugged. He couldn’t help noticing that that did very nice things to her breasts in the scoop-neck tank she wore.
“To be fair, neither did I. But from the way you’re staring at my boobs, I’m not alone in my lack of judgment. So, once again, why don’t we lack some judgment together?”
Yes, please. No. Wait. He needed to think about that. Put the brakes on his cock, which was trying hard to take over all the thinking right now. Re-engage the brain. It was difficult. Very difficult. There were reasons he couldn’t sleep with her. He just couldn’t remember what they were right this second. “I just don’t think it’s that simple.” As much as certain body parts really, really wanted it to be.
“Why not?”
It was a reasonable question. If you looked at it from her perspective. The perspective of someone who’d decided they should start having sex.
But someone was going to have to be sensible about this. It was clear Leah wasn’t going to be taking that role so, fuck it, it was going to have to be him. Right. Reasons why he shouldn’t do exactly what she—and his body—were suggesting. It was an effort to think of any. He had to wrestle with himself to get his brain back in control.
“Well, the most important reason is that we’re working together.”
“I think today proved that things can only improve in that department. And will only improve if we get this out of our systems.”
“That’s not what I meant. It’s not just about us getting comfortable with working together. Sex complicates things. Sex with someone you’re working with never seems to end well.”
“It only gets complicated if someone gets all mushy and emotional. Like, I said, I’m talking strictly no-strings here.”
“There’s also the fact that you’re my sister’s best friend.”
