“No.” Luke smirks, his eyes flashing wickedly. “But you can take me to dinner.”
I’m so taken aback that my jaw literally drops. Heat creeps up my face, and I know my cheeks are probably bright red. Luke’s smile grows, and he bursts out laughing. It’s so guttural and genuine, and I think I’m feeling lightheaded from all the beer because it just sounds so enchanting to hear.
“Jesus, Ethan.” Luke doubles over. “I’m just fucking with you, man.Wow, you’re so easy to rile up. I’m good, okay? It’s only a shirt. I’ll live, I promise.”
“You’re such a dick,” I groan, dragging a hand down my face, but I’m laughing too.
“I’m not the one who poured my beer on you.” He huffs a laugh, arching a single brow.
“It was an accident! Look, I’ve got a clean shirt in my truck you can borrow, so you don’t have to sit in a wet one all night, okay? Then we’ll be even.”
Luke smirks. “Okay, now I will take you up on that.”
Glancing back at the guys, I find all three of them watching this spectacle with undivided attention. But the moment I catch them, they snap back toward the middle of the table and fail to look like they are doing anything natural.
“I’ll be right back,” I shout their way, rolling my eyes. Marcus waves a hand, so at least I know they heard me.
Outside, I’m happy to see it’s finally stopped raining. The ground is still wet, and the damp pavement smells fantastic. I can’t help but take a deep breath, sighing contentedly as we head to the truck.
I keep a duffel bag in my backseat with a few days' worth of clothes, mostly so I have something to change into if I’m ever stranded or need to take an unexpected trip. Thankfully, I recently restocked it, so I pull out a plain white T-shirt and hand it over to Luke.
“Should I be concerned that you’re so well prepared for this situation?” He chuckles. Before I can respond, he pulls his drenched shirt up over his head, and I’m whollyunprepared for that.
I already knew Luke was fit by the way his clothes sat on him, butmy god.His chest is perfectly smooth, with only the faintest trail of dark blond hair dipping beneath the waistline of his jeans. His pecs are firm and well-defined, and he’s got abs fordays. But it’s not overbearing or intense. It looks natural, like he was graced with the body of a demigod instead of a mortal man. He's even got the creases along his hips that are every man’s personal wet dream. It's unfair to look at, and I don’t know why my heart is suddenly racing.
My eyes unwittingly travel down his bare torso, catching the matching tattoos on his stomach, nestled right above his hip bones, and I stop being able to form coherent thoughts. They’re black-inked sparrows in mid-flight, mirror-imaged from one side to the other and tilted at a downward angle to follow the natural V. My eyes are glued to them, and somehow, I’ve forgotten that I’m supposed to breathe. Something is clearly wrong with me, and I’m unsure what it means or how to handle it.
When Luke slips my shirt over his head, letting it drop to cover his torso's utterly disgusting perfection, I realize rather abruptly that I’m all-out staring at him and have to force myself to turn away. Hopefully, he didn’t notice, but I swallow hard and run a shaking hand through my hair a few times as I close the back door to my truck, trying to regain some semblance of composure. Maybe I’ve had too much to drink because my face is suddenly hot, and I’m a little dizzy. At this rate, I should probably drink a gallon of water before I attempt to drive home.
“I feel like a toddler in this,” Luke whines from behind me.
I take a deep breath to calm myself down before turning around to face him and—fuck.He’s absolutely swimming in my shirt. Although he’s so much taller than I am, it’s clear I wear a much larger size than he does, and it looks like he’s trying to hide underneath the bagginess of it. No one would ever guess what’s concealed beneath the fabric, and I want to cry at how ridiculous it is that Iknowwhat’s underneath. Utterly unfair. The universe clearly has favorites.
Luke stands with his arms out to his sides, frowning down at himself. Part of me feels a strange swell of emotion I can’t identify at the thought of him wearing my clothes, while the other part can’t help but let out a burst of laughter at how ridiculous he looks. I quickly smack my hand to my mouth and try to act like I didn’t just do that. Luke snaps his head up at me with a scoff.
“Rude,” he says, but his lips quirk up into a smile at one end.
“I’m so sorry,” I laugh, trying and failing to keep the smile off my face. “Next time, I’ll remember to stash clothes in your size.”
“How chivalrous. But let’s try to avoid drenching me in beer in the future so that won’t be necessary.”
“I am sorry again. I should have been watching where I was going.”
“It’s all right.” Luke shakes his head dismissively. “I’d be distracted, too, if I’d just made plans to go out on a hot date.”
My brows lift in surprise. “You heard that? Isthatwhy you joked about taking you out to dinner?”
Luke grins, a little bashful, guiltily biting at the corner of his bottom lip. “That, and you just looked so upset, I had to say something to get you to lighten up.”
Instantly, a warm feeling moves through me. It’s confusing, but I force myself to ignore it. “Aw,” I tease instead, putting my hand over my heart. “That’s so sweet.”
Luke rolls his eyes. “Shut up, dick.”
I smirk, and we fall into an easy silence. There’s nothing awkward about it, but I realize we’ll have to head back inside soon, and suddenly, I’m not quite ready to do that. The idea of ending this conversation is daunting in a way I wasn’t expecting. Besides, my face is still burning, and the crisp night air feels refreshing. I clear my throat, rubbing a hand along my shoulder, kneading my thumb into it absently.
“So, are you here alone?” I ask.
Luke shakes his head. “No, I’m meeting an old friend from high school. One of the few that still lives here for some fucking reason.”
