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“Oops.” Chuckling, Kristina dropped the laundry supplies on the breakfast bar and picked up a hand towel.
Noah chucked the shirt to the counter, and Kristina tried really hard not to ogle the movement of his muscles. His arms, his abs, his back. He was so fit it was almost mesmerizing.
“Be right back,” he said, striding out of the room. A few minutes later, he returned wearing a white T-shirt.
“What’s up with you?” he asked, eyes narrowing on her.
Shit, she’d been thinking about her conversation with Ethan again. Schooling her expression, she picked up a superhero to dry. “Nothing.”
“Bullshit,” he said, coming around to the sink again. He turned on the water and squirted soap into the running stream.
Stomach fluttering, she rolled her eyes. “I’m just standing here drying Captain America. What makes you think there’s something going on?”
Noah braced his hands on the edge of the sink, making his shoulder muscles bunch in a rather delicious way. “For one, you’re avoiding my question. For two, you look like you did that time you found out that Josh made out with Melanie Hart in the locker room.”
Kristina rolled her eyes. “That was really good gossip.”
“Uh huh, which is why I know you’re sitting on something right now.”
Crap. He wasn’t going to let this drop, was he? Well, fine. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t find out at some point, right? And it wasn’t like he’d care either. Because, just friends. Except, then why did her belly feel like she was riding a roller coaster?
“I have a date.” She picked up the Hulk. Wipe, wipe, wipe.
“A date,” he said. She nodded but kept her eyes on her task. “With who?”
“One of your neighbors.” Next, she worked through the stack of new ceramic dishes he’d bought. Wipe, wipe, wipe. His gaze felt like the mid-day sun shining on her face.
“Since when?”
“About ten minutes ago?” She chanced a glance at Noah. Eyes narrowed. Jaw tight. Knuckles white where they gripped the sink.
He smacked his hand against the faucet lever, shutting off the water. “So, let me get this straight. You just agreed to go out on a date with a total stranger you met in my laundry room?”
Kristina sat aside the dry dish. “Yep.”
“What the fuck are you thinking?”
She dropped all pretense of drying the dishes and tossed the towel onto the counter. “Uh, I’m thinking that a hot guy asked me out and that was nice and it seemed like it could be fun. Why is that a problem?”
Kristina did not love the ribbon of guilt curling into her belly. It wasn’t like she’d done anything wrong. She was young and single and it was just a dinner date, for God’s sake. Not to mention that Noah had made his position clear. They both had. On multiple occasions.
“You know nothing about this guy,” he said, turning toward her and bracing his hands on his hips.
She rolled her eyes. “His name is Ethan and he’s a bartender. Besides, that’s kinda the point of a date. You know, you talk and get to know a person better.”
Noah stalked closer, then closer still, anger and heat rolling off of him. His dark eyes blazed down at her. “I…why…why are you doing this?”
Kristina shook her head, absolutely bewildered. “Why does anyone go on a date?” She pushed off the counter and came right up in front of him. “The real question is, why are you flipping out about it?”
His jaw ticked and a war of emotions played out across his annoyingly handsome face.
“Huh?” She poked her finger into the hardness of his chest. “Why do you care if I go on a date?” It wasn’t like they hadn’t been totally open with one another about dating before. Because they always had, going way back.
Noah shook his head, his chest heaving, his nostrils flaring. His lips parted, and she hung on the edge of a precipice as she waited for him to answer. To say it was because he didn’t want her to go out with someone else, to say it was because he wanted her for himself. Instead, he said nothing.
So…what? He didn’t want her, but he didn’t want anyone else to have her either? Screw that. “Right,” she managed. “That’s what I thought.” A stinging sensation sprang up behind her eyes, and Kristina was suddenly sure she was going to cry. Stupid. So stupid. She hadn’t accepted the date with Ethan to elicit a reaction from Noah, so she wasn’t sure why the exchange with him was squeezing her chest so damn hard now.
She pushed by him, bee lining for her purse. She had to get out of here. Before one of them said or did something they’d regret.
