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“I’m sure you have at least one dress in your closet,” Ethan says. “Maybe even a skirt. Go look, and if you don’t find something, I’ll take you to the store.”
“I have to work tomorrow.”
At this point, I would do anything to get out of going with them. I’m more of a ‘drink vodka from the bottle while eating Cheetos and researching articles on my beat-up MacBook on the couch’ kind of girl. Will was always the outgoing sibling and the constant center of attention. We couldn’t be more opposite. Ethan is a mixture of us, or at least he was ten years ago. I don’t know the man he’s become, but I want to know him. So bad.
Thirty minutes later, I dig through my closet, beyond frustrated and ready to give up. When Ethan walks into my room, I smell his musky scent before I hear his footsteps behind me.
Ethan laughs. “Did you throw your clothes on the floor so you could use that as an excuse not to go?”
I scan the piles of clothes around my feet and sigh. “No, stupid. I was looking for something to wear.”
“You won’t find a dress on the floor, Mia.” Ethan slides hangers along the metal rack with his muscular chest pressed against my back. “You weren’t kidding, huh? Do you own anything other than jeans or something with holes in it?”
“The holes are intentional.” I turn around to face him, stunned by how polished and refined he is at all times. Why is he so damn perfect when I’m a hot mess? “It’s not like I sit around with scissors and cut up my jeans and shirts.” Tugging on the sleeve of his navy oxford, I continue, “We all can’t look as good as you do on short notice.”
He cups the side of my face in his big hand and strokes my cheek with his calloused thumb. “You’d look good in a trash bag. Stop dragging your feet and get ready before I have to dress you myself.”
Once the thought is planted in my mind, I can’t stop myself from imaging Ethan undressing me. He does that well enough with his eyes. And now I’m thinking of him naked and sweaty with me lying next to him.
Stop it, Mia. Get your shit together.
“You were never this bossy,” I choke out. “What happened to you?”
“I’m not the same person, Mia. The sooner you get that through your pretty little head, the easier it’ll be for you to come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to change. This is who I am now, take it or leave it.”
“I don’t believe it for one second.” I place my palm over his heart and move closer. “For whatever reason, you don’t want to let me back in. You were never this arrogant and rude to me.”
He covers his hand over mine and blows out a puff of air. “Some things are better left in the past. You can either get to know the person I am now or cling to the memory of the boy you had a crush on when we were kids.”
I snort. “I did not have a crush on you.”
A smirk turns up the corner
of his mouth. “That’s a lie, and you know it.”
“Whatever.” I take a step back, and his hand falls to his side. “I have to get dressed. Can you get out?”
“You have nothing to wear. Let me take you shopping.”
“I don’t know whether to be offended or flattered that you would do something so selfless for me.”
He pushes his hands to his hips and shakes his head, staring at me with one of his killer smirks. “Someone has to help you.”
I close the distance, and our mouths are almost touching. “I don’t need your help or your pity, E. Now, get out of my room.”
Ethan cups my shoulders with his big hands. “I’m calling my personal shopper at Boyds whether you like it or not.”
“You’re impossible,” I counter. “Whatever. I don’t see why you’re so insistent on me going out with you and Will tonight. The last thing I want to do is watch skanky women grind on you.”
“Good,” he growls. “Because the only woman I want grinding on me is you.”
I gasp at his comment.
Ethan is making this living situation too hard for me. And we’re only less than twenty-four hours into the arrangement. I won’t last a month with him invading my personal space, all while forcing me to confront my feelings for him.
“You can’t turn this on and off whenever you see fit, Ethan. Will is your best friend, and I’m his sister. He will kill both of us. Don’t act like you like me one minute and hate me the next. Even Will is starting to notice the subtle things you do and say to me. When Will saw your hand on my knee at the Wells Fargo Center, I thought he was going to rip your face off.”
He cups the side of my cheek with his hand and whispers, “He doesn’t have to find out. You’re a big girl now, Mia. You can make your own decisions without your brother there to hold your hand.”
