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“Please?” His own voice was low, almost a bit pleading, because he didn’t think he could bear to hear her say no to him. “It’ll just be for a few minutes.”
She stood firm for a few more seconds, and then her stiff shoulders and cautious body language eased as she stepped aside and widened the door for him to enter. He did, gratefully, and didn’t stop until they were in her living room and he was facing her. She was dressed for an evening in, wearing a comfortable pair of drawstring sweatpants with a simple T-shirt and her hair piled up on her head. She’d stuck a pencil through the mass to hold it in place, and all he could think was that her outfit was not one meant for seduction, and she’d probably sent Grant on his way without him getting lucky for the night.
And yeah, that possibility pleased Dylan immensely.
Serena stared at him expectantly, and he cleared his throat and rerouted his thoughts to the reason he was there.
“The Boyfriend Experience app is done,” he told her, retrieving his cell phone from his back pocket to show her the final interface. “It took me forever to locate that last glitch, but I finally fixed it and now we’re getting ready to push the app into beta testing. I wanted you to know, since this was your idea as much as mine.”
At that news, her eyes lit up with the excitement he’d been craving, and his heart raced when he saw glimpses of Serena, the woman who’d always been his best friend. The one person he’d shared everything with, who made him whole and complete, and it felt so fucking good to see that lighthearted, joyful girl reappear in front of him again when he thought he might have lost her for good.
Optimism filled Dylan as he went through the app with Serena, covering all the new features and showing her how it all worked and integrated. He loved her enthusiasm as she asked questions, moving closer and closer to his side to see his phone screen more clearly. When he was done with the demonstration, she looked up at him with an unguarded, genuinely happy smile that hit him like pure sunshine that chased away the cloud of gloom that had been hovering over him for weeks.
Of its own accord, his gaze lowered to her mouth, and suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, everything shifted and changed between them, and it was as though both of them had been transported back to that night in Vegas, to the part where they’d surrendered to the kind of intense passion and desire he’d never experienced with any other woman.
The thick, undeniable awareness seemed to draw them together like a magnet. Her lips parted as she stared into his eyes as if hypnotized by the irresisti
ble pull between them, her breathing slowing, deepening, while her irises darkened to midnight blue.
Temptation beckoned to him. “Serena,” he whispered, that ache in his chest spreading to every limb in his body, making him weak with longing.
The guttural, almost helpless tone to his voice seemed to penetrate her haze, and she gave her head a stern shake as though to clear it, then took a safe step back as if she didn’t trust him, or even herself.
She nervously wiped her hands down the front of her sweatpants and tried to gather her composure, as well as put up that goddamn wall between them again. “I’m really glad you figured out the problem with the app,” she said, as if she was talking to a business associate instead of a guy she’d known her entire life. “It’s great, by the way. If I was single, I’d use it.”
The bland, almost aloof tone of her voice scraped along his nerves. Oh, yeah, she was totally scrambling to get her emotions back under control, while he wanted to obliterate her suddenly cool, detached demeanor.
“What do you mean, if you were single?”
She shrugged. “Well, I’m dating someone, as you already know.”
“Oh, you mean Coffee Bean Guy?”
She blinked in startled surprise at the nickname he’d given her current beau, but didn’t crack a smile like she normally would have. “Yeah, that would be him. His name is Grant, by the way.”
“I know what his name is, I just prefer Coffee Bean Guy.” It was fitting, considering he was a barista at an espresso place. “Is it serious with him?”
The question came out before he could stop it, but he had to know, because the thought of some other man completely and totally replacing him in Serena’s life made Dylan more than a little insane. Why he hadn’t realized that before now was beyond him. That her getting everything she wanted, a man with whom she could have everything she desired, meant he would lose the bond he had with her.
Her chin lifted, and her eyes sparked with stubborn defiance. “It’s serious enough. Not that it should make any difference to you.”
But it did make a difference. More than it should and in ways he didn’t even know how to express because he wasn’t a guy who’d ever used those flowery, emotional words that females always seemed to want and need to hear. But this conversation, and Serena’s insinuation that things were perfectly awesome and amazing with Grant, was chafing him raw. It was also stirring up some major possessiveness that was provoking him to do stupid shit.
Like ask this next question . . . “Have you had sex with him yet?”
She sucked in an affronted breath, which was ridiculous because she never used to have an issue discussing those things with him. “That’s none of your business.”
That certainly wasn’t a yes, and her big, round, blue eyes told him that she was getting ready to fib if she needed to. He took a slow, purposeful step toward her, and instead of annoyance or anger, he saw her eyes flare with desire, which clearly wasn’t for Coffee Bean Guy because he was nowhere in sight.
“Have you had sex with him yet?” Dylan asked, softer now, but no less challenging as he took the final step that put him toe-to-toe with her.
She tipped her head back to look up at him. “It’s none of your business,” she reiterated, her voice wavering, while her gaze shimmered with an arousing heat that provided him with the truth that he sought.
He smiled triumphantly. “You haven’t slept with him yet.”
She didn’t back off or admit defeat. “How do you know that?”
He let his gaze drift down, taking in the hard nipples poking against her T-shirt . . . the pulse beating wildly at the base of her throat . . . her flushed face . . . and those eyes that were like a window into her soul and told him everything he needed to know.
