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“Oh, I don’t know. Nothing wrong with you acting like my parent while you’re strolling around with rubbers stuffed in your pockets. Who is she?”
She slapped both hands on his chest and knocked him back a full step. “Who are you sleeping with now? Is that why you couldn’t be bothered to tell me you were back in town? Too busy for old friends?” She punctuated every question with a shove.
Jake let her push him around, mostly because he had no idea who he was looking at. He’d only been gone five months. How had Nellie turned from a sweet, cheerful, predictable young woman into this sexy-as-fuck Loch Ness monster? Even her wildly coiling hair resembled the sinuous arms of a sea serpent. And she definitely had the swallow-you-whole expression going.
“I’m not sleeping with anyone,” he said. She clenched her jaw and folded her arms across her chest. His too-large jacket dwarfed her, but hell if it didn’t give him a charge to see her wearing his clothes.
“Then why do you have this?” She waved the shiny silver disk through the air.
“It’s not mine,” he began, holding up his hands when she started forward again. In spite of the insanity of the situation, he started to laugh. Damn, she was cute. “Seriously, it’s not. I went to a bachelor party last week and someone shoved one in my pocket, just messing around.”
“While you were getting a lap dance?”
“Hardly. We didn’t go to a strip club. Just hung out at Kelsey’s downtown.”
“And they gave you a condom, just for the heck of it.” Noelle tapped the package against her cheek, frowning. “Sure you’re not seeing anyone?”
“No. I’m not.” Why was he explaining this to her? She wasn’t his girlfriend. That couldn’t happen. She might as well have had an off-limits sign stretched across the glorious twin beauties that had tortured him since college when he’d made the mistake of checking out Nellie in her prom dress. She’d been a knockout then and if anything, had only become more beautiful in the years since.
It wasn’t fair. The one woman who’d stirred his interest—and other parts of him—since Mo wasn’t a possibility. Not because she wasn’t perfect, but because she was. She’d grown up into a smart, stunning woman, exactly like he’d always known she would, and he couldn’t have her.
Fuck, but what if he could? She was acting possessive. Demanding.
Almost jealous.
“Shit,” he muttered, rocking back on his heels. No way. She didn’t want him. They weren’t about that.
Were they?
She frowned. “What?”
He was just going to say it. If she thought he was a complete loser then, well, he’d take her to her house—or to Alexa’s, since she seemed determined to go to the party—and he’d head home to soothe his wounded pride in private. But he had to know.
Jake speared his fingers through his hair and clutched a handful of it against his head, searching for the right words. Surely he had some finesse somewhere.
“Jake?”
“You want me, don’t you, Nellie?” At her stricken gasp, he groaned inside and wished he’d bitten his tongue off instead of asking. At least, not like that. “I mean, you’re interested in me?” Interested sounded better. Less threatening. “You have to be,” he continued, a little desperately.
She stared at him. Why wasn’t she saying anything? Putting him out of his misery?
“You think I want you? Like sexually?”
She spat out the words with such vehemence, he immediately froze. Even his knees locked.
She didn’t want him. Of course not. She probably considered the guy in the brown suit a better candidate for bed boogying.
He shuddered. Damn, a year ago a thought like that wouldn’t have even crossed his mind. He and Maureen had been happy—or so he’d thought. When she’d left him, he’d reassessed a lot of things. Apparently his sense of self hadn’t come out of the situation unscathed.
“Maybe not,” he muttered, his grip tightening on his hair. In a minute, he’d be ripping out a handful. He’d need to dig deep and find some of his missing swagger. “But…is it so out of the realm of possibility?”
She tossed the condom at him. It slapped against his chest before flopping like a dead trout on the snow-encrusted sidewalk. “Yes, I want you. I have for a long time. There, does that make you happy? Now you can feel bad for me next time you’re with your friends.”
He let his hand drop from the back of his skull to hang limply at his side. Shock raced through his veins, firing them with enough heat that his cold skin warmed from the inside out.
She wanted him? She didn’t sound particularly happy about it but he could work with this. Could show her he would never toss aside her feelings the way she apparently expected. He wasn’t that guy. If he was, why would she want him?
His gut clenched. For sex, dolt. She’s attracted to you. Sexually. Not because she thinks you’re a stand-up guy. Your ex turned to the convent rather than spend her life with you.
