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“On one condition,” I replied, raising a finger.
“Name it, and it’s yours.”
Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Why did he have to be so damn charming? “We get pineapple on the pizza.”
“Wow. You drive a tough bargain.”
“Is it a deal breaker?” I shouldn’t have been kidding around with him like this. He’d helped me at the dance class, and I’d appreciated that. And he’d been helpful after my ankle injury, but still. This was too confusing.
“Nah, I don’t think there’s anything that could be a deal breaker when it comes to you.” He stuck out his hand.
I grasped it, and electricity traveled up my arm. I tried not to let it show, but I drew my tongue across my lips, slowly. “All right,” I said. “OK, yeah. Pizza. We’ll talk about how we’re going to stay away from each other, right?”
“Yeah, something like that. For Emmy.”
“For Emmy,” I echoed.
Chapter Fourteen
Matt
It was probably the worst mistake I’d made so far this trip, and that was saying a lot. Christ, I’d already slept with her once. Never mind I’d undressed her about a million times in my mind afterward. Gone over every detail of our time together with a fine-tooth comb.
I’d jerked off to her twice since we’d slept together. Not a thing I usually did—fixating on fantasies about a specific woman. Not any damn woman, but her.
Summer sat on the sofa across from me, her foot up and a plate of pizza on her lap. “This is so good,” she said. “Who knew you could get awesome pizza in the Bahamas?”
I snorted. “It’s not like it’s the moon, Summer. Why wouldn’t you be able to get pizza here?”
“I don’t know, sheesh. I haven’t exactly studied Bahamian cuisine,” she replied and stuck out the tip of her tongue at me. Now that she was full up on pizza, her attitude had mellowed a lot.
I sat on the floor, my back against the sofa facing hers, my leg up and my arm draped over my knee. Couldn’t take my damn eyes off her.
Images of her naked ran through my mind on repeat. Over and over again. I wanted nothing more than to undress her, strip off her camisole, carefully, and feast on her breasts. I’d bring more of those breathless moans from her throat.
“—You there?”
“Huh?”
“You were just staring at me. Blankly.”
My mind had been anything but blank. I put my plate on the coffee table then got up and joined her on the sofa, shifting her foot up carefully then resting it in my lap. It was good to touch her.
Summer inhaled, sharply. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice hitching in her throat.
I was hard, and she could likely feel it against her calf. I hadn’t bothered hiding it because goddamn, she had to know what she did to me. This was meant to be a calm rational conversation about how we planned to maintain a cool friendship over the course of the wedding.
It didn’t matter that it was Valentine’s week or that the room service cart had come with two roses in a glass vase. This was platonic. Or that was what the deal was meant to be.
Fuck. I’ll never get rid of this need for her.
Now, that wasn’t true. There was one way I could get rid of my need for her.
“Matt,” she said, in that whisper-soft voice. Her tone was tinged with need. “Matt, we can’t…you know. I’m injured.”
I laughed. “You drive me crazy, Summer. In the best way possible.”
“Yeah, well, ditto, but I’ve still got the whole ankle thing going on. And this is—”
I ran my fingers up her calf toward her thigh, and she sighed, her eyelids fluttering. “I’ll take care of you.”
Her eyes snapped open. “What do you mean?”
“That it doesn’t always have to be about us or me. It can be about you.”
“Huh?”
“Lie back.”
She chewed on the corner of her lip.
“Unless you don’t want us to do anything, Summer. It’s up to you,” I said. “Do you want me? Do you want this?”
“I do. I shouldn’t, but I do.”
“Well, let’s think of it this way,” I said, shifting her leg aside gently and rising from the sofa. I walked across the carpeted floor to the cart and lifted one of the roses from the crystal vase. “We don’t have to make this complicated.”
“That ship’s pretty much sailed, Matt.”
Again, I laughed. “We said ‘friends,’ right?”
“Right.”
“So, let’s be friends. You’re focused on your goals and what you want to do, I’m focused on my company and making the world a safer place.” That and protecting my sister from Cruz. Relax, he’s not here. It’s confirmed that he is not out here.
“That’s quite a hefty goal you have,” Summer said.
“Thanks, but not my point,” I replied. “We don’t want to get emotionally involved with each other, so we won’t. We’ll keep it physical.”
