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Twelve
“I’m going to need more convincing.”
The unfiltered sarcasm slipped from Sarah’s mouth. Dean’s candid offer—a seemingly genuine expression of interest in her beyond the physical—twigged something. Something she wasn’t sure she should explore.
“Before you bumped into me, I saw how absorbed you were in your own world—or should I say, problems.” His eyes seemed to darken a shade, as though he refused to let her wriggle out of this exchange so easily. “You looked sad, Sarah.”
She tore her attention from him and onto the empty street with its few houses and golden long grass as far as the eye could see. “I wasn’t—”
“And for a moment there, when we left together, you weren’t.” His stare zeroed in on hers, resolute, as though his future truly hung on getting her to agree with his interpretation of events. “In our own twisted way, we got along and you know it.”
Her heart pumped a little harder. His opening up to her did feel good. Too damn good. But she’d been fooled by good before. “We got along, that’s all, and only because I thought you’d never show your face in town again.”
His gaze hardened and he dipped his chin, his lowered stare an unmissable warning.
“No, no, no.” She waved a finger at him. She wasn’t finished. “And then when you did show your face again, you tried to hook up with Ally.”
He rocked back and shot out a dry laugh, ripping his attention from her and up to the heavens. “You’re still thinking about that, huh?”
She gave a forced shrug. “No, not really. You’re free to do whatever you want. I’m just letting you know my eyes and ears are fully functional, and I’m not as naive as you seem to think.”
He crossed his arms, which only made not checking out his biceps near impossible, so she focused on his flat stare instead. “Right.”
His flat tone wasn’t any better, so she added, “Look, I picked you that night because I wasn’t interested in anything complicated—but here you are, complicating things all the same.”
She waited a beat and got nothing from him, so shook her head and spun away.
“I’m not here to complicate things.” His sharp tone followed her as she stormed down the road, the earth crunching beneath each of his hurried steps.
“But you want more.” She refused to look at him and continued her escape. “It was only supposed to be one night, Dean. One night.”
For the longest time, he didn’t speak. Just power-walked alongside her, his movements rigid in her peripheral vision. His silence provided enough of an answer, and she mumbled what she hoped would be their final words on the matter. “Exactly.”
His breaths panted beside her, and she wondered whether the exertion of keeping up wore him down, or perhaps something else. Her rejection. His seeming desperation to convince her he was more than bad news…
“Let me change your mind.”
She barked out a laugh.
Did this guy ever quit? Any minute now she’d pick up speed and leave him in her literal dust. For someone who claimed to be not much of a talker, and even though she’d gotten that impression early on, he found far too many words around her.
His hand landed on her shoulder, gesturing for her to stop, to turn and speak to him directly. She shook him off, though even that didn’t dissuade him. “Listen, you were happy that night. So was I. What’s so complicated about that?”
A dull ache spread though her jaw, one that came from unknowingly clenching her teeth together. She used that clenching to her advantage and said nothing at all.
But even as she took another step, he stepped in front of her, blocking her path with his body, her feet nearly skidding on the rocky earth to keep from yet another collision with his chest. “Not yet. I want to ask one more question.”
She huffed out a hard breath, making her annoyance known. “Fine. Ask.”
His expression remained still and altogether non-threatening, though a bit too serious for someone who seemed to enjoy pestering her. “Are you attracted to me?”
Her brows strained together, and her weight shifted involuntarily back. “Sure, we established that the other night, but if you haven’t noticed, our little moment in the sun is over.”
The tension around his eyes eased, a subtle light seeming to spark at the back of his irises, as though he acknowledged only part of what she’d said. The part about her being attracted to him.
His strong hand grasped her elbow, and he pulled her in. Before she could follow what was happening, his lips hovered close to hers. And his body. Oh, his body brought about all the wrong memories. Or maybe they were the right ones, just at the wrong time. All that firm strength, the solid plane of his chest leading down to his defined abs, his bare arms rubbing hers…
Everything about him set her on fire, and nothing about him reminded her of any man she’d ever touched. He obliterated them all. Even Blaine. And just like their night together, his scorching presence stole every one of her thoughts and cares.
