AllFreeNovel
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“That was an option?”
“Oh, thank God,” I say under my breath. Not that I would necessarily mind Finn seeing me partially naked, but I’d rather it be becausehewanted to get my clothes off me. I do have my pride.
“Do you have a side profession I don’t know about?”
I give him a side-eye. “No,” I say firmly. “I’ve just been known to dance my way out of my clothes when I’m drunk. Now, on to more important matters. Is my dress okay and how did I get out of it?”
“Your dress—”
“Step by step please.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
I think about it, the evening growing clearer as I concentrate. “I do remember agreeing to come home with you.” I peek at him. “Becauseyou promised to help with my dress.” I reach up to twist my hair in my finger and find it’s still in a chignon. A messy one, I imagine. “We came inside and…and went into the laundry room. You gave me a clean shirt to put on, left the room, and I got undressed.” I let out a breath. Digging into my memory bank is exhausting.
“That’s all I’ve got,” I finish.
“That’s because you fell asleep literally standing up. I carried you up here and tucked you in. End of story.”
“I can’t believe I don’t remember that. And hold up. You carried me? Finn! You’re not supposed to be lifting something as heavy as me.”
“It wasn’t a problem.”
If he’s hurt himself because of me I will add Oreos to his smoothie or something. I get up on my knees so I can take a good look at him.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“Checking you out. Your shoulders look even. I don’t see any bump on your injured side.” I gently touch the area that was fractured. “Does that hurt?”
“If I say yes, will you kiss it to make it better?”
My heart rate gains momentum as we stare at each other. I’m afraid to move. Half of me wants to jump off the bed and keep as far away as possible from him. The other half, though, wants to climb into his lap and kiss every single part of him better. He’s teasing, but the mischievous glint in his eye, like this is a dare he hopes I take, reminds me of the underlying attraction between us.
I pick option number three and hold my position on the middle of the bed. “If I say yes, will you agree to whatever social media scheme I have up my sleeve for today?” I don’t have a plan for today, but it was the first thing to pop into my head and being crazy good at my job, I can think of something on the fly.
His brows arch in retaliation.Game on.“If I say yes, will you show me your five favorite pictures onyourInstagram page and tell me why?”
That isn’t at all something I expected him to ask. I can’t keep the smile off my face. In my profession, it’s always about my clients. It feels nice to have interest in me even though I previously told Finn he didn’t get to automatically know about my life. “If I say yes, will you share a brownie banana split with me?”
He doesn’t miss a beat and fires back, “If I say yes, will you play Operation with me?”
Again, he’s surprised me. I think he means the game I played as a kid. “You want to play doctor with me?”
“I do have an outstanding bedside manner.”
“I guess you did bring me aspirin.”
“In all honesty, it helps with hand-eye coordination so I include it as part of my off-season routine. The problem is, no one likes to play it with me.”
“You do know you could play it by yourself, right?”
“It’s better with someone else.”
“Meaning you like the competition,” I state. Finn plays to win, every single time.
We stare into each other’s eyes like perhaps we’re in the middle of a competition right now. It is, sort of, but it’s one with no loser, this exchange of things we’d like from each other fun for both of us. I lean forward so I’m on all fours and press a kiss to his collarbone through his shirt, conceding to this man because I want to.
Before I can back away, he catches my chin with his thumb and finger, tilts my face up to his. A foot, maybe less, separates our noses. My blood catches fire waiting for him to make another move. Slowly, he inches forward, giving me time to pull free. Little does he know, the house could be falling down around us and I wouldn’t move, the tug toward him on some cosmic level I’m powerless to ignore.
