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I took in his profile, the half of his face nearest me illuminated only by the ambient light from the dash. “Sometimes.”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re kind of mean?” The question might have hurt were it not for the corners of his lips tipping up. The little baby smile highlighted the cut of his jaw, and I remembered with sharp clarity what it felt like to touch him.
“I’ve been told that my entire life.” I bit my lower lip, taking in his face again. Lear had a good body, but he was handsome, even more so when the cocky swagger front he put up crumbled. I had the most nagging urge to reach for his thigh. The few times I’d touched him, there’d been a spark between us, and I still felt the ghost of his touch up my back from when he’d helped with my dress. “I can be nice sometimes, though.”
His expression was one of surprise before adjusting back to aloof, which made me want to make him lose control a bit. “I don’t know if I believe that.”
I shrugged and looked back out the window, letting the familiar songs fromHamiltoncomfort me as the warm air on my feet kept the chill away. “Maybe that’s for the best.”
“Probably,” he said.
The idea of a no-strings thing with him was ridiculous. Not only did we work together, but he was my mentor’s friend. Still, when he agreed, my chest squeezed.Lear Campbell could have been my new Corey minus the struggling YouTube channel.I studied his profile and imagined he would be good at uncomplicated, that he might be down for something fun. I needed to think through the idea and decide if it was worth it. I could be nice sometimes, but I was rarely impulsive. The rest of the drive, I weighed out pros and cons in my head.
Chapter 16
Lear
I WAS ALMOSTat my place across town after dropping RJ at her apartment when I heard the buzzing from the floor in front of the passenger seat. The rain pounded on my window and lightning flashed across the sky.This fucking day will never end.After spending most of the drive in awkward silence, I’d dropped off RJ at her place, watching with far too much interest as she sprinted from the car to her door, holding my umbrella in one hand and her clothes and bag in the other. She lived in a four-story apartment building in a nice area of town and had waved awkwardly once she got inside the security door. I would have waited for anyone to get in safely, but I wouldn’t have watched anyone else’s body so closely.
I felt around on the floor and found her phone almost immediately where it rested halfway under the seat. I let out a slow sigh while paused at the red light with my blinker flashing, ready to make an illegal U-turn to drive back across town and pretend I didn’t want to devour this woman.
I tapped the button to buzz her unit when I arrived, lamenting for the first time in my life the loss of the landline phone.
“Hello?”
“RJ, it’s Lear. You left your phone in my car.” I could hardly hearher with the rain falling in sheets behind me. With all my skills in preparation and planning, I hadn’t thought to grab another umbrella from the back of my SUV, and I’d ended up waterlogged from the quick jog to her door.
“Dammit,” she muttered. “I just got out of the shower. Can I buzz you up? I’m in 3F.”
I shook some of the water off my shirt as I walked down her hall. The building was completely quiet—it was nearing midnight—and it looked expensive. Classy and maybe a little pretentious in the way I always thought of RJ. I knocked on her door, brushing the dripping water off my face.
“Hey,” she said, eyes widening at my appearance. “Oh, God. Did you get soaked running in here?”
I shrugged and pulled her phone from my pocket, trying desperately not to let my eyes roam over her body wrapped in a thin white robe. I was sure that was the last thing she wanted. “No big deal.”
Our fingers grazed when she took it. “Come in. I’ll get you a towel. It’s the least I can do.” RJ hustled to a closet in the hall and returned, holding a fluffy red towel to her chest. I should have been taking in her legs or the gap in her robe that showed a sliver of skin leading down from her neck, but my attention was drawn to her bare feet. It was so casual, so comfortable to see her like this in her home.
“Here,” she said, handing it over. “Thanks for bringing my phone back. I felt so gross once I got inside, I just went straight to the shower.”
I rubbed the towel over my head and down my arms, feeling her eyes on me. “Thanks,” I said, handing it back.
She smiled, the unguarded smile I’d only seen once or twice. “I told you I can be nice.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t mean to stare at her body. The entire elevator ride up, I’d reminded myself to drop the phone, turn around, andleave, but I found myself gazing at her legs and then following the lines of her robe.
She coughed, drawing my attention up.
“God. Sorry.” My face heated, and I glanced away. “I didn’t mean to be a jackass.”
“You’re always a jackass,” she said, taking a half step forward and tossing the towel aside.
I felt the grin tip my lips up. “What was that about being nice?”
RJ crossed her arms over her chest, which really just made her breasts more pronounced. “You were imagining me naked.”
“Youarepractically naked.”
Her eyes were narrowed, but then her face broke into the most unexpected laugh. She’d looked like a powerhouse with her arms crossed. Even in the robe, she was formidable. And then she laughed, and she still looked like a powerhouse, but in the most captivating way. I was mesmerized. “So, my dream...”
