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Oh, come on. Don’t act so surprised. You knew this attraction was mutual.
Okay, so she did.
She remembered how he’d looked at her that day in his truck on the way to Clint’s, that gleam in his eyes. She wasn’t experienced when it came to men—Troy was the only man she’d been out with—but she certainly knew what attraction was. And some part of her had known it was mutual.
That’s why you followed him out of the Rose—don’t lie.
She wished she could say she’d followed him because she was tired of him being rude to her and she was determined to find out why, but that wasn’t the whole truth.
She’d followed him because some part of her hadn’t been able to leave him alone.
Now he stood in the middle of the little living area, the windows at his back, tall, dark, and brooding in his black T-shirt and jeans. The light was behind him, throwing his face into shadow, but his eyes gleamed.
He was staring so fiercely at her, she felt as if she might go up in flames.
She swallowed, her mouth dry, her face hot.
The silence between them gathered weight, pulling tight, and she tried desperately to think of something to say, because she had to say something.
“Okay,” she forced out at last.
Finn pushed his hands into his pockets. “You should leave.”
She should. She should get back down those stairs and get back to the Rose. Get back to her friends since she wasn’t here for this.
She was here for fun and easy and simple, not difficult and hard and complicated.
Yet she didn’t move.
What are you doing? He told you to leave, so leave.
But something wouldn’t let her.
He wanted her. That’s what he’d said—that’s what the problem was. He wanted her and obviously it wasn’t a good thing.
“Why…” she began, then cleared her throat and started again. “Why is that a problem?”
He muttered a curse under his breath. “Seriously? Why do you think? Nothing’s going to happen between us, Beth.”
Her stomach lurched and it wasn’t with relief.
“That still doesn’t tell me why you’re being such a grumpy ass to me.”
He was silent a moment, then he let out a breath and glanced away. “Because I’ve been trying to fight it and it’s not working and I haven’t been handling that well.” His jaw tightened and he glanced back. “I’m sorry. I’ll pull it together, okay? Give me tonight to handle it, and tomorrow I swear I’ll start being less of a dick to you.”
Yet something was shifting around inside her, a kind of electricity, hot and crackling, along with a burst of what could only be satisfaction. Which didn’t make any sense because she couldn’t be happy that he wanted her, surely. Especially when they weren’t going to be doing anything about it.
Why not?
The thought echoed in her head.
She’d wanted easy and fun, and Finn was not either of those things. Yet…resisting their attraction was only making things difficult between them. He was unhappy about it and it was definitely getting in the way of them being friends.
So maybe it was the resisting that was hard. And the easy thing would be to…do something about it. They could have sex, get this out of the way, and then go on with the business of being friends.
It was only sex. And sex was pleasant and made you feel good, but it wasn’t anything major if you didn’t want it to be.
Also, she couldn’t forget that she was here to create a bright, new, happy life for herself, to be different from the Beth she’d been in Deep River.
