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His promise from the other night echoes in my mind.I promise I’ll be good. No trying to date you. No fuzzy feelings. I’ll keep my hands to myself.That’s when I agreed to be friends.
The corner of his mouth turns up and he flexes his bicep. “I can lift heavy things,” he grins, trying to persuade me.Why does he have to be so ridiculously charming?“Honestly, Sierra. I have no plans. I’d like to help you.”
Friends help each other all the time. We wouldn’t be doing anything wrong.
“Okay,” I say, before I can find an excuse to turn him down.
His grin turns into a full-blown smile. Charming. Confident. I’m guessing that Grayson doesn’t hear the word no very often. Wasting no time, he reaches for my board, and I let him carry it.
“I should warn you, Sierra, in the interest of making this friendship thing work. If we’re going to be hanging out, it’s probably going to be hard for you not to stare at my muscles.” He grins, and grips my board a little tighter, flexing his bicep.
“Friends, Grayson,” I say, in my bestbehave yourselfvoice. “Do I have to remind you that friends don’t check each other out?”
“So does that mean I can’t tell you how hot you look right now in just a bikini and that shirt?”
This man. What am I going to do with him? Blushing, I say, “No, you cannot.”
“Got it. Just checking,” he says with a wink.
I roll my eyes, but his words thrum though me. Grayson just called me hot.
And I wouldn’t mind hearing him do it again.
* * *
My heart has been thumping eversince Grayson walked into my house. What was I thinking, agreeing to his offer of help? It’s not going to be easy having him this close to me looking like… that.
His T-shirt is pulled tight across his shoulders, clinging to his sculpted body. His biceps flex as he tears strips of wallpaper from the bathroom walls.
For the life of me I can’t look away. I eye him for another quick moment before he catches me staring. The man is a specimen—an inch or so over 6 feet, carved jaw, smooth olive skin, an athlete’s body. If I stand here any longer, I’m going to need a cold shower because all I can think about is getting him out of his clothes.
I groan inwardly. This is going to test every single ounce of my willpower, knowing what he looks like under that T and those shorts, but not being able to touch him.
I need to get to a place where I can be around Grayson and not have the urge to climb him like a tree. I can’t lurk in hallways lusting after him like I’m doing right now.
“I got you something cold to drink,” I say, stepping into the bathroom with two glasses of iced tea in my hands.
Grayson thanks me, reaching for a glass. He takes a long sip, his Adam’s apple bobbing. My attention locks in on the man, mesmerized by him doing something as simple as drinking from a damn glass. I guess if I can’t put my hands on him, I can at least look.
He sets the glass on the counter, smiling an appreciative grin, acting all casual and breezy like being around me is no big deal. He’s been this way since he got here. Maybe being friends really is all he wants. It’s probably just me who’s having these silly fantasies.
Then he lifts the hem of his shirt to wipe his lips, revealing the hard muscles of his abdomen; the grooves and lines of his six-pack above the light blond trail of hair leading into his shorts.
The flutter inside my chest doubles in intensity, then his smooth voice brings me back to my senses. “Have you heard from your brother today?”
I blink. It’s a stark reminder of why I need to stop these fantasies. “No. I missed his call while I was out for my paddle.”
“Does he know about your car, or that I drove you home from the ballpark?”
My stomach clenches. “No, not yet.”
I swallow a gulp of my iced tea, nervous at the thought of telling my brother that I’ve been spending time with Grayson. It feels like I’m keeping a big secret from Jake, like I’m being dishonest. But I don’t want to stop. Something about being around him excites me in a way I haven’t felt before.
“If I’m lucky, maybe he’ll let me live when he finds out I’m here with you,” Grayson jokes.
“Um, I’d say that’s wishful thinking on your part.”
He laughs, then rubs a hand over his flat stomach. “What time is it? We’ve been at this for a while.”
