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I cock my head and look at him. “But when—”
He laughs softly. “Go take a shower. I don’t like cold pizza.”
Without waiting for an answer, he walks out of the room and softly closes the door behind him, leaving me there with a torrent of conflicted feelings. On the one hand, I’m thrilled he doesn’t have a girlfriend. On the other hand, why would he stock his bathroom with things for me?
A slow smile stretches across my lips as I think about the possibilities, the most obvious of which is that contrary to what I thought, he's always known my name… and has been thinking about me. My belly turning in my stomach and filling with warmth, I walk into the bathroom to take a shower.
After luxuriating beneath the piping hot water with those amazing products, I finally relent to the ticking of the clock and hop out. The pizza should be here soon so I throw on a pair of black yoga pants and a white t-shirt that bears an image taken from Bosch’s famous painting,“The Garden of Earthly Delights.”As I’m pulling on my clothes though, I get a strange feeling. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end, my skin breaks out in cold goosebumps, and I feel an almost physical pressure pressing down on me.
As if she can sense my shift in mood, Daisy raises her big head and starts to growl low in her belly. It’s not me she’s looking at, though. I follow her gaze and through the window, I see a guy on the roof across the way staring at me. It’s full dusk out so I can’t see more than a silhouette, but there’s no question in my mind that he’s been watching me this whole time. My skin crawling and my belly churning with disgust, I rush to the window and pull the curtains.
My first instinct is to run out and tell Lane what happened. But when I peek through the edge of the curtains again, I see the man is gone and know it won’t do any good. Daisy cocks her head at me as I put a hand to my chest and try to slow my pounding heart.
It sounds horribly dramatic, but I can’t shake the crawling feeling of disgust or the feeling of violation having somebody watch me while I dress gives me. I never thought to worry about checking it since the window in the bedroom is higher than the other windows in the building. I never thought somebody would be up on the roof peeping at me.
“I guess I won’t make that mistake again,” I mumble.
Taking a couple of beats, I take a deep breath to slow my racing heart and calm myself down. Daisy gets off the bed and comes over to me, leaning heavily against my legs. Reaching down, I idly stroke the big dog’s head and take a moment to gather myself. I hear the muffled sound of the front door closing and know the pizza is here, so I take another breath, let it out, and head out of the bedroom, deciding to not tell Lane about it.
Instead, I decide to put all my energy into enjoying my evening with the most gorgeous man I’ve ever known. The man I’ve crushed on like, forever. The man who is apparently single. My heart flutters inside of me again as I make my way out to the living room.
“Hey,” he says. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted to drink. But grab anything you want out of the refrigerator. I’ve got everything else down here.”
“Thank you,” I say with a silly little smile on my lips.
I grab a soda from the refrigerator then sit down beside him on the couch. His frame is massive, completely dwarfing mine. Probably about six-four and made of solid muscle, just sitting next to him makes me feel so small and so dainty. His size is overwhelming and, at the same time, completely intoxicating. He glances over at me and those sparkling emerald eyes make me draw a sharp breath as my heart turns a somersault inside of me. I just want to reach out and run my hands through that soft sandy brown hair, pull him to me, and feel that taut, toned body pressed to mine.
On the coffee table in front of us sit two pizzas—pan style, which is my favorite. Mine has mushrooms and onion and his has every kind of meat known to man piled on top. It's a man's pizza if I ever saw one.
“No veggies for you, huh?” I tease.
“That’s the beauty of being a grownup. I don’t have to eat veggies if I don’t want to.”
“Naughty boy.”
With that crooked grin he flashes me along with that gleam in his eyes, Lane sets my insides on fire once more and I feel like I’m soaking through my panties. I clear my throat and look away, my cheeks flushing with warmth again as the air around us crackles with the tension of… expectation? Anticipation? Desire? Whatever it is, this seems like it’s getting to be a normal reaction to being as close to him as I am.
“So… what are we watching?” I ask just to break the tension.
“Hockey,” he replies. “Ever been to a game?”
I shake my head. “I’ve never even watched one on T,” I admit. “But it’s fast. And violent. It looks pretty fun actually.”
He laughs. “Well, I guess I’ll have to take you to a game.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he says with a nod.
“I’d like that.”
We serve up our pizza then sit back, and I spend the rest of the evening talking with Lane and getting to know him better. He’s definitely the gruff and crabby man he seems to be. But there’s more to him. He’s an onion with a lot of different layers. And though I’m only getting to see mere glimpses of them, it’s enough to keep me incredibly intrigued and wanting to know more.
All in all, although he might not see it the same way, I have to say, this is probably the best first date I’ve ever had.
3
LANE
