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He grinned, rocking back on his heels. “Totally did. And I’ll do it some more if you don’t get moving.”
“You can’t just slap my ass.”
“Can if you’re not doing as you’re told. Now, you can stand here and continue to backchat me, and I’ll get to see what that pert ass looks like naked right before I turn it red. Or you can do as you’re told, and go strip off and shower. Then put on some warm clothes. I’ll make you a hot drink.”
“I . . . you . . . who . . . what?”
He shook his head. “Are both your hearing and your short-term memory going?”
“You cannot threaten to spank me! You shouldn’t even be in here!”
“Relax, baby. I’m not going to do anything to hurt you. I’m here to help.”
“You just threatened to spank me! You don’t think that would hurt?”
“Oh, it would hurt. A punishment spanking should always hurt. Unlike one for fun.”
For fun? Spankings could be fun?
Not in her experience.
Although she couldn’t deny that she felt a rush of pleasure at the idea of him touching her.
No. Bad Aston.
Not happening.
“You should leave,” she told him.
“Not until I’m sure you’ve warmed up.”
“I can look after myself.”
“See . . . that’s where we disagree. If you could take good care of yourself, then you wouldn’t have been walking around during a storm.”
As he spoke, he moved closer to her and she found herself backing up. Not because she was truly scared of him . . . but well, what happened if he caught up to her?
Suddenly, she had visions of him looking at more than just her bottom naked. Images of him stripping her and helping her wash herself . . . no, nope.
You are not doing this.
But her body hadn’t quite caught up to her mind because even though she was freezing on the outside, her insides were all warm and gooey.
She wanted Maxim Malone.
It wasn’t a huge revelation or anything. Her body had known since that first meeting. But her mind kept trying to deny it.
“And if you could take care of yourself, then you wouldn’t have been swimming on your own at close to eleven at night where anyone could attack you.”
Um. Okay. Why was he bringing up stuff from five months ago?
“So I’m not going to leave you to take care of yourself. I’m going to stay here until I’m sure you’re warm and dry. You hear me?”
“I could call the cops on you.”
“And tell them what? That some guy is standing in your apartment wanting you to look after yourself? Yeah, Rainbow. They’ll come running.”
Well, he didn’t have to point out the flaws in her plan.
“You can really be a jerk sometimes.”
He just smirked. “Admit it, you like me.”
Holy. Crap.
Did he really know that she liked him?
“Admit it, you want to be friends with me.”
Friends. Right. Of course he meant friends. What else would he want?
Silly Aston.
Dumb. So dumb.
“I need to have a shower. You can really leave. I’ll be fine now.”
“Nope. Friends make sure that their friends don’t catch pneumonia and die. Looks bad on our friend card.”
“Friend card?” she asked.
“Yep. Now, go.”
Motherfudger slapped her on the ass again!
Jerk.
6
As soon as he heard the shower go on, Maxim closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm his raging hard-on.
He wanted her.
His prickly, somewhat uptight, gorgeous neighbor who wouldn’t accept help until you held her down and whacked her over the face with it. Who seemed to have no idea of just how beautiful she was.
He didn’t know the moment it’d all changed. When he’d gone from enjoying their banter and her sass, to wanting to pull her against him and kiss her.
He really needed to know what she tasted like.
Fuck.
This was a stupid idea. Aston wasn’t some hook-up. She wouldn’t just want sex. And the truth was . . . he wasn’t sure that was all he’d want from her either.
But what did he want?
Fuck. This was a dumb idea. He needed to keep his distance from her. He wasn’t looking for anything serious at the moment.
However, that didn’t mean he’d just walk out of there without ensuring she was all right.
They were friends.
Just friends.
Following his vow of being just friends, he decided to put away her meager groceries. He frowned as he took in how little food was in her cupboards. He heated her up one of those instant cups of soup.
The water was still running in the shower, so he thought it was safe for him to snoop.
Not that there was much to snoop at. As he’d suspected, her apartment was painfully tidy. It was like no one lived here. No leftover dishes from breakfast in the sink. No crumbs on the counter. Heck, there wasn’t even any dust.
In fact, there was nothing much of anything. These apartments came furnished with the basics, and it seemed like that was all she had.
