“Oh, okay.” He still sounded worried.
I wrung the hand towel in my hands and said, “It takes me a long time to wash my face because of…the mascara. I’ll be out in just a minute.” I quickly took to scrubbing my face clean of makeup. When I straightened, my reflection was flushed pink and I looked about sixteen. I dug through my makeup bag, muttering, “I’m going to strangle you, Roxanna Leigh Moss.”
I applied eyeliner and mascara and a touch of pink lip gloss and eyed my reflection critically. Much better. And hopefully I didn’t look like a woman who’d just had a seizure for ten minutes in the bathroom.
I can’t go through with this.
Sighing, I shoved the makeup back in the bag. There was too much pressure involved in Operation Seduction and failure wasn’t an option. Now that he was worried about me seizing, I doubted sex was on the top of his mind. It wasn’t on the top of mine anymore; I didn’t exactly feel sexy after all that.
I rushed out of the bathroom and ran straight into Matt’s chest. He caught me to him with a laugh, one arm around my back, the other holding onto a cell phone. “Whoa,” he said.
“Sorry.”
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I didn’t want to bother you, but it’s Roxanna. Again. She said I needed to come and get you. She said it’s an emergency.” He handed me the phone.
I put the phone to my ear and stared at the wall to keep my eyes away from Matt’s. “Yes?”
“What are you doing?” Roxanna asked. “You’re being weird. He’s going to think you’re a freak.”
“Yeah, well, I wonder why.” I pinched my eyes shut and talked myself out of a migraine. My voice strained, I said, “Thank you for your concern, though. I’m fine.”
“Well, are you going to do
IT
or not? Did you wear the black lingerie or the teal set?”
I turned my back on Matt in case he noticed my anxiety to walk down the hall back toward the living room. I didn’t think he could hear Roxanna’s voice through the phone, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I could feel him behind me, following. I veered to the kitchen and he went toward the living room. Ducking around the corner into the kitchen, I hissed, “What is wrong with you?
Seizures?
”
“I couldn’t think of anything else more urgent. A seizure is better than him thinking you were doing a number two…”
My eyes widened. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“What are you doing hiding in the bathroom anyway? That’s weird,” she said. “Are you trying to sabotage Operation Seduction?”
“It’s not happening.” I opened the fridge and rattled around inside so Matt wouldn’t wonder if I were having a seizure in the kitchen, too.
“What do you mean, it’s not happening?”
“It’s. Not. Happening,” I enunciated.
“Why not?”
“I just spent ten minutes talking myself out of a panic attack,” I whispered as I took a beer from the fridge. I twisted off the lid. “It was horrible.”
One big swallow took care of most the contents.
“You are making this into a bigger deal than it has to be. Seriously, relax. It’s just sex.”
But it was
not
just sex. It was hot, hot, hot sex with Matt. “I don’t want to come on too strong or move too fast. He’s not ready for a relationship right now.”
I imagined Roxanna’s eye roll. “He’s not a virgin, Gen. You aren’t corrupting a choir boy.”
“I just really like him,” I whispered, listening to any sound from the living room. The only thing worse than the seizure scare would be for him to walk in on this conversation. “I don’t want to screw things up.”
“Yeah, well, if he gets a taste of you he’ll get over his post-divorce stress disorder,” Roxanna insisted and crazy me actually considered her argument. “
Do
it. You know, bump uglies, the nasty, the—”
Matt appeared, his arms full of takeout containers, and I said too loudly, “Okay!” I smiled and hoped it didn’t look like a grimace. “Thanks for calling, Rox. I’ll talk to you later! And don’t worry about that rash; I’m sure it’ll go away. Bye.”
Matt raised his brows and I shrugged. Payback was the single most satisfying thing in Roxanna’s and my friendship.
“Everything okay?” Matt asked and I nodded, trying for a nonchalant smile.
“Oh yeah, everything’s great.” The empty beer bottle in my hand said otherwise. I’d only been in the kitchen maybe five minutes and I’d chugged it down. Classy. “Would you like a beer?”
“Sure, thanks.” He set the containers down and I opened the fridge to take out two more beers. I felt the heat of his body before I felt his hand on my waist. “Thanks for inviting me over for supper.”
The feel of his hand against the thin material of my dress reminded me of all the things I’d been imaging doing to him when Operation Seduction was still a go.
“You’re the one who supplied the food, and it was wonderful. Thank you.” I turned in his arms and he cupped my hips with his hands, pulling me against him.
“I remembered you said you love sushi,” he said, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of his lips. He hadn’t kissed me yet tonight. “What did Roxanna really want?”
“I think she’s bored.”
“Bored? Is that it?” The corners of his lips twitched with a smile, just enough for the dimples to appear. Almost as if he had an idea what Roxanna’s and my conversation had really been about.
Impossible.
The guy was pretty amazing, but he didn’t have super power hearing.
“She’s helping her cousin out at his PI firm tonight and must be low on work or something.”
“PI firm? Sounds interesting.” He leaned in closer and I held my breath in anticipation.
“If you’re normal, it would be interesting,” I said and licked my lips. He was so close.
“Roxanna isn’t normal?” He asked and bent his head closer, his lips landing on my jaw line, his kiss whisper-soft.
“No, she’s not normal.” I closed my eyes. “She’s nosy and enjoys it too much.”
Which reminded me of the background investigation Roxanna had done on Matt. My eyes flew open. I doubted Matt would find Roxanna’s invasion of privacy funny at all, but it was hard to think when his lips were doing illegal things to my skin. Didn’t he know how he drove me mad? I was officially confused because what this was—what we’d been doing for the last three weeks—I didn’t think really qualified as friendship status. Friends did
not
kiss like this.
And a friend shouldn’t make me feel the way I felt with him. I shivered and clung to his arms, my head tilted slightly back to give him full access to my neck, the skin tingling with every brush of his lips. The man knew his way around a woman’s body and he hadn’t even gotten under my shirt yet.
I wanted to ask him about us, because I needed to know what we were doing. Especially since I was already struggling with the idea of tearing off my clothes and throwing myself at him. I wanted to ask about his ex-wife. I
needed
to know these things. But how could I ask about a woman I wasn’t supposed to even know about?
I swallowed and told myself to pull it together.
You need to be strong, Imogen Mae.
It didn’t matter that the feel of his body against mine, his lips on my skin, made my knees weak. Honestly, had I no self-control at all? I placed my hand against his chest and stepped back. I cleared my throat and said, “I, uh, rented us a movie.”
“Aliens?” He quirked a smile and I took another safe step back. The more distance I put between us the less likely I would cave before finding out some answers.
You have to ask before you’ll ever find out.
Which was a major dilemma—I was too scared to ask either one of the questions I desperately wanted answers to.
You are such a chicken.
“No aliens,” I said with a sheepish smile. “I have a…friend who works at the movie rental place. He insisted this new vampire movie is a must-see.”
Actually, Richard’s words were more like “kick ass” and he wouldn’t let me leave the movie rental store without it in my hands. Since we were practicing this new friend business and since he’d already scouted out a few chicks in the week he’d been employed there, I thought the least I could do was to leave with his movie recommendation. The blurb on the back of the DVD read interesting.
“A must-see,” he said and flashed his dimples. “Well then, I can’t wait.”
I took his hand and led him out of the kitchen. “I don’t know. It’s vampires.”
“Do you think you can handle vampires any better than aliens?” he asked and then laughed when I glowered at him. “Hey, I’m just asking. You said you had nightmares from that movie.”
“I think I was more worried about your whiplash.” I picked up the remote off the coffee table. Matt lounged in the corner of the couch with his legs out, his arm resting on the arm of the chair, and he looked so damn good I had to jerk my gaze away.
“Are there any guns in this movie?” he asked hopefully.
“You are such a guy,” I laughed. “I have no clue. There’re fangs. That’s all I can tell you.”
I sat down beside him, wondering how close was too close. His arm rested on the back of the couch, so if I just leaned in a little to the right…
I could feel his eyes on my face. “I doubt I’ll be paying much attention to the movie.”
Oh hell, what did he mean by that? Were we going to make out like horny teenagers? I cleared my throat, “You, uh, want the lights on or off?”
My voice had grown husky and he’d have to be deaf not to hear it, or guess as to what I was thinking about.
“Off,” he said, his lips so close to mine, and then switched the lamp beside him off.
The room was dark now, only the TV screen to light the living room as movie previews played. I pretended to be interested in what was on the screen, but my mind was on the way the fingers of his hand traced slow circles on my arm.
“Have you heard from your ex?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. Not for a few days.”
“He shouldn’t be calling you at all if he thinks we’re dating,” Matt said, a hard edge to his voice. I thrilled at the idea of him being jealous—horrible, I knew, but thrilled just the same.
“Brent doesn’t think like normal people.” I shrugged. “He’ll eventually get bored with the work he’s putting into it and move on. What about you?” I asked, hoping I sounded uninterested. “Do you have a nightmare ex in your past?”
I held my breath for his answer.
“Not really.”
My heart fell. So Matt wasn’t perfect. Just another guy who lied about his past. The disappointment was so intense, so utterly disheartening that I couldn’t even look at him.
“Oh, well, that’s good,” I murmured.
“I do have an ex, though.”
“You do?” I let out a breath of relief.
“I was married for three years. We were separated for the last year. Our divorce is just now final,” he said and I could tell from his expression he’d misinterpreted my silence for something else. He was quick to add, “Does that bother you?”
My gut reaction was to stand up and do an awkward booty dance, which wasn’t at all the appropriate reaction for a maybe-girlfriend-but-more-than-likely-just-a-friend. Worry creased his brow so I pulled my legs up to sit cross-legged to face him.
“I have to confess something,” I said.
“What?”
“Okay, first of all, I’m not a freak.”
“Okay…”
“And it wasn’t my idea.”
“Should I be worried? This sounds serious.” I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head.
“Roxanna and Lexie were worried…”
“Okay,” he said while I struggled with how to say the rest. There was a hint of a smile on his lips as he waited for me to speak.
I took a deep breath and forged on. “They were worried you might be a psycho. You know, one of those twenty-something single white males who tortures animals or might secretly be a serial killer.” I hurried to take his hands, just in case he bolted before I could finish. “It’s just, they thought it was weird you showed up to my parents’…after our—” I cleared my throat. “—you know, that first night.”
Matt laughed and drew my hand up to his lips, kissing it with our fingers entwined. “Spit it out, Gen. I promise I won’t be very surprised at anything you have to say, given our history.”
I caught my bottom lip with my teeth. Finally, I said, “Okay. Well, they decided to run a background investigation on you.”
I couldn’t read his expression. It was blank. Completely void of any emotion. Nothing. My right eye started twitching.
This is really, really bad.
“So you knew about my divorce?”
I nodded.
“Okay, then.” He said and his lips cracked a smile.
I stared at him, confused. “That’s it?”
He picked up the remote from between my crossed legs. “Saves me the time of explaining the details.”
He pressed Play on the remote, his eyes on the TV.