Page 112 of Dallas

“Then why talk about it?”

“Because it happened.”

“But we can pretend it didn’t,” she said, her eyes shining. “Please, Jace, can we pretend it didn’t?”

“How?”

“By not talking about it,” she said. “I’m embarrassed.”

“Why are you embarrassed?” He knew whyhewas embarrassed. Because, in his estimation, it was pretty obvious why it had been so easy for him to go from friend to bathtub buddy. It uncovered the fact that he had some serious not-so-latent lust where she was concerned.

“Because I...climbed all over you like a...hoochie mama.”

He laughed, in spite of the situation and his own horror at it; he just couldn’t help it. “Sam, that wasn’t what I thought about you.”

“Well, gosh, I don’t know what you thought. I attacked you. I’m horrified. I literally have no excuse except...obviously—” she took a breath “—obviously I’m attracted to you, but the thing is, it’s not really worth doing anything about.”

He felt like he’d been sucker punched. “You’re attracted to me?”

“No, Jace, I think you’re a flipping ogre, that’s why the minute you touched me I had a violent orgasm.”

Heat streaked over his skin and his face got hot, not from embarrassment but from that same dangerous arousal that had overtaken common sense yesterday. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to think of something to say.

“Obviously it’s mutual,” he said. “I sort of felt likeIattacked you.”

“I think I embedded a fingernail in your shoulder.”

“I knew you...liked it,” he said. “But I felt like I must have taken advantage of you and...”

“No. I felt like I jumped you. But it looks like we both sort of feel like the sexual predator and neither of us feel...preyed upon, so that’s...good. And now we can move on. Hopefully we’re both a little less...hair trigger now.”

He laughed because the alternative was to say:no, no I’m not, if you touched me right now I’d come on contact.

“I know we avoid talking about this stuff, but it’s been...a while for me. Since before the bakery. Since David...so...a long time.”

“Right,” he said, not sure he liked the explaining-it-away thing she was doing. But what was the other option? There wasn’t one. Not really. The other option was to say it meant something. But...he didn’t think he could have it mean something. He was sure she didn’t want it to mean anything.

Burning attraction to your best friend only worked if you were also hopelessly in love with them. Which he was not.

And she definitely wasn’t.

They were just, apparently, mutually hot for each other and in a mutual dry spell. So that explained things. That was the perk of explaining things away, he guessed.

“It’s been a while for me too.” Not that long, but a few months...like...eight now that he thought about it, which was actually a very long time.

“So see? There. Glad we talked.” She patted his arm, then drew back quickly. “This was good. Now we can...be normal.”

“As normal as we are.”

“Yeah, well, normal for us. It will be enough.” She smiled, but the smile still rang false. He smiled back, and he knew his was fake. “I’ll make dinner.”

“Seriously, you don’t have to.”

“Hey, I want to. I like this. I like being here with you.”

The silence stretched between them, not really awkward but full. Of desire on his end, questions. A deep ache that he couldn’t quite define.He wanted more. He wanted something else. Right in that moment he felt like he might want it all.

But there was a reason he was thirty and not anywhere close to being married. He liked his control too much. He liked his space the way he liked it too much.

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