Page 35 of The Hookup
The bathroom door opened and she quickly smoothed down her hair, then stepped out into the living room, putting on a brave face as if it were her battle gear. Awkwardness stretched out into the next few moments, and she wasn’t sure what to say to him.
He cleared his throat, and she saw his car keys in his hand. They looked at one another for a few seconds, and she found herself unable to speak. Her throat was parched, the moisture drying up and making her swallow. She now found herself in a situation that was alien even to her, and she’d been in plenty of scenarios that had only lasted one night.
“It’s late. I should go,” he said finally.
She nodded, trying to work out what to say, how to be, what to do. With the others, things had never been this awkward, but this was different. Luke was different. He was unreachable, almost. He'd used her, and now he was set to go. The others, they had stayed around. Some had stayed the night and stayed for breakfast, some had stayed for an hour or so. It hadn’t only been sex. But this was exactly how it felt to her, with this man. He seemed to be in a rush to leave. With him there was no conversation, no finding out about him, no discussion. No lying in bed, no holding one another.
“I didn't think it would be like this,” she blurted out, unable to hold back.
“Like what?” he asked, not even blinking.
He had to be freaking kidding her. The sex had been one-sided, and now he was leaving? “So fast.”
“I told you,” he said, slowly, his knuckles tightening as he gripped the car keys. “I don’t do all that romancing stuff. I don’t stay the night, if that’s what you were expecting.”
That wasn’t quite it. He didn’t seem to understand. He hadn’t even made her come. Folding her arms, she rubbed the sides, suddenly feeling cold, unwanted and used. “Maybe you should get a call-girl.”
“Why the hell would you say that?” His forehead puckered into ugly little ripples. “Are you going to make a thing of this? I told you upfront, I don’t do romance or relationships. I warned you.”
He had. Numerous times. She’d been the one who hadn’t heeded it. But she wasn’t going to let him get away with it so easily. “There was nothing in it for me.”
She heard his audible sigh. Of irritation, it sounded like. “I’m sorry,” he ground out. “I—didn’t realize. It won’t happen again.”
Again?
Staring at him, standing across from her, still looking so handsome, she suddenly felt a twinge of regret that she’d called him out on it. This man was everything she could ever want in a boyfriend; rich and handsome, and enough of an enigma to make her curious. There was more than a hint of trouble beneath that beautiful façade. Unlike Dean, Luke was a closed book, and she, being a greedy reader, wasn’t about to let him slip through her fingers until she got to the end.
She bit her lower lip, staring back silently, as she tried to hold herself together. His scent clung to her needy skin, imprinting itself on her body. “Unless you want it to,” he said, as an afterthought, or perhaps because he could read her mind. Perhaps because he knew of the effect he had on women. “The sex, I mean. It depends on you, on whether you want to get together again…or not.” She didn’t know how to answer that, so she said nothing as he walked up to her. Sliding his hands back into his trousers, he looked down at her, and even though they weren’t standing too close, she could feel the heat from his body—an electric buzz, something sharp and potent rolled off him and electrified the nerve endings inside her.
“But, you’re right,” he continued, “It shouldn’t have happened like that. I shouldn’t have been so greedy. It’s not my fault I couldn’t control myself because you’re so goddamn sexy.”
Freaking hell. He was saying all the right things. A charmer, like Xavier, almost, but better. In her books he was better, and sexier. He was perfection, if a little damaged, and hard-to-fathom, and she was a mass of contradictions trying to fight the feelings his words evoked. She swallowed, as arousal stirred deep inside her. Suddenly, she wanted more of him; his fingers, his mouth and his cock, against her, and inside her. “Great,” she said, managing to say something. “Blame me, why don’t you?”
His brows pushed together, making her focus on the vertical line between them. “It’s a compliment. It’s been a while since I …fucked.” His words slapped into her, but she somehow managed to stay upright.
Fucked?
Technically, that described what they’d done, but to hear him say it just sounded so demeaning.
Walk away.
Whispered warnings from her gut rose up. As beautiful as he was, as sexy and as gorgeous as he seemed on the outside, Luke Hunter was going to bring a level of mass of complication into her life, if she let him. She didn’t need this.
But she ignored her gut instinct. “You have a real way of making a woman feel special.”
“I have rules, Kay, and I hinted at them before we fucked.”
She winced, hearing him say the word again. “Can you…” she hesitated, not liking the way he threw that word around. “Can you stop saying that? I get it. Igetthat you’re making a big deal about notmaking loveto me. I get that it’s justfuckingto you.”
“It’s not to you?” he asked, his eyes serious.
“That’s all it is to me, too, but I don’t need you to keep going on about it.”
“Good, because that’s all I can offer. Besides, you made out that you could handle it, otherwise I would never have agreed to come to your apartment.”
“Icanhandle it. Don’t you worry about that. You and I aren’t so different in that respect.”
“There are things I don’t do,” he said, gazing at her intently.
