Page 35 of Austin
You’re not going to figure her out. You don’t need to figure her out.
He didn’t. Any more than she needed to figure him out—although he was pretty much an open book. Bull rider. Drifter. Lover of a good time.
Now he was a bull rider who’d given her something of a gift—a few days in which she didn’t really need to worry about anything—except for catching her roommate in a state of arousal.
When he came out of the bathroom, Kristen was sitting on her bed, which was neatly made. Austin cocked an eyebrow.
“I wanted to sit on it.”
“All right…” It made no sense to him. He sat in the chair near the window and pulled on first his socks and then his new Tony Lama boots. Loved his boots. Custom-made and comfy. When he finished pulling the second boot on, he looked up to see Kristen studying him as if debating options.
He got to his feet, gathered his change and his watch, stuffed his wallet into his pocket, then grabbed his gym bag. “I’m heading to the gym, then I have a meeting.”
“I thought I might take in the sights for an hour or two.”
All very polite and businesslike, as if he hadn’t waved an erection at her earlier that morning. He gestured to the door. “I’ll buy you a coffee?”
“Sure.” She gathered her purse, pulled her sweater off the back of a chair and then followed him out of the room and down the hall to the elevators, all of which seemed to be permanently stuck on lower floors.
Austin rocked back on his heels as they waited. “Interesting morning.”
Kristen let out a tiny huff of breath, which he took as an acknowledgment. He gave her a sideways look. “Still okay with our arrangement?”
Her lips parted as she gave him a speculative look. “I am. I went into this to ease out of my comfort zone, and I’d say this morning was a start.”
“Good start or bad?”
“Still working on that one.”
He smiled a little as the elevator doors finally opened. They stepped inside and the doors closed, then the elevator started up instead of heading down. Two floors up the doors slid open and held.
“Maybe we should change elevators,” Austin said.
“Yes.” But she didn’t move. Instead, she pressed her lips together in a thoughtful way, then gave him a look. “I want to tell you something. Explain something.”
“Yeah?”
“When we were in high school and that…thing between us happened…one reason I was so upset was because I had a big crush on you.”
Austin blinked at her as the elevator doors closed and the car started a slow downward journey. “No fucking way.”
“Yeah.” She glanced at the parquet floor. “Then you called me an ice princess and made bets about me…it hurt.”
His chest squeezed. “Ice princess was kind of a compliment.” She gave him a disbelieving look. “Ice troll would have been a slam.”
She fought a smile. “Thank you for clarifying.”
He smiled back. “Thank you for confessing. It kind of helps me understand the fury of your attack.”
“You started it,” she pointed out. “And then you came looking for an explanation.”
“Yeah. I did.” The elevator lurched to a stop. The doors remained stubbornly closed. He didn’t care. “I owe you another apology.”
“I don’t need—” Her words died on her lips as he leaned down to touch his mouth to hers, apologizing in the best way he knew how—a way that might convince her that all of her self-doubts were meaningless where he was concerned. The softness of her lips almost did him in, but he kept himself in check, sliding one hand along her smooth cheek to hold her face steady as he deepened the kiss, keeping his touch on her face light, instead of backing her against the elevator wall as his instincts were urging him to do. Just as Kristen started returning his kiss like she meant it, her tongue finally meeting his, stroking, making him go hard again, the elevator began moving.
“I can’t decide if I like this thing or hate it,” he murmured, letting his hand drop slowly away from her face, before turning to face the front of the car.
“Nice apology,” Kristen murmured.
