Page 24 of Sweet Passions at Bayside
Her eyes slid back to his gym shorts, and her stomach dipped.
Great.He was just about the kindest man on earth, he’d opened his home to her and given her his bed, and here she was, ogling all his off-limits hotness while he slept.
Disgusted with herself, she hurried into the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and hair and washed her face. Then she tiptoed past Dean and changed into her sports bra and yoga pants. Maybe she could meditate her mind back into submission. She went to get her car keys so she could grab her yoga mat from the car, but they weren’t on the counter where she was sure she’d left them. She searched the kitchen, quietly tiptoed around the living room, and circled back to her bedroom, but her keys were nowhere in sight.
She finally gave up and headed out to the backyard. The path of plush lawn around the patio would do just fine.
The brisk morning air teased over her skin as she moved through her morning yoga routine. It was chillier there than it was in Virginia at six in the morning, but she welcomed the cooler air, the hint of sea in the breeze. Emery always began her routine with the most basic positions. The sun salutation was the perfect eye-opener, before moving on to more advanced, core-strengthening moves.
She raised her hands upward, palms facing overhead, focusing on inhaling as she bent backward, stretching her core, then bent forward, bringing her hands to her feet and her face to her shins. Eyes closed, she exhaled. The image of Dean lying on the couch appeared behind her closed lids, making her insides quiver. She opened her eyes, annoyed with herself, and pushed that image aside as she transitioned seamlessly and sank into a lunge position, inhaling deeply. But Dean’s terse voice swam into her mind.You don’t need to date every guy in Wellfleet the first week you’re here.
Tension climbed up her limbs, making her moves rigid and difficult. Dean and hisskip the thorns and go straight to the calyx. Did he really think dating was that easy? And if so, why was he still single?
The thought brought a thread of guilt. She knew it wasn’t that easy for him. He’d told her that he’d rarely strayed from dating the kind of women his overbearing tool of a father approved of. It was such a stupid way to live his life, hoping to use the most personal aspect of his life to appease an unworthy man. She’d told Dean enough times that she hoped one day he’d throw caution to the wind and go out and find the most exciting and daring woman he could, just to break free from his father’s stranglehold.
She moved through a few more positions, trying to calm the thoughts ping-ponging in her head, but it was the ache in her chest that had tension clinging to her like a second skin. Dean went out of his way to help everyone, checking on Desiree when Rick had to travel back to DC for meetings and playing peacemaker in his family for his older brother, Jett, who had turned his back on their father, and in turn, it seemed, his family.Giving me your bed.The mountain of a man had a heart of gold, and while she wanted him to break free from the stifling confines his father had drilled into his head, the idea of him doing so with a desperate stranger made her queasy.
She was definitely losing it.
She stretched her arms up and bent forward, closing her eyes and exhaling as she grabbed her elbows with opposite hands, maintaining the Uttanasana pose, an intense forward-bending position. At this rate she wasnevergoing to clear her head. She tried to focus on her spine lengthening, the stretch in the back of her legs, the air flowing through her lungs. And when a sense of calm descended upon her, she exhaled a long breath.Finally.
“Now, that’s a good morning welcome if I ever saw one.”
Her eyes sprang open, and her stomach pitched at the sight of Dean standing behind her, staring at her butt. “So you’re a butt man, too?” She straightened her spine, set a hand on her hip, and glared at him, hoping to scare away the misguided heat missiles darting through her.
“I don’t discriminate. I like every aspect of a beautiful woman’s body.” He stepped closer, clearly ignoring the scowl on her face. “Is this the way you greet every morning? If so, I’m going to have to get up a little earlier.”
He was messing with her. Well, she’d mess with him right back. Her gaze slid down his bare chest, stopping just shy of his shorts. Awareness zinged through her body like lightning. She was dancing on a slippery slope, but she couldn’t keep herself from engaging in the flirtation.
“Maybe you should come out and learn how tothread the needlewith me.” She pretended to gaze out over the gardens as she stretched her arms over her head, hoping he didn’t sense the way he’d affected her.
“Mm.Now, that sounds worth an early alarm.”
Her mind took the ball and ran with it, wondering what it would be like to feel his bare body against hers. His gaze rolled over her face, and sparks ignited beneath her skin.
“What’s going on, doll? Thinking about how much you want me tothread your needle?”
“No,” she lied. “You just…you got in my head last night and it’s making me mad.”
“Did I?” He stepped closer. His eyes darkened, boring into her and leaving no room for misinterpretation. “In what way did I get in your head?”
Her pulse went crazy, and not the kind of crazy it should be going toward a friend. It was going I-want-to-touch-you-kiss-you-and-devour-you crazy.Holy hotness. Violet was right.How had she missed this blazing inferno between them?
She wasn’t about to admit that, so she fell back on the other thing that was bugging her. “You said those things about Brody, and now I’m going to be uncomfortable when I see him today.”
His long legs ate up the last bit of space between them, bringing them so close his body heat seeped into her pores.
“Dean?” fell from her lips, full of confusion and inescapable desire.
“Emery,” he said in the richest, most seductive voice she’d ever heard.
He touched her hip. She opened her mouth to say something snarky, to sever their connection, but her sass was trapped beneath simmering lust. “What…? What are you doing?”
“What I should have done the minute you showed up on my doorstep.” His gaze moved slowly over her face, as if he were seeing her in a new light. “Being completely honest with you about how I feel.”
Her entire being was on fire, but she couldn’t do this, no matter how much she might want to. “Dean. We’refriends.”
“We are.” His gaze did not waver from hers.
