Page 30 of Hard to Love
Well, the survival rate would probably be in the single digits.
Greer grabbed the newel post on the stairs and swung around to the first step. “Wish me luck.”
“He’s in the Thelma and Louise room. If you can get him to open the door, he’ll take one look at that cleavage and you’ll be able to lead him out of here by his panting tongue.”
The image made Greer laugh as she jogged up to the second floor. She knocked twice on his door.
His response was, “Not hungry, Raylene. Can you freeze it?”
Freeze the heat between them? Not in a hundred lifetimes. “I come bearing no Pyrex nor a single foil-covered plate, so will you open the door?”
Something heavy hit the ground on the other side of the door. Seconds later, it swung inward to reveal Alex, backlit by the midday sunshine. His white T-shirt was a stark contrast to his skin. But holy of all holies, it showed off his arms up to his biceps.
The muscles alone were drool-worthy, but that wasn’t what made heat settle low in Greer’s belly. What affected her was the sight of his left arm, covered by a tattoo sleeve with the serpent she’d spotted a few days ago winding its way tightly up Alex’s forearm, which was just as sexy as she’d imagined, and melding into another design she couldn’t quite make out. The T-shirt’s neck was stretched out just enough for her to glimpse a flash of matching green and blue ink. But his other arm was covered with only bare skin.
“Goddammit,” he said in a low tone. He grabbed her byher dress strap, pulled her inside his room, and shut the door behind them. “What is it with you?”
Lord, she was suddenly as horny as a rabbit in a hutch by herself. She had—had—to see the rest of this man’s body. “If I asked you to strip down to the skin right this second, would you do it?”
“That would be an improvement on the forty pans of mac and cheese Raylene’s tried to shove at me.”
“Apparently you’ve made quite the impression on the women in town.” Yeah, including her. And starting this very second, Greer planned to knock any woman interested in Alex upside the head with her blowpipe.
Or maybe a handheld torch.
Ridiculous because she had absolutely no claim on this man.
“This is the first request I’ve had to get naked for someone.”
“Oh, they all want it. They’re just too afraid to ask.”
His expression blanked, but he stepped closer, bringing his cottony scent with him. “What are you afraid of, Greer?” He twined a finger into her hair, wrapped a curl around it.
Regardless of what she’d been telling herself about this man’s soul mate potential, she was afraid of what she could feel for him. He had something tender and painful buried deep inside that tough exterior. As wary as that made her, his talent, the sheer intensity of it, drew her in. “Nothing.”
He tugged, bringing her toward him. “Liar. Everyone’s afraid of something.”
“You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.” That would close him down.
“Does that mean if I strip for you that you’ll do the same for me?”
Greer cut a glance toward the frilly canopied bed in the center of the room. Raylene would know something big was up if they didn’t come down soon. “I would…if we didn’t need to be somewhere.”
“We?”
“I’ve got something to show you.”
The brow that arched up said he wanted her to show him exactly what she had on under her sundress.
Greer smoothed her fingers over his wrist, up his forearm, following the sinuous line of the serpent’s body. When she circled them around his biceps, Alex’s muscles jumped. “As enjoyable as stripping down to the skin with you might be, this isn’t the time for it.”
“Does that mean there will be a time for it?” he asked, his voice husky.
She slipped her hand under his sleeve, stroked his inner arm. “You’re the one who walked away last time.”
“I don’t like to shit where I eat.”
Greer curled her fingers, grabbing strands of his underarm hair in the process. Alex yelped and tried to pull her hand away, but she only tightened her grasp. “You can be a real dick, Villanueva, you know that?”
