“Um, no,” she sighed and lengthened her neck. He pounced on the opportunity.
After laying down a heated trail of open-mouthed kisses, he drew back and smoothed her hair behind her ears so she could see his eyes when he answered. “Because it doesn’t matter.Shedoesn’t matter.”
“You’ve slept with other people since, though, right?”
Why had he suggested honesty again? No idea. “I have. They don’t matter either.” Christ, he sounded like a callous bastard. He was no saint, and he certainly wasn’t a monk. However, he was no longer the type to count conquests. He was also a man whose testosterone levels spiked anytime Hailey was near, and he didn’t want to give her a reason to run. “They don’t matter because they were short-lived and mutually casual.”
“I get that. That’s been my MO with most men in my life.”
He locked out the image of “most men” and wrestled with the notion he fell into that category too.
She snapped him out of the uncomfortable contemplation. “Germaine?”
He shook his head. “Nope. No one else who lives in this town either.” Thank fuck he could saythattruthfully. “So if you’re worried about some Fall River woman walking into the bar and announcing we had a one-nighter, don’t.” He touched the tip of her nose before locking his fingers at the small of her back to keep them from wandering under the fabric like they itched to do. “My turn. What did Ursula say to you the other night?”
She leaned into him, curling her hands on his chest. “Is this like middle school where you ask the girl’s BF if the girl likes you?”
Amusement gleamed in her eyes, but her question left him befuddled—or were her soft curves and her fragrance making scrambled eggs of his brain? “You and Ursula are BFs now?”
“Hardly. I’m sure she would love to puncture my lungs with her pointy heels.”
He tugged a tress. “That’s kinda harsh.”
“Well, not to be unkind, butshe’spretty harsh. And pretty determined that you’re going to end up together.”
“Ursula wants what Ursula can’t have—and what shecanhave. She’s greedy like that, but she’ll need to get used to a different outcome besides the one she’s imagining.”
“Hmm. And Noah Hunnicutt is in the ‘can’t have’ column?”
“Absolutely. But that might not stop her. You can’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth. She’s manipulative and mean and sadistic, and she’ll say or do anything to get a rise out of someone. She probably zeroed in on you because she thought something was going on between us.”And now that it is …
“Wow,that’skinda harsh,” Hailey mocked. “So you’re saying every word that comes out of her mouth is a lie?”
“Exactly.”
She seemed to stifle a giggle.
He picked up the tress again and wrapped it around his knuckles, marveling at its silkiness. “What’s funny?”
“She referred to you as ‘a delectable hunk of man meat with fancy green eyes.’I suppose she was lying then too?”
“What the hell are ‘fancy green eyes’?”
“I was hoping you could tell me. As for the other stuff, it’s pretty self-explanatory.”
He wagged his head side to side. “Okay, so she doesn’t lie abouteverythingbecause we both know I am, in fact, a delectable hunk of man meat.” One corner of his mouth twitched with a smile, but he kept it from fully blooming in case he was reading her reaction to this cringeworthy yet weirdly light convo all wrong.
She chuckled, and something broke free in his chest. Suddenly, all he could think about was hauling her back upstairs and finding other ways to make her whimper and moan. He toyed with her hair, pulling it to the side to tilt her head. Her gaze drifted to his mouth, and her lips parted. He paused a beat, enjoying the feel of her warm breath floating across his skin. As he lowered his eyelids to kiss the living daylights out of her, she gave his chest a playful shove.
“What’s with the whole skating thing?”
Because his blood was traveling south, his brain was sluggish and it took a moment to engage. “The what?”
“The string you attached. I have to learn to skate from you.”
“Oh right.” God, holding her against him like this was distracting as fuck. He needed to focus so they could get through twenty questions and back to bed, and he still had a burning question of his own hehadto ask.
He shrugged a shoulder. “I didn’t like seeing Shane with his hands all over you. Figured it would be less bloody this way.”
