Her heart skipped a beat.
“You don’t have to do that, Dale. I’ll be fine.”
No, you won’t, her body protested.You’ll be fine if he sleeps in your bed.
Praying she hadn’t said any of that out loud, she chanced a look at his face, happy to see displeasure instead of amusement in his eyes.
“I’m not taking any chances with your safety, Sadie,” Dale said firmly. “Like it or not, I’m staying on your couch tonight.”
Goodie!her body screamed.
After studying him for a moment, she nodded, more than a little excited at the prospect of a sleepover with Dale Taylor. “All right, fine. But if you’re staying here, you’re going to have to deal with Tesla waking you up several times during the night.”
He grinned, clearly not deterred. “I can handle that.”
They spent the next few minutes clearing the table, and she tried not to think about the night ahead but failed.
There was zero percent chance of her getting a decent night’s sleep, knowing the sexy man would be sprawled out on her couch. Swallowing a groan, she wiped down the table while he went around locking the doors and windows.
With the potent guy no longer in the room, she eventually regained her control. Running upstairs to grab an extra pillowand blanket from her linen closet, she then carried them downstairs to witness a now barefoot Dale remove his T-shirt with a one-handed maneuver that stole her breath. Seeing him shirtless in their youth did little to prepare her for the hot as hell mature version standing in her living room right now.
His broad shoulders, wide expanse of chest with an array of drool-worthy muscles and ridges sent a tremor through her body. But the sexy strip of dark hair crisscrossing down his sinewy torso to disappear beneath the waistband of his jeans made her knees weak.
She leaned against the wall for support.
Damn.
Sadie had crushed on a young Dale, but this version kicked that crush up several notches, straight into full-blown lust. Her mind was losing control, along with her common sense.
“You know.” She cleared her suddenly dry throat. “There’s a perfectly good guest bedroom upstairs. You actually don’t have to sleep down here.”
There. She behaved.
Still, the thought of him sleeping on her couch didn’t sit right with her. It just seemed unnecessary. They were both adults, after all.
Dale paused, regarding her with a mix of surprise and determination in his eyes. “I appreciate that, Sadie, but I’m fine on the couch.”
She bit her lip, trying to keep in the words that had popped into her head. “Or, you know…you could always keep a better eye on me from my bed.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dammit.
The words shot out anyway.
Sadie slapped a hand over her mouth as if she could somehow take them back.
What had possessed her to say that out loud?
But as the initial shock faded, she realized something surprising—she didn’t care. It was never a secret how she felt about him all those years ago and certainly nothing to be ashamed of at all. Despite Dale only being back in town for a few days, there was an undeniable connection between them, and the thought of taking the next step felt less intimidating and moreright.
The shirt fell from his hands and his brows lifted as his gaze locked onto hers and he appeared to process her words.
For a sweet moment, he seemed torn, his internal battle playing out in the furrow of his brow and the tightness of his jaw.
But eventually, he shook his head. “Sadie, as much as I’d love to, it would be too dangerous.”
She blinked, not quite understanding. “Dangerous?”
