Page 60 of Shake You

“Don’t be coy; you wouldn’t be the first woman to succumb to my not insignificant physical charms. No shame in it. I mean look at me. Hell, if I wasn’t me, I’d most likely want to fuck me. I’m one fine-ass motherfucker.”

His shit eating grin nearly split his face in two, and the dimple that so rarely made an appearance was out in full force, puckering his cheek and firing my libido. It reminded me that he hardly ever smiled when he was with me—only sneered or smirked. It also made me crave more of the natural and joyful smile now gracing his beautiful features.

“No need to be embarrassed. Besides, it’s good to see you with a little color in your cheeks again. You hungry? For food, I mean. Get your mind out the gutter.”

“Umm... hi. Yeah, I’m hungry. What time is it? I feel like I’ve been asleep for a week.”

“Well, you’re not far wrong. It’s three o’clock.”

“Three o’clock? What like in the afternoon?” Oh my God.

“Yes, in the afternoon. Look outside, the sun is up. You don’t get that at three o’clock in the morning.”

“I’ve slept until three o’clock in the afternoon?” Shit

“Yeah... so?”

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

“Umm... lemme see. Maybe because you were asleep, and clearly needed the rest. Where’s the fire?”

“The fire is that I’ve missed classes, and I have shit to do for the paper today.”

“I’ve missed my classes too. Nobody died as a result. Let’s just take a chill pill. Missing practice this morning, that’s much more of a big deal, and now I’m on Coach’s shit list, again, and he’s out for blood.”

“Why didn’t you go to practice?”

“Is that a trick question? If a guy has a beautiful woman in his bed who asked him to hold her while she slept, he holds her. At least I do, anyway. No way I was going to leave at the crack of dawn after you had pretty much just calmed down and passed out in my arms.”

“So, now you’re in trouble because of me. Great.” Another thing to add to his reasons to hate me.

“Nobody twisted my arm, so my situation with Coach is on me. He thinks I got super lit at the reception last night and was either too hungover or still too fucked up to train. He couldn’t be more wrong—I barely touched a drink all night, as I needed to keep my wits about me.” So that you could terrorize me. “Besides, I’ve missed less than a handful of practices this entire time. He can wear one more for whatever the reason. He’ll come around.”

“Hmm...”

“So you want to eat, Sleeping Beauty? I’ve made pancakes.”

I was actually ravenous, but the idea of sitting down to eat with Bear was absurd. The guy had all but tortured me the night before.

“Umm... okay” I swore to God that bacon had magic powers. I knew more than one person who’d been vegetarian for years, but had their resolve broken by freshly cooked bacon. And there I was agreeing to brunch with the enemy because of it. Nuts.

I sat at the table, and we ate in total silence, though I was acutely aware of Bear’s eyes on me.

“What?”

“What, what?”

“Don’t play dumb. I know you’ve been watching me the entire time we’ve been eating. What gives?”

“Nothing. I’m just glad to see you looking happier and healthier than you were last night. Plus...” His gaze left me as he let the sentence tail off.

“Plus what?

“Plus I just can’t get over how fucking unbelievably gorgeous you are.”

“What?” I stopped with a forkful of food in mid-air.

“You heard me. You’re perfect, and I can’t stop looking at you.”

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