Page 432 of Dark Love

I’m brave. I’m sassy… sort of.

But being brazen isn’t one of my strong points.

Why didn’t I buy a house with ten floors?

Because you’d never make it up to the bedroom.

Which would come in handy right about now.

It would also thwart all the sleep I will get tonight.

There really should be a company where you can just rent a man to hug…

Vex steps out of the bathroom as I reach the bedroom landing.

Every thought slips out of my mind except… muscles… how does he have so many muscles? They’re stacked on top of each other… so pretty. Muscles shouldn’t be pretty. They’re hard and scary. Vex is scary… to everyone else.

“You know if you stare at me much longer, we’re going to have soup instead of sundaes.” The grin on his face says he doesn’t really care.

“Aren’t you… um…” Hot. Very hot! “…cold?”

The beast chuckles. “No.”

What am I going to do? My brain won’t function with him like that.

“You must be. I’ll just…um…” Did Dad leave any shirts here when he stayed last? Like Dad’s shirt is going to fit over all those expansive muscles. “You don’t have any tattoos.” Why? Why in the world would you blurt that out? Don’t make it any more obvious that you’re salivating over him.

“Never saw a reason to get one. I don’t need to prove my strength or pain tolerance to anyone. Do you have any?”

“Muscles, no.”

He chuckles again. “I meant tattoos.”

“Oh.” Stop staring and start thinking. “No, I don’t have any tattoos. My mother would have lost her mind if I ever got one.”

“And you care about that?”

Can you really kiss a smirk off a man’s face? It works in books.

That smirk is almost as sexy as his…

Stop being a perv. This is completely normal. Women have ice cream with shirtless men all the time.

On the beach, not in the middle of my bed.

“Would you feel better if I put a shirt on?”

“No.” What did I just say? “Yes.” Pull yourself together. “It would be nice if you put on a shirt. I wouldn’t want you to catch a chill.”

The smirk turns into a grin as he heads to my bathroom. The view from the back is just as nice…

Vex comes back a second later with a shirt on and one in his hand. “This is for you.” He takes a bowl from my hand and gives me the soft shirt.

“Why?”

“You can sleep in it.”

“But this is your shirt.” I hold up the offending garment.

---