Page 45 of After Tonight

Derek’s mouth went dry and his cock swelled. He braced his hands on either side of the doorway, his eyes locked on her. She arched her back, wiggled her hips, and did the “Derek” thing again. Then she opened one eye.

Busted. She was faking. Trying to drive him nuts.

Of course she was.

“Well, don’t stop now, Ry,” he said, his voice a little gruffer than he’d intended. “Do what you need to do.”

She jerked her hand from her shorts and let out a short, irritated breath. She swung her legs over the side of the couch and frowned at him. “Really? You’re just going to stand there, buck naked, and watch as if this isn’t the weirdest situation we’ve ever been in?”

He felt his skin begin to burn as her gaze tracked over his body. He had no hang-ups about being naked. He did a lot of manual labor. Staying toned and fit was one perk of that. He lifted his hands and curled his fingers into the top of the doorjamb, leaning in slightly and giving her an unobstructed view of, well, everything.

“That,” he said, nodding toward her and the couch, “would be well worth a few minutes of awkwardness afterward when I remembered who you are.”

“You would forget?” she asked, her eyebrows climbing toward her hair.

“I might get distracted.” He let his eyes wander over her, from the top of her head to her toes. He couldn’t see everything in between clearly, with her sitting hunched over, but he didn’t need to see it to want it.

He wondered if Riley realized that, at this moment, everything was changing.

He wanted her. He wasn’t sure when it had happened exactly. It felt like he should be able to pinpoint a moment. Like when she’d brushed against him at his front door a few days ago. Or sometime when she walked into the Come Again looking hot and sassy and he’d felt a physical reaction. But honestly, it felt like it had come on a lot slower than that. Like it had been happening bit by bit for a long time. A very long time. Like maybe forever.

Derek felt his body harden and heat even more with that thought. He was shocked. He would have expected mixing more emotion and history into everything would cool some of his desire. But it was definitely not working that way.

“I swear, if you call me some other girl’s name, I’ll cut that thing off,” Riley said, coming to her feet.

“This thing?” He couldn’t help but grin at that. “You’ll need a lot of upper body strength to get through something this size.”

She snorted. “God, you’re such an ass.”

“Because I’m driving you crazy with lust?”

She took a deep breath and, much to his surprise, nodded. “Yeah.”

“You could leave.” But he’d go after her if she did. That was just as surprising as the rest of what he was feeling.

She nodded again, slower. “Yeah, I could.” She licked her lips. “But I’m not going to.”

“Thank God,” he said, sincerely.

She crossed the room, coming to stand right in front of him. He kept his hands up on the doorframe, but everything in him strained to reach for her. She met his eyes.

“Did you really do what you said?”

“The shower thing?”

“Yes.”

He thought about his answer. And the fact he was completely naked. And she was standing not six inches away from him. “Before I answer, you need to really think about whether you want the answer,” he told her. “And what you’re going to do with it once you know.”

She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and shocked him by looking vulnerable for a second. “If you were kidding and said that just to mess with me all day, I don’t know if I can be responsible for what I do.”

Holy crap, she was afraid he’d been teasing her. And yet she was still standing here, in front of him, asking for the truth. And admitting that she was going to be upset if he’d lied.

He had been an ass to her in the past. For sure. When he wasn’t sure that she wanted him around. When he wasn’t sure she was paying attention. Now he knew. She did want him. She was absolutely paying attention.

Derek dropped his arms and reached for her in one motion. He cupped her face, pulling her forward. He looked into her eyes in a way he never had before. Intently. Ready to be fully honest. And vulnerable himself. Because she could hear his answer and then laugh and say she was the one who was kidding around.

“I absolutely got myself off thinking about you and your sassy mouth and your sweet ass and…everything else about you,” he said, honestly. Yeah, it had been mostly a physical fantasy in the shower, but he knew deep down that there was no way this could ever be just physical with him and Riley. “And,” he continued when he realized she was holding her breath, “I would really like to do it all for real.”

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