Page 76 of 10 Ways to Accidentally Fall in Love

Oh, fuck. There goes my brain again.

“Brad?” Joey asks, pulling me back to the present. He’s wrapping the cord around his sander. “You okay?”

“Yep,” I reply quickly, wiping my hands off on my shorts. They’re a bit dusty, but not nearly as coated as Joey is. There’s a fine layer of sawdust covering the man’s entire torso and arms. Those thick arms that were rhythmically working the sander for the past hour. Back and forth. Stroking over and over and—

“Oh,” I breathe as Joey grabs the hem of his t-shirt, tugging the material over his head. I swear time slows as he shakes it out, the muscles in his arms and abdomen rippling, his tool belt pulling his shorts dangerously low as sawdust floats through the air around him like glitter catching the light. “It’s like the start of a porno,” I whisper.

“What’s that?” Joey asks, tucking his shirt into his waistband.

“I was…just wondering…when you want to start painting,” I say, not sure if I should admit to Joey that he’s officially replaced the cut-off-jean-shorts-wearing, tool-belt-wielding women from my fantasies with, well, the real-life image ofhim.

Is that bad bros-with-bennies etiquette? Fuck if I know.

“Painting can wait until tomorrow,” Joey says, plucking his protective eyewear off. “We’ve done enough for the day. Want to hang out for a bit? We could play games. Cook some dinner, if you want?”

“Uh, yeah. Definitely,” I tell him, a little distracted by the flex of his arms as he puts his tools away, not to mention that V that disappears below the edge of his waistband. I wonder if his cock is straight. Curved? Thick, like the rest of him? It sure felt thick pressed against my hip.

“Great,” he says, giving me a smile. “I’ll just head in and wash up real quick.”

“Sure, sure,” I say, licking my lips. “Um. Can I watch?”

Joey pauses.

I pause.

“Uhhh,” I manage.

“You want to watch me shower?” he asks, standing very still, the brown of his irises dark. Far darker than usual.

Joey said he’s here for whatever I want to try, right? Well, right now, what I want ishim.

Steeling myself against my nerves, I admit, “Yeah, Joey. I want to see you. Touch you, maybe? And I definitely want to watch you shoot all over your abs.”

Joey huffs an almost disbelieving laugh. “Fuck, bub.”

“Maybe next time?” I agree.

He groans, head tipping back. When he meets my eye again, he stalks forward. My pulse jumps into my throat, my stomach hopping right along with it, as Joey comes to a stop in front of me. His work-roughened hands bracket my neck, his thumbs stroking over my jaw. He looks at me. Simply looks.

“Are you going to kiss me?” I ask, my pulse nearly drowning out my voice.

“Was thinking about it,” he mumbles, those same exact words he spoke all those weeks ago when we stood like this outside my apartment door after our non-date date, when Joey wiped whipped cream off my lip and looked as if he wanted to devour me.

It’s the same way he looks now.

“Well,” I say, breath coming short. “What are you waiting for?”

Joey’s lips curve into a smile, and then his mouth is on mine. He smells like sawdust, his skin warm beneath my palms, and I lose myself for a minute. In Joey. In the way his mouth feels impossibly familiar, as if we haven’t kissed a mere handful of times before. I lose myself in wondering how many more kisses we could have. How many more days just like this.

We agreed on a month. A month to…explore. To try this out without risking our friendship.

But does it have to end there?

I’m hard and aching by the time Joey pulls back. As if sensing it, his eyes drop straight to my crotch, and he lets out a small whoosh of air.

“Do you want to come upstairs with me?” he asks, giving me the choice. Giving me an out, I suspect.

I don’t want out.

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