Page 14 of Slapped Into Love

ChapterEight

Tamara

“Oomph!”

Strong arms wrapped around me, and the citrusy smell of Ryan’s cologne filled my nostrils as my nose bumped into his sweater. I’d spent the day reminding myself of all the reasons why it was smart to keep my distance from him—my raging hormones whenever he was close being at the top of that list—after it had only taken one evening and morning with him to convince me that I probably shouldn’t have bailed on him the night we slept together...and that was after he’d been a complete ass attherink.

Ryan was hell on my willpower, so it figured that I’d bump into him as soon as I came back to my apartment. It barely took any effort on his part to get me to do things completely out of my character. Like the urge I had right then to yank him even closer and kiss the hell outofhim.

Taking one last breath of his scent deep into my lungs, I forced myself to take a step backwards instead. He was dressed in dark blue jeans and a forest green cable-knit sweater that brought out the green in his hazel eyes. A lock of his dark hair hung over his forehead, and his mustache and beard looked freshlytrimmed.

He looked deliciously perfect, while I was a disheveled mess after my strength training session at the gym since I hadn’t bothered to do anything more than brush my wet hair after I took a quick shower. Damn his sexy ass for catching me like this when he had theupperhand.

“I’m glad I caught you,” he murmured. “There’s something I need to talk to youabout.”

“Umm,okay.”

His door was still open, and he tugged me through it into his apartment before I could suggest we go over to my place instead. Not that it mattered where we were; what was important was that we were alone. Again. And there was a bedroom just downthehall.

“What’s up?” I blurted in an effort to shove any thoughts of what we could do on his mattress out ofmyhead.

“Come sit down with me.” He pulled on my hand and led me to his couch, settling us next to each other on thecushions.

I was getting the feeling that he had something serious to discuss with me, and my stomach started to tie into knots. “What’s going on?” An idea popped in my head, and that nervous feeling took a turn to nausea. I yanked my hand out of his hold. “Do you have agirlfriend?”

“No! Shit, Tamara. There’s nothing wrong,” he assured me. “And I sure as fuck don’t have agirlfriend.”

“Oh.”

He wrapped his hand around mine again and smirked at me. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounded like it’d bother you ifIdid.”

“Maybe.”

His smirk turned into a full-out grin, and his eyes filled withhumor.

“Oh, stop,” I sighed. “It doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than I wouldn’t want to come between another woman and her man. And with our history...” My cheeks filled with heat as I realized I’d just brought up the very topic I’d hoped toavoid.

His hand tightened and he shifted closer. “I didn’t have one back then,either.”

“Good.”

“About that night—” hestarted.

“I don’t do one-night stands,” I interrupted. I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear what he had to say about what happened between us, but I definitely wanted to get that out in the open. “I’d had a shitty day the night I met you and you were...well, you.” I waved my free hand at him. “You’re too sexy for my own damn good, but then I woke up the next morning and had no idea how to handle the wholething.”

“So you ran,” hemurmured.

“Yeah.”

His thumb swept across my palm. “But it wasn’t because of anything I didwrong?”

“No, it wasn’t you. It was just me and myawkwardness.”

“I can’t say that I’ve never done the one-night stand thing before you.” My heart dropped, but it soared again with his next words. “But I can tell you that I haven’t been with anyone else since that nightwithyou.”

“Nobody?” Igasped.

“You’re a tough act to follow,Tamara.”

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