Page 52 of Brutal Days

“Don’t you worry about a thing. Just give me five minutes, okay?”

“Sure.”What for?I wanted to ask, but I wouldn’t.What if he’s pulling a first-date prep thing like Ben Stiller did inThere’s Something About Mary?Nope. No thanks.I would keep my questions to myself.

We hung up, and I messed around with the radio, searching for anything to distract me from what I was doing. Because I had no idea what that was. My gaze darted to the dash to check the time too often, so I set a timer on my phone for six minutes. I didn’t want to appear too eager, or too late. The stakes were set, and I planned to follow through with them.

I went to my emails and responded to a few from Stephanie. She liked my articles much better than the first one I’d published without her approval at the start of the year.

I grinned at the thought of the article where I’d slammed Damon. He’d been so pissed.

The alarm went off, blaring like a thousand horns, and I almost jumped out of my skin. I couldn’t press the off button fast enough and missed the first two times.Get a grip!My hands were instantly sweaty, and I rubbed them on my shorts.

Before I could change my mind, I jabbed the doorbell with my finger. If I thought about what I was doing, I would panic. The door opened before I fully spiraled. Damon filled the doorway with his broad shoulders and height. Not that I was short, but he was big.Shit.I needed to turn off my brain.

Then he reached out and grabbed my hand. Leading me inside, he took me past the marble foyer with the gigantic crystal chandelier, through the stunning gourmet kitchen and family room combo, then up the stairs. We went into a bedroom decorated in grays and blues. Candles adorned every surface, casting a warm, romantic glow.

“Are these for me?” I was surprised and even touched that he’d made such an effort to make me more comfortable. I looked around his room, which could fit both mine and Mom’s inside it, and was shocked by how clean it was. I had expected his room to be a sty and suspected that he’d just picked up.

“Of course they are. You deserve to feel special.”

I was done for. I wasn’t sure I would survive a night with him. He had to stop saying things like that to me. He could shatter me if I didn’t try to maintain a wall between us.

Damon moved around me, toward his bed, and pulled out a bottle of vodka from a drawer in his bedside table. “Do you want a drink?”

“No.” I just wanted to get it over with. I grabbed the hem of my T-shirt and whipped it over my head. I hadn’t changed from the sports bra I’d worn to the mall, and I worried he would laugh at me.

He grinned. “Is all that sexy for me?”

I laughed, feeling a bit more at ease. “It’s your favorite. The same one I wore for your bra pic request.”

“Ah, I thought I recognized it.” His blue eyes danced with mirth. “Definitely a favorite memory. And if you wouldn’t come after me with a pitchfork over it, that would make a tempting screensaver.”

“Maybe not a pitchfork, but a bat would be a given.” I winked.

He closed the distance between us, his expression changing from amused to heated as his eyes dilated. When he placed a hand on my hip, my stomach tensed. He traced a finger along the bottom edge of my sports bra just beneath my breasts.

“You’re beautiful. It doesn’t matter what you wear.”

When he bent and teasingly brushed his lips over mine, I wrapped my arms around his neck. In his embrace, I felt sexy and wanted. Tangling my fingers in his hair, I tugged, and he deepened the kiss.Yes.I loved how he kissed. It was incredible, and I barely registered when he guided me to the edge of his giant bed.

He broke the kiss briefly to pull his shirt over his head in that sexy way guys did by grabbing the back of it behind their head. He tossed it to the floor before he eased my arms up and peeled off my sports bra. My breath quickened. I didn’t have huge breasts like Gia. I was average at best, and it made me self-conscious.

“Fuck, Sky.” Damon’s eyes burned a trail over my body.

Fuck what? Does he regret this?I tried to pull away, my sights set on where my shirt had landed.

“What are you doing?”

I shrugged. “I just…” I glanced at the ceiling, trying to get control of my turmoil inside.

“You’re beautiful. Don’t doubt that for a second.”

Air whooshed out of me, and I returned my hands to his perfect body, sliding them over his chiseled muscles until my arms wrapped around the back of his neck. I played with the ends of his thick, dark hair. He pulled me close, and I gasped at the skin-to-skin contact. Then his mouth was on mine. I parted on a moan, losing myself in the kiss. A thread of urgency in how he devoured me replaced the tenderness from before, and I shivered in response.

But when his hands didn’t move from my hips, a seed of doubt injected into my foggy brain. I pulled away enough to break the kiss. I hated how insecure I was, but it was new, and he hadn’t moved his hands, like at all.What does that mean?

It bothered me. “Did you change your mind?”

“No. Why? Are you trying to get out of having sex with me?”

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