Page 40 of Tapped By My Roommate
“Yeah, thanks,” I said. “I’m a little tight on time before work.”
He ducked his head. “Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m the one who wanted to put on a movie.”
“The, the movie…”
Ethan didn’t call me on my ridiculous excuse. We’d barely watched the film. I remembered little more than the opening credits and monstrous roars that had penetrated the fog of lust as I made out with Ethan.
We must have kissed for an hour—before we even got to the frantic dry humping.Damn.
“Why are you grinning?” Ethan asked suspiciously.
“Just remembering the movie,” I said innocently. “It was fun, right?”
Ethan had made a rule that we couldn’t talk about our hookups after the fact, but it seemed I’d found a loophole. He couldn’t protest my talking about a “movie.”
He kept his eyes on the tomato he was slicing, then dicing. “It was, yeah. I always likeGodzilla, but that was different.”
“Good different?” I asked, holding my breath.
I was pretty sure I knew the answer. That, or Ethan was a very good actor. But I still wanted to hear him say it.
“Yeah.” He peeked at me through a fall of dirty blond bangs. “Good. Kind of weird, but a good weird.”
“Is there any other kind?” I joked as I turned off the burner and gave the meat a final stir.
“Tess would say yes.”
“Tess can fuck off,” I said a little too sharply.
Ethan started, then hissed as the knife slipped and nicked the flesh of his left index finger.
“Shit,” he said, dropping the knife onto the cutting board.
“Let me see.” I grabbed his wrist and lifted his hand for a better look. It was a small cut, but it was bleeding steadily. “Let’s get it under cold water.”
I turned on the faucet and guided his hand beneath the stream. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Not your fault,” he said.
“It kind of is. I shouldn’t have said that about Tess. I caught you off-guard.”
“Maybe a little, but I’m fine,” Ethan said. “Besides, you’re right. Tess doesn’t matter anymore. I really don’t care about her. It’s just hard to forget her words sometimes.”
Our eyes met briefly, and I suddenly felt more aware of him than I should.
Boundaries, Rhett.When we weren’t hooking up, we were just roommates and friends. I needed to make sure there were no mixed signals.
I released his hand and grabbed a dish towel from the counter. “Here. Dry off and see if the bleeding has stopped. If not, I’ll go find a bandage.”
Ethan turned off the water and blotted carefully at the cut before inspecting it. “Seems fine.”
“Good.” I slid past him. “But I’ll do the rest of the chopping.”
“Probably a good idea,” he said weakly as he took a seat at the counter.
I assembled the taco ingredients, keeping busy, so I wouldn’t get lost in Ethan’s blue eyes again. I had such a weakness for blue eyes. It was a wonder I hadn’t kissed him sooner.
