Page 36 of The Run Home
Boon stepped forward, pressing the door open just an inch. I redoubled my efforts to keep the door closed. He glared at me. I glared right back.
“Go. Around. Back.” My voice was firm but also starting to sound a bit breathy. Why was pushing a door with all my might turning out to be the best cardio I’d gotten in weeks? Okay, who am I fooling? Inmonths.
“I’m. Trying.”
Boon pushed the door again. I pushed back.
“What the hell is your problem?”
“No problem,” I panted. “Just go that way.” I tossed my head again, but he didn’t let up on the door.
“Why are you being so weird?” Then his expression turned thunderous. “Are you on a date right now?”
I grimaced. “Dressed like this?”
His gaze dropped down the front of me, and when it came back up, there was a smoldering heat in his eyes that set off butterflies in my stomach. “Dressed like anything, you’re still pretty, Shae.”
The compliment stunned me so badly, I let up on the door and Boon stepped inside my house. Then the half-finished puzzle flashed across my brain and I realized I’d have to do something drastic to not let him see that. My arms bolted out to the side and I got down in an athletic crouch like I was preparedto block Michael Jordan from buzzing around me to the basket for an easy layup.
I’ve never played basketball.
This was ridiculous.
And yet my future humiliation would not accept defeat.
Boon stared at me like I’d lost my mind, and maybe I had. When I didn’t show signs of letting up this ridiculous game of chicken, Boon darted lightning fast to the right. I shifted that way but almost like I was in slow motion. By the time I got to the right, Boon had dashed to the left and gone around me. I was left with his scent in my nose and an empty doorway. I spun with a gasp, seeing the exact moment his gaze fell on my coffee table.
I ran. Why? I don’t know. Maybe I was going to try some football now and tackle the man to the ground? I’d been born with the brain of an athlete. It was just my body that didn’t get the memo.
Boon looked up at the ceiling, then back down, the loudest guffaw laugh I’d ever heard coming from his mouth. He moved around to see the puzzle right side up, the shovel abandoned on the floor. His laugh was the sexiest thing I’d ever heard. I would have liked to appreciate it, but I was sinking in a pit of humiliation. It was like quicksand, sucking me in and never offering me the chance to get out. Mortification stole the air from my lungs, and I realized death would have been preferable to this moment.
“Damn, Shae,” he said around a laugh. His head came up and his eyes were twinkling with a humor I didn’t feel. Might never feel again. “Why didn’t you say you had a crush on me? I’d have let you see the real thing, babe.”
It was thebabethat pulled me out of the quicksand. How many other women had he called that name? Ew. “Don’t call me that.”
His smirk made his dimples dance. God, he was good-looking. And annoying. Equally. “Can’t be worse than big dog.”
“Get out of here, Boon!” I threw my arm to the back of the house, finger extended. “My friends gave that to me as a joke. Don’t read so much into it.”
He stepped around the coffee table and towered over me. I shrank back. The dimple, laughter, and smirk were gone in an instant. “Is that what I am to you? A joke?”
What the heck was this? Where had the perpetually flirty Boon Wolfe gone? Why did he look like my comment had hurt some vital part of him? Why had the conversation taken a one-eighty like that?
“Uh, what? No,” I said weakly, not really sure what we were even talking about any longer.
Boon rolled his lips in, his eyes dipping down at the corners. “What do you see when you look at me, Shae? Be honest.”
There was so much vulnerability in his tone I stopped short. I’d heard that before in kids who put up a solid front at school. The ones who boasted and teased and caused a ruckus were usually the ones with the most tender underbelly once you got to know them. Had I been so blinded by Boon’s flashy façade that I hadn’t noticed the underbelly?
“I see an incredibly talented, handsome man with insecurities just like the rest of us,” I answered honestly. I wasn’t cruel. I wouldn’t kick a man when he was down, and Boon seemed like he was in a place he’d never been before. Vulnerable.
He took one step toward me, his tennis shoes almost on top of my bare toes. His hands came up and cupped my face. He used his thumb to push my glasses back up my nose. He just stared into my eyes for a long moment. I didn’t dare breathe.
And then he dipped his head, leaned to the side, and ran his lips up my neck in a series of kisses that left me weak inthe knees and out of breath. My hands reached out, landing on either side of his waist, more for support than anything. He stopped at my ear, taking my earlobe between his teeth before letting it go. The sharp bite sent a lightning bolt of need between my legs. His head came back up, and his eyes were wild, unfocused.
His voice was low, the words meant just for my ears. “And I see an incredibly smart, beautiful woman with insecurities that make no sense when she’s goddamn perfection in human form.”
I…had no defense for that. Dear God, I wanted this man. Every reason I had for hating him went up in smoke, burned in the fire that raged between us. Had always raged between us. This wasn’t a silly crush. It wasn’t one-sided. Not anymore.
