Page 25 of Wreck Me
Annndddd there she was in the friends-slash-sister zone again.
Her stomach sank and she berated herself for even thinking that there could or would be anything between them. He was simply a nice guy who’d gotten stuck with a chatty, sometimes awkward woman like herself.
Sure, maybe if he’d seen her before she’d opened her mouth, he’d want to take her to bed. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been told she was beautiful a time or two. She knew she was pretty in a certain way and that guys found her attractive.
But guys who looked like Aidan? All chiseled and built and only had to smile to have droves of hot women lined up at his door? Not to mention he was a genuinely nice guy? Yeah, a man like him would never be with a woman like her. In spite of her somewhat positive outlook on life, Megan knew she was damaged goods. Only good for one thing to a man since she had no real breeding.
Her ex-husband’s family had told her enough times.
She nodded and laid her fork on her plate before pushing it away. “Don’t worry about me, Aidan. I can take care of myself. Not the first time I’ve ever worked in a bar with handsy men.”
He leaned back in his chair, his gaze roaming over her in a way that made her skin spark underneath the fire of his blue eyes. His jaw tightened before he released it and started to stand. “Let me get that mop for you. I’ve got some paperwork to get to.”
“Oh, wait.” She jumped up, hitting her knee on the unforgiving wood table. “Ow, shit! That’s gonna leave a mark.” She rubbed her knee as her face warmed. She didn’t need a mirror to know her face was as red as a cherry.
“Are you okay?” He moved toward her but she put up a hand like a stop sign.
“I’m fine. Fine.” She’d only dislocated her knee cap or something equally stupid, but that would heal better than her ego at this point. “Don’t leave yet. I have something for you.”
His eyes roamed her face, his brows lowered, concern etched in his face. She smiled. “I swear I’m fine. Stay here. I’ll clean up.”
“Okay, but let me—” he started, picking up a couple of the cartons.
She took them from his hands and blew out a breath. She needed to gather her wits about her before she went off the rails and ended up doing something truly horrifying like hooking her foot on her chair and faceplanting onto the hardwood floor.
“Please. You’ve done a lot for me already. Let me do something for you. Just let me clean up. Okay?” She looked up at him and did her best not to sway closer to him when the scent of his cologne wrapped around her.
Her luck was that he’d think she was going to faint and tuck her into bed like a brother.
How humiliating.
He nodded and sat down, leaning back in the chair with those long legs kicked out in front of him. “Okay.”
It was all he said and all she needed to hear.
Excitement bloomed in her chest, wanting to please him. It was a feeling she hadn’t felt for a man in a long time.
Eight
Moonlight Walks and Famous Siblings
Good God,she was a fucking adorable mess.
Actually, she wasn’t adorable at all. She was gorgeous and sexy but didn’t seem to know it. Her actions told him she had no clue of the effect she had on him. Of course, he’d called on all the discipline training the military and academy had taught him to keep his hands off her.
Okay, except for when she needed to be steadied or something. She did have a concussion and all.
Who was he kidding?
It was just as well she didn’t know. Madison Ridge wasn’t her final destination in her journey, and he wasn’t going to take advantage of a woman when she was down on her luck. And Megan Gentry seemed to have a good run of bad luck going for her.
He pulled his phone out of his back pocket under the guise of not watching every move she made. Aidan didn’t want to notice the way her chestnut brown hair fell in a long curtain around her face when she leaned forward, gathering their empty dinner cartons. Or the way her hazel eyes alternated between sparks of confidence only to be chased away by shadows of self-doubt. It would do him no good to notice that she moved in economical movements and yet in such a way that she flowed around the room.
He really didn’t need to see that she had some banging curves under those second-skin leggings and oversized sweater. Curves that he wanted to cruise his hands over followed by his mouth until she was a panting mess underneath him.
Aidan shifted in the chair, trying to make more room in the crotch of his suddenly too small jeans. And when had it gotten so fucking hot in the room? He rubbed the back of his neck and blew out a breath as she picked up the last of the trash and walked past him out of the room and back to the kitchen, leaving the scent of vanilla and lavender—he’d seen her shampoo bottle in the shower that morning and couldn’t help but sniff it—in her wake.
The sounds of silverware moving around in the drawer came from behind him. And a few seconds later a small plate with a slice of cherry pie sat in front of him.
