Page 9 of Bad Boy Crush

Lou chugged more tea, not fully understanding her reaction to his physique. She’d been on his boat how many times? Countless. He’d been shirtless around her before. But still, she stared.

Rivulets of water followed the curve of his impressive pectoral muscles, clinging to the dark hair there. The water continued its seductive travels along his flat stomach, pooling at the waistband of his briefs. His stomach wasn’t crazy defined like the guys who dehydrated themselves to make their abs visibly pop. Ant didn’t have a gut by any means. There was the right amount of muscle tone, and the dip that cut in at his slim hips was…

Yummy.

“You’re drooling,” Elliott pointed out.

“I’m not. I’m just…” Lou folded the paper sack around her leftover sandwich and stood. “I’m going to put this away.”

“Might want to grab him a towel while you’re in there,” Elliott called out. “Grab one for your chin too!”

* * *

Ant waded from the water to the sandy shore, refreshed and feeling about ten times better than before. He crossed the beach to the dock, where he’d left his discarded clothes. He’d been sweating his ass off and had been covered in itchy sawdust for the better part of the day. His skin was red despite the sunscreen he’d applied, and his arms felt like wet noodles thanks to hauling logs to his truck. That said, he hadn’t cleared Lou’s driveway yet, which did not make him happy.

Clothes and shoes in hand, he met Lou halfway to her house.

“Here.” She handed him a bright orange beach towel.

“Thanks. Guess I didn’t plan ahead.”

She laughed, a short bark that wasn’t her usual. Then again, laughing with him hadn’t been her “usual” for a while.

He dabbed his face with the towel. When he pulled it away, he noticed that her eyes weren’t on his face. They were unmistakably on his chest. And then they darted lower. And lingered.

Was she…checking him out? He sucked in his stomach just in case. Her lips hitched to one side before her gaze darted away.

“Everything okay?” he asked, amused by her out-of-character reaction.

“I probably have some trunks inside that belonged to Liam.”

“Like they’d fit?” He snorted. Liam had been slim from a rigid diet and gym workouts. Ant doubted the man had done actual hard labor a day in his life. “Anyway, these are my good underwear.”

He fully expected Lou to turn on the chill. That had been her MO for the last year whenever he’d been around. They’d gone from close to distant in a blink. Instead of icing him out, she shut her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Look, I know it’s been a while since you and I have spoken like civilized human beings—”

“Spoken, period.” She’d been a hair less than civil for a while now.

She folded her arms, a defensive gesture. “I think it would be best for everyone if you and I were friendly, don’t you?”

“Friendly?”

“Friends. Again. If that’s something you would like?” She unfolded her arms and twisted her fingers together, fidgeting.

He felt for her. He knew it wasn’t easy for her to swallow her pride, especially since he couldn’t blame her for taking drastic steps to protect herself. He was guilty of not telling her about Liam the second he found out. He’d rationalized that he’d been Liam’s friend too and that the best thing to do was to let husband and wife work it out. Ant had also taken Liam at his word when he’d said he’d tell Lou the truth in two days’ time. But Liam hadn’t, and that had made Ant complicit in the affair in her eyes. He still felt like shit about not telling her immediately. Anything would have been better than how it’d gone down.

“Why?” he asked.

“Why?” Her eyes widened like she hadn’t expected that question. “Because. We make life harder for our friends when we aren’t getting along.”

“Like who?” He needed her to spell out what she wanted. What she needed.

“Brady. Elliott.” She shrugged. “Other friends.”

He had to smile. Enough with the hot spotlight. Besides, he didn’t want to keep the distance between them. Friends, he supposed, was a good place to start.

“Friends, then.” He thrust out a hand. “I accept.”

---