Page 9 of Strip Bare

He shrugged. "If you come clean, she'll go right back to setting you up on unwanted dates." A dark look passed across his face, slanting his eyebrows down as his tongue played with his lip piercing. "So don't tell them. We'll just have to pretend."

"Pretend to... want you?"

"Pretend you have me."

I swallowed and wasn't sure when we'd moved closer together. "You really don't have to do this."

"Maybe I want to," he said quietly and my heart raced as he looked up at me from his low vantage point on the bed. "I wouldn't be a very good friend otherwise, right?"

Friend. I forced a smile. "Right."

"Then let's do this." He held out his hand and I took it, pulling him up from the bed until our chests were flush before I stepped back. This was a terrible fucking idea. The worst form of torture, a small glimpse of what I was missing with him. But Kit was right—if I confessed to my mother, her meddling would start up all over again and probably with more urgency than before when she realized I’d lied.

"Let's do this," I agreed reluctantly and then caught his arm as moved past me for the door. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Not yelling. I was expecting you to be... Well, just thank you. For understanding."

We were standing closer than I realized and his breath feathered lightly across my lips as I looked into his eyes. There was a softness there that was usually covered by quick humor and mischief but I loved that he let me see it. Unguarded.

"I would never yell at you. Ever."

For some reason the words brought a lump to my throat so I just nodded in response and then jumped when a light knock sounded on the door behind me.

"Hey," Saylor said as she pushed it open without invitation. "Mom wanted me to come up and check you two weren't getting distracted." She rolled her eyes and I frowned as Kit took a small step back from me.

"And what if we were? You thought bursting in here was the best thing to do?"

"Please." She snorted as she waved between us. "This is so not happening. You may have Mom convinced, but I'm not buying it."

I folded my arms across my chest as I stared into eyes infuriatingly similar to my own. "You're wrong." Maybe it didn't matter if she knew, but if I couldn't convince my kid sister that Kit was mine then how were we supposed to fool anyone else?

"I've seen more chemistry between inanimate objects than you two."

Kit laughed, long and slow, and it made my stomach swoop strangely, like I'd just approached the drop on a rollercoaster and found myself unexpectedly falling. "How's this for chemistry?"

He closed the distance between us and slid one of his large hands over my jaw before fisting it in my hair and tugging my mouth to his. He tasted like whatever fruity beer he'd sampled on his shift and a sweetness that was wholly him. His tongue met mine in a slow guide as he pulled away, nipping at my bottom lip before whispering in my ear tauntingly—"Just go with it."

I was breathing hard and trying to disguise it and couldn't tell whether he was affected too. There was a slight smirk on his lips that had the blood in my head rushing further south and it wasn't until my sister cleared her throat that I remembered she was still standing there.

"I can admit when I'm wrong." She studied my face for a second before turning around and walking out of the room, calling her behind her as she went. "I'm going out for dinner with Xander tomorrow by the way."

"What?" I made to follow her, anything to distract me from the lingering after effects of Kit's kiss. "He didn't say anything to me about it," I muttered to Kit. "Aren't there like, courtesy rules for that kind of thing?"

"That's a little..."

I sighed. "I didn't mean it like that. He's my friend. She's my sister. My baby sister. Shouldn't he check I'm cool with this? For the sake of friendship?"

Kit shrugged as he closed his door behind us and I turned away to watch Saylor sashay into the kitchen. I loved her, but the girl was trouble. "They're both adults, Leo."

I grimaced. He wasn't wrong.

"So Xander," Saylor said as we walked into the room. "About dinner tomorrow night—"

"What dinner?" Xander looked at me with wide eyes, genuinely clueless, and I snorted in disbelief. Fucking Saylor.

"The one you're going to take me to."

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