“I like you.”

“That’s not an answer to any of the questions I asked.”

“I’m too busy staring at your mouth to remember what the questions were.” He kisses me again before I can protest. It’s another minute or two of tongues slow dancing before he finally disconnects. Embarrassingly, I follow his lips, trying to keep them glued to mine.

“I actually have to get back to my place. My dog, Trip, needs to be let out and I can’t trust my brother to do that, so you don’t need to worry about inviting me to stay for drinks, or a sleepover, or whatever.”

I huff a quiet laugh. Of course he’s been playing with me. He doesn’t want to spend the night; he just wanted the invitation.

“I’ll be around tomorrow afternoon. Will you?”

“I should be.” I try to sound nonchalant instead of eager. I’m not sure I’m successful.

“Great. I’ll see you on the beach, then?”

“Sure.”

When he moves out of my personal space, I finally feel like I can breathe again. I follow him out of the laundry room and down the hall. I stop short when Marley comes into view, a forkful of pasta halfway to her mouth.

Her eyebrow is raised as her gaze moves from Pierce to me. She drops the fork in the Styrofoam container and props a fist on her hip. “I so called this.”

Dear Embarrassment,

I’m breaking up with you. Forever.

No love,

Rian

CHAPTER 11

EMBARRASSMENT FOREVER

RIAN

“Okay, well, thanks for checking on the dryer. Sorry that you had to come here so late!” I say, very loudly.

Marley snorts and Pierce barks out a laugh.

“I’ll see myself out then. Enjoy the leftovers.” He nods to Marley before turning to me. “I hope the dryer keeps doing its job.”

I follow him to the patio door. My palms are sweaty and my face is surely the shade of a beet. He turns as he steps out onto the deck. “So this is how you’re playing it?”

“I panicked. I told you, this isn’t how I usually do things.”

“That makes two of us. I don’t usually get kicked out, especially not before the post-coital snuggles.”

What does it say about me that I’m kicking out the man I’ve had the best sex of my life with less than fifteen minutes after the act is over? I’m having regrets all over the place. And he’s a snuggler? I thought all men hated after-sex snuggles. I avoid commenting on that, though. “You said you had to check on your dog. I figured you wanted an invitation to stay to stroke your already enormous ego, but then you’d already have a reason to say you had to leave anyway.”

“I was trying to make you feel better about this.” He motions between us.

I bring my fingers to my lips and start to bite my nail, but realize it makes me look anxious—which I am—and they’re dirty from being in the sand not that long ago. Plus, they smell like sex, so I drop them and clasp them in front of me instead.

“Look at you.” He moves in.

My feet stay where they are, but the rest of my body angles away. “What’re you doing?”

“Trying to kiss you goodnight before I leave. Unless you’ve changed your mind and decided you want me to stay.”

I purse my lips, and he gives me that damn smile again. So cocky. So knowing.

“It’s all right. I get it. You have an early morning, and there’s no way you’ll be able to keep your hands to yourself if I’m in bed with you.”

“You are such an—”

Before I can finish the sentence, his palm curves around the side of my neck, thumb caressing the edge of my jaw, and he tips my chin up. It all happens in less than a second. And then his lips are on mine, tongue sweeping out, aggressive for a few strokes before he disengages, throwing me completely off-kilter. “Don’t worry. Next time we’ll get to cuddle.”

I push on his chest. “Who said there’s going to be a next time?”

“Trust me, hotness, there’ll be a next time. See you tomorrow.” He backs away and gives me a final departing wave, then disappears down the stairs.

“Oh my God. That man is unbelievable.”

“I should’ve put money on that.”

I turn around, trying to come up with some witty retort, but I’ve got nothing. She totally called it, and I made Pierce do the walk of shame. Well, it was more swagger than walk, but still, he’s gone and he was totally right, about everything. How stupid am I?

“Whatever’s going on between the two of you is like pheromone chemical warfare.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Being in the same vicinity as the two of you is like…” She struggles to find the right words. “… like tripping on ecstasy while shooting opiates.”

“You’ve never done either of those things.” At least I don’t think she has. She better not have or we have issues.

“Well, the way you two are when you’re near each other is exactly what I imagine it would be like.” She stuffs another forkful of noodles in her mouth.

I make a huge show of stretching and yawning. “Well, I’m going to bed. See you in the morning!”

“Whoa, wait a damn second, you need to explain what happened here. Based on what I overheard, you got the boning of your life and from the look of things, you made him leave. I want some details.”

“If you overheard, you don’t need details. We have an early morning. I need sleep and him staying would prevent that. Plus, he needs to take care of his dog.”

“This is such bull. What was he saying about seeing you tomorrow? Are you setting up a date for boning round two?”

“I’m not going to sleep with him again.” I’m totally going to sleep with him again if the opportunity arises. I already know it. That was too good not to repeat. The cuddling I don’t know about, though—it leads to talking and talking changes things. It blurs lines and pushes boundaries. It makes it difficult to stay on the right side of casual.

“Should I remind you now that you said you weren’t going to sleep with him in the first place?”

“Well, I mean it this time.” I don’t mean it at all.

“A hundred buck says you do.”

“I’m not making bets with you about this.”

“Because you know you’ll lose.”

“I’m going to bed and you should do the same.” I walk down the hall, ending the conversation.

* * *

The next morning my alarm goes off at seven forty-five. Because our job often requires us to be out of the house late in the day, and into the evening, I’m not much of an early riser, but it’s a showing day and it’s making me nervous. Most of the time I’m not involved in the showing part, so nerves aren’t an issue. However, when we have multiple showings in one weekend, which we’ve been doing more of lately, I’ve become part of the whole process.

And this time I’ll be front and center. As we get closer to having our own Hamptons beach house to flip, which will hopefully be soon, I need to assess what people are looking for and take note.

I pass by Marley’s room on the way to the kitchen to make coffee. She’s still asleep. I leave her where she is while I brew the coffee, aware if I wake her before it’s ready, she’ll be a complete bear.

Muscles I didn’t know I have ache. I eat a banana while I wait, hoping the potassium will keep them all from seizing. Sitting on the stool is uncomfortable on account of the sex last night. I’d grab a cushion from the other side of the room if it didn’t entail standing or walking. Dear Lord, that man knows how to use foreplay as a weapon.