So Wrong (Heart of Hope 3)

He scoffed. “No hot date.”

I bit my lip, not sure I should ask the question I was thinking. At the same time, I was dying to know. “Did you and Veronica really stay together when she’d visit?”

He looked at me over his shoulder with a smirk. “Interested in my sex life, Tessa?”

My blood heated, although I wasn’t sure if it was in embarrassment or his asking if I wanted to know about his sex life. Either way, my question was inappropriate.

“Forget I said—”

“We would occasionally hook up when she was in town. Not for a long time, though. No, these days I’m celibate. Maybe I could become a monk this weekend.”

I snorted. “I don’t think Monks are as ripped as you.”

He grinned. “You noticed I’m ripped?”

I rolled my eyes. “Do you buy your clothes one size too small on purpose?” I poked him on his bicep, which filled the sleeve of his polo shirt like the Hulk about to bust out of his clothes.

He held up his arm. “You’d never know I was the skinny kid that got beat up a lot, would you?”

“Is that true?” I gaped at him.

He sucked in a breath as if a bad memory came back to him. He put his arm down and turned his head forward again. “Yep. How about you? You got a hot date?”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “No.”

“It’s Friday night. Surely you have plans with the girls to go out, live it up.”

“Not tonight. We talked about going out tomorrow maybe.”

He turned his head toward me again. “You must have a boyfriend.”

“Why?”

“Because. You’re young, pretty …”

He thought I was pretty. My heart did a little flip even though my head said he was just being nice.

“Thank you, but no. Too busy working and going to school.” I squeezed his shoulders again and then dug my thumbs into his shoulder blades.

He groaned. “Ah, come on. I worked, went to school, played football and still had time to date in college.”

“I suppose I’d have time if there was the opportunity.”

“There have to be plenty of men out there who want to give you the opportunity.”

I didn’t respond at first and instead kept massaging his shoulders. I felt a little uncomfortable discussing my love life, or lack thereof, with him. I wasn’t sure I wanted him to know just how little opportunity I’d had.

“A few guys have sniffed around, but … I don’t know. I just wasn’t interested.”

“You’re one of those, huh?” he said with humor.

“Those what?”

“A woman with discerning taste. College men can be boneheads sometimes. I can’t blame you for avoiding them.”

“Mostly, none are very interesting to me.” The truth, I realized in that moment, is that most of the men I met while in school or out with my roommates, I compared to Dylan, and none of them rose to his level of gentleness, kindness, or sexiness.

“So … no hookups with attractive but dumb men?” he teased.