Tomboy

She narrowed her eyes and flipped him off. “Don’t even joke about that.”

If he noticed that she’d given him the bird, he didn’t show it. The man was having a moment with her braid, and she had to admit seeing it wrapped around his fingers was giving her ideas, the kind that made her breath catch.

“So what’s your one thing?” he asked.

It took her a second to pull back from the mental image of her standing naked and facing the wall while Zach tugged her hair and fucked her from behind. Damn, it was getting hot in here.

Annoyed by how easy it was to get distracted by this man, she straightened her spine and lifted her chin, daring him to disagree with her. “Tonight doesn’t mean a thing. I’m getting you out of my system.”

Up went that pierced eyebrow, and the smile that curved his lips was anything but sweet. “Are you saying you think about me when you get yourself off?”

Only while she was in the shower naked and soapy and on her bed in that hoodie that smelled of him and every time she’d slipped her fingers beneath her underwear and played with her clit. That wasn’t information to be shared with him, though. A woman had to have a code, and hers was opposed to sharing her masturbation mental material with the subject of said fantasies.

“You wish,” she said, both words coming out way too soft to be anything but an affirmative.

Damn it, girl. Where is your bitchtitude when you need it?

He took a step closer, his hands going to her hips, but left space between their bodies that only emphasized how close they were. “I think you do, and now you have a bunch of fantasies you’d like to see happen in real life.” He popped the button of her jeans. “But only for tonight.”

That was as far as he took it—the back of his thumbs against the bare skin of her waist—and it took away her ability to focus on anything else for the moment, as if every nerve in her body had temporarily relocated to those two small spots. It was impossible to come just from an almost-touch. She wasn’t even close to it. Still, she’d been in the middle of fucking guys before and been less turned on than at this moment with Zach. Her heart was racing, her nipples were puckered so much they ached, and the throbbing between her legs grew with every shaky breath she inhaled while he just stood there and watched.

“You aren’t going to get attached, are you?” You asking him or yourself, girl?

He dipped his head lower but still maintained that breath of space between them. “Worried about breaking my heart?”

“I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.” The urge to raise herself up on her tiptoes and close the distance between them was an all-powerful swirl of want and need inside her, desperate to be released—but she had to be sure first. “This is just to get you out of my system. We’re clear?”

His gaze dipped down to her mouth before raising back up. “Without a doubt.”

Fucking A. This was her last moment to walk away, clear the front door, and drive off in her car. On so many levels this was just about the dumbest thing she could do. He was Zach effing Blackburn, and she was a nurse from working-class Waterbury with a bitchy attitude who wouldn’t know her way around a Sephora or a Victoria’s Secret if she had a map. If she gave more than thirty seconds’ thought to what the women he usually slept with looked l

ike, she’d be out the door. It sucked to admit it, and she’d never say it out loud, but, yeah, sometimes that comparison thing snuck through her defenses at the worst fucking time.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but it doesn’t look good,” he said, his low voice warm and smooth like honey. “If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to worry about protecting my feelings.”

She shook her head. “That’s not it.”

“Thank God,” he said, toying with the end of her braid again.

But still, he didn’t take it any further. Part of her kind of wished he’d make the next move. But he wasn’t going to. For one night only, this was her show—and if that was how it was going to be, then so be it.

“I want to see you naked,” she said, her hands sneaking up underneath the hem of his T-shirt, pushing it higher.

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it hadn’t been for him to take two steps back, leaving her hands just hovering in the air instead of pressed against the hard muscle of his abs. Her huff of complaint was barely past her lips before he reached down and whipped off his shirt.

Thank God for the wall behind her because, even though she’d seen his bare chest before, it wasn’t with the knowledge that she was about to get to touch it. That made a difference. She couldn’t explain it exactly, but the taking of things from theoretical to real made her feel like she was on the top peak of a roller coaster, unsure if the safety bar was going to keep her safe. Unsettling? Hell yes. Enough to make her want to stop? Fuck no—especially not when she couldn’t look away from him.

Zach’s shoulders were broad and strong, colorful tattoos covered his pecs and one arm all the way down to his elbow, and the soft overhead foyer light caught on the metal bars piercing his nipples. As he kicked off his shoes, her gaze dropped lower to the lined perfection of his abs and the sparse happy trail that disappeared behind his jeans.

“Like what you see?” he asked, bringing his fingers up to the button of his jeans.

Rolling her tongue back up in her mouth, because a woman had to have her pride, she crossed her arms and gave him as much attitude as she could at the moment, considering her nipples were about to poke holes through her shirt. “Has anyone ever answered no to that?”

His only answer was a cocky grin as he popped his jeans’ button open and then slid his zipper down.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand she wasn’t breathing. It wasn’t a choice. It was just simple reality. The anticipation was going to kill her dead before she ever got her hands back on the man. Her obit would read: Horny Nurse Done in By Hot Man’s Zipper.

Just when she thought it couldn’t get more intense, Zach shoved his jeans down, revealing thick thighs and calves that would make a soccer player envious and made her mouth go dry. Then there was the part of him still covered by a pair of black briefs. She’d never found that style particularly sexy before. Then again, she’d never seen Zach in only a pair of briefs that did nothing to hide how much he was packing.