Heartburn (Love By Design 3)

Whit leaned over the couch bracing his arms on the edge. His breath warmed the goosebumps on my arms. “Lia, if that’s what I wanted, then why do I keep thinking about you? Being inside you bare and craving the soft feel of your hair in my hands. You’re driving me crazy.”

He resumed pacing squeezing his hands into fists. Part of me wanted those hands on me and I felt dizzy thinking he might grab me and shake me to make his point. I did a lot of thinking since then and pressed my thighs together to distract me from what I missed since I saw him last.

“Um, sorry? Maybe you could just sit down? Maybe slow down too?” He looked back and I decided to let him run circles in the apartment if that made him happy. What the hell did I know anyway about the male species in their natural environment? My Anthropology 101 course hadn’t covered this yet. He resumed pacing and I waited for him to say something more.

“You. Drive. Me. Crazy.” He tracked around the apartment to stand in front of me again finally grabbing me by my arms pulling me up into his embrace. His war

m hands were rough against my barely clothed body and the pillow between us dropped to the floor.

“Thank you?” As far as compliments went, I was hardly impressed.

“Fucking crazy, Amelia.” Those deep blue eyes zeroed in building a pressure inside me. The intensity felt like a cork of champagne at New Year’s on the verge of popping the way he held me captivated silencing everything around me.

I poked him in the stomach and he made a forced sound. “You. Make. Me. Dizzy.” Overwhelmed was an understatement.

“You were right, though,” he muttered, pulling me closer until the air in my chest compressed and I had to push him back to ease up so I could catch my breath.

“About what?”

“If I told you, I’d probably scare you.” He was scaring me now not telling me.

“Tell me.” I whispered looking up into his eyes.

He shook his head like he was shaking shower water from his hair. He didn’t answer my question and instead asked another of his own. “Why did you brush me off that morning when I brought you back to your friends’ campsite?”

Unexpected, but worth exploration. What had I been thinking that morning. A little of everything unsure in the light of the day.

“I guess I was trying to not be one of those desperate clingy girls after sleeping with you within hours of meeting you. I didn’t want to be that girl.” I couldn’t stop the wince in my voice.

I was that girl.

Sooo that girl.

Seeing Whit in front of me like this, however, I didn’t want to admit those words more than once, ever again.

“I don’t see you that way. I see a girl who met a shitty guy who needs his eyes examined and a football shoved up his ass.”

“Oh…okay awkward…charming maybe and…uh, a little sweet?”

“It’s the least that shit-dick deserves. Did you see him after?” Whit grunted.

I tried to not find the insult in his question. “As in hooking up? No. That ship sailed with him riding the Dinah train.”

Shaking his head like he needed to get rid of that image as much as I did, he squeezed me close against his chest. “He’s an idiot. God, I’m glad he’s an idiot.”

“I’ll pass that on to Ryder.” I tried shrugging him off me, but he didn’t let go chuckling into my neck.

“I mean it. I want to get to know you better because I really like what I’ve seen so far and I don’t mean you naked, though that’s nice too.”

“Again…kind of awkward.” My voice raised while his compliments felt easy, not contrived, and I wanted to believe him. I desperately wanted to believe him, but I was unsure if I could. I broke free and walked to the opposite side of the apartment clutching my arms around my middle. He cramped my space, and overwhelmed me, but I didn’t want him to leave either, not until I’d figure at least part of this out.

“Lia, if you give me a chance, give us a chance, I want to see where this will go.” Time froze and the crossroad was before me where I could do what I’d always done, play it safe, but unhappy.

“Whit?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever hunted out a girl’s address before and I’m grateful those friends of yours made it easy giving my supervisor Jeff your driver’s license to file with his report.”

“Really?” His confidence wavered with my screech. Whit had to hunt me out. Nobody had ever done that for me before. Damn if he didn’t make my decision that much easier to see where this might go.