I growled, “I’m not wearing a shirt, idiot. And why did you cock-block me, Luke? That guy had some serious potential.”
Luke leaned back against his dark navy wall, facing me, and took a bite of his pizza. He licked his lips, and my entire body lit up in flames. A sexy, shirtless man like Luke, eating a slice of mouth-watering pizza, was beyond anything I could dream up.
After he swallowed, he asked, “Can you please stop saying the word ‘cock’?”
I grinned mischievously. “Cock. Cock. Cock. Cock. Cock. COCK. YOU COCK-BLOCKED me!” My grin faded because I remembered that I was seriously pissed off, and extremely disappointed.
His eyes darkened and his chest rose as he took a huge inhale of breath. He ran that tongue of his along his bottom lip, and I clanked my teeth together. Whew, did it just get hot in here?
“I take it your date didn’t go well?”
“Are you freaking kidding me? I spent the entire dinner trying to convince him that you and I weren’t sleeping together! I didn’t even touch my food, because I was trying to explain this weird neighborly relationship we have, which is nonexistent, by the way. You annoy me to no fucking end, and that’s all there is.”
He chuckled. “You’re forgetting all this sexual energy that the two of us possess when we’re together.”
I gasped. “There is no such thing!”
“Mm, kay. You keep telling yourself that.”
I ignored all the thoughts jumping around in my head from that comment.
“Seriously, I’m angry, Luke. I have never ruined one of your dates. Or, booty calls, I should say.” I ran my hand through my perfectly curled hair. “Why did you do that?”
“You’ve ruined almost every single date or, booty call, that I’ve had.”
My mouth gaped. “What? How? I’ve never done a single thing!”
“You sit over there on your porch, with your nose in a book, wearing some outfit with just enough skin peeking out to make it noticeable, and all you are is a big, fucking tease. Miss I-can’t-date-Marines; it’s stupid.”
I thought for a moment to take in what he had just said. It’s not stupid. My rule wasn’t stupid. It was in place for a reason. I needed to protect myself.
I whispered, while spinning around slowly, “It isn’t stupid…”
Then I started to look around his house, all while trying to wrap my mind around the fact that he had also called me a tease.
A tease? That’s ridiculous.
I met his eyes once, while scanning the wall behind him, and they ha
d softened. His face was relaxed, and he was studying me. Like he was trying to figure me out. I turned my gaze at the last second and tried to shake off the feeling of confusion.
Luke’s house was almost identical to mine on the outside. The only difference was that mine was yellow and his was a light grey. The inside was set up the same, with a long hallway leading down to the kitchen, and with what I was assuming was another hallway to the left, where the bedrooms and bathrooms were. The only other difference was that our kitchens were on opposite sides of the house. His window over the kitchen sink mirrored mine over my sink.
The walls were a dark navy, and my eyes washed over his living room. It was modern, with a huge TV mounted on the wall.
Luke cleared his throat and I finally tore my eyes away to rejoin the thoughts in my head about him calling me a tease.
I muttered, “Whatever. You’re only saying that because you want to act like I’ve done something equally as bad to you, but I haven’t. You owe me.”
His eyes twinkled. “Okay, what do you want?”
I stopped breathing. What do I want? I want you to stalk over here, rip this pretty dress off my body, and make me forget about my crappy date. Wait, what?
I stared directly into his playful eyes, reached down slowly, and unclasped both of my heels, kicking them off to the side. Luke’s eyes were hooded as he watched my every move. I could have sworn I heard him take a sharp inhale of breath when I started to pad my way over to him, where he leaned against the wall. When there were only a few inches between us, I licked my lips, smiled, and darted my eyes down to his mouth. His lips were perfect for a man: they were slim but the not too slim. His bottom lip was slightly fuller than the top and for a brief second, I wondered how it would feel to kiss him. Would it take my breath away? Would he slip his tongue inside?
Feeling my heart pick up speed, I quickly snapped out of it and went back to my plan. I didn’t dare take my gaze off his lips when I slowly reached over and grabbed the pizza. When I looked back up at him, his eyebrows were furrowed, and his head tilted just slightly. Once I had that cheesy piece of heaven in my palm, I skipped off into his open living room and sat right down on the grey leather couch.
When I looked back over at him, his mouth was still wide open, and I cackled, taking a huge bite of the pizza.