Good Girl (Love Unexpectedly 2)

I swallow. “Yeah. I am. And so is Dolly, thanks to you.”

He shrugs.

“No, don’t do that,” I say. “You didn’t have to help me. It was above and beyond the call of duty.”

His eyes narrow slightly, and he comes to sit beside me slowly, as though he’s not sure he should or that he wants to. “Above the call of duty for whom?”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

“Did you mean it was above the call of duty for a property caretaker? Or a guy you’re sleeping with sometimes? Or…”

I desperately want him to finish the sentence, but he doesn’t.

I’m not even sure how I’d want him to. Noah Maxwell is not my boyfriend. I can’t imagine him as anyone’s boyfriend, truth be told.

And yet he’s more than a freaking caretaker.

And more than a lover too.

He’s…

Crap. I don’t know.

“You never kiss me,” I blurt out.

He stills before slowly turning his head to meet my gaze. “What?”

We’re sitting close on the bed, our hips a few inches apart, but not so close that my shortness of breath is warranted.

Still, I’ve come this far.

“You never kiss me,” I say, my voice small.

He blinks. “I kissed you that day in Home Depot. Thoroughly.”

I smile. “I know. But that wasn’t really you kissing me. That was you trying to stop that wretched woman from taking a picture of me. And let’s not forget that you told me you’d had better.”

He turns away, leaning forward, feet on the floor, elbows on his knees, as he stares at his hands. “That may not have been entirely true.”

My heart soars, but only for a minute, because it doesn’t change the fact that the guy’s got zero problems tweaking my nipples and screwing me senseless but avoids kissing me.

I want to know why.

We sit in silence for a few minutes before he turns his head, looking at me over his shoulder with an amused expression. “You’re going to be stubborn about this, huh?”

I lift my eyebrows, and he laughs, then looks back at his hands. “Fine, it’s like this. I got out of a relationship. Recently. And not the good kind.”

This is…not what I expected.

“Wait. Am I a rebound?”

“No,” he says quickly. “Maybe. I don’t know what this is. Fuck, do you?”

Good point.

Noah rubs his hands over his face before sitting up and turning his body to face me. “That night when I wanted to go down on you, you wouldn’t let me. Why?”

“Because it was too intimate,” I say, the answer rolling right off my tongue.