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A slow smile curls the corners of her pouty lips. She’s fighting it, though, which means I’ve touched a nerve. “Because I need to know I’m beautiful?”
“Yeah.” I press a slow, lazy kiss on her mouth. “Yeah, you do.”
Anna has confidence and has never hidden her body from me, which is a huge turn-on. But I don’t think she’s been appreciated for all that she is.
Her green eyes shine up at me with pleasure, and my heart clenches. Then her long lashes flutter closed as she kisses me back with gentle, languid attention, and my head spins. A small hum rumbles in her throat.
“And what do you need to know?” she asks, running her fingers through my hair. God, that feels good.
I sag into her, nuzzling the warm, fragrant spot on her neck where it curves toward her collarbone. My words come out muffled. “It’s not my place to tell you.”
“A challenge?” She sounds way too pleased about that.
“Maybe.” I lick a path across her collarbone.
“Hmm...” Her hands cup my cheeks. She lifts my head and looks into my eyes as if she’s searching for some hidden secret. “Well then, you’re funny. Smart. Interesting.”
While I’m happy she thinks that, it isn’t what I need to hear from her. I’m beginning to regret challenging her. Because I can’t tell her what I need without exposing my underbelly. So I resort to the safety of quips. “Not beautiful?”
“You are.” Her grin turns cheeky. “But you know that already, don’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“You do.”
I nip the tip of her nose. “Not as important to guys as it is to girls, I’m afraid.”
“You’re probably right.” She snuggles closer, wrapping her arms around my neck, her hands playing with my hair again. I love the glint in her eyes. “Oh,” she says lightly. “There’s one other thing.”
“What?”
Her expression eases into something soft. “I like you just the way you are, Drew Baylor.”
Poleaxed. Again. My throat closes too tight to find my voice. I swallow convulsively.
“I like you just the way you are too, Anna Jones.” I’m crazy for you. I fucking adore you. “Go put your damn hair up,” I tell her instead. “And we’ll get you some coffee.”
twenty-two
Anna
Slinking into my apartment in the middle of the morning, I feel like an intruder. I don’t want to be here anymore. I want Drew. Disconcerting, as I’m more needy than I’ve ever been in my life. About anything. Though I’m pretty sure Drew is just as needy. It took twenty minutes of making out in his car before he let me go with a sigh and a promise to meet me after practice.
Practice and team meetings are not a choice but an obligation. I honestly don’t know how Drew will manage, seeing as he barely slept. But his body is a machine—a gorgeous, perfect machine—and he knows how to operate it.
Despite his protests to wait for him at his house, which were varied and persuasive, I came home. It would be too strange waiting around in his house alone. Too much of an opportunity to think. And Lord knows I’m an expert at overthinking things.
So here I am, lips swollen, hair wild, holding tight to my keys to keep them from jangling, and tiptoeing past the living room on the way to my room. When the couch squeaks and a dark shape lifts from it, I do the sensible thing and shriek like a poked banshee.
The keys fly across the room, and Iris barely ducks in time to avoid them hitting her head.
“What the fuck, Anna?”
“Sorry.” I sag against the living room wall. “You scared the ever-loving shit out of me.”
“Must have been preoccupied, what with doing the walk of shame,” Iris grumps before bursting into tears.
“’Ris!” I drop my bag and hurry to the couch. Only then do I realize she’s a mess, her makeup smeared, her hair standing up on one end. Her clothes are rumpled and creased as if she slept in them. And judging by the dents in the couch cushions, she probably has. “What’s going on?”
