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And the sensation of having her close but wanting her closer was definitely going to drive me crazy before this was all over.
Anna turned the music back on, and I settled into work to distract myself. Smashing walls seemed to the perfect tension-breaker to keep my mind off how good she had felt pressed up against me just a minute ago.
Anna kept busy, carrying pieces of drywall out to the alley. After I’d smashed down three more cubicles, I lifted several large pieces and started hauling to the dumpster, soaking in her chipper smile as she passed me back and forth.
“So what happened to Mr. Pre-med?” I found myself asking like an idiot as I smashed down another partition.
She was standing to the side, waiting to carry the pieces I knocked down to the dumpster. I ignored the look of surprise on her face at my question. I’d never asked about her boyfriends. Had never even ragged on her like her brothers did when she brought a new one home.
That was because I didn’t want to know anything about them. Didn’t want to think of them making her laugh, kissing her, touching her, fucking her.
I hit the partition wall hard before glancing up at her expectantly.
“Um, he wanted me to move to New Orleans with him while he was in med school.”
“You didn’t want to go with him?”
She lifted one shoulder, her calm expression fixed on me. “I wanted to open a dance studio here in Beauville.”
“You could’ve done it in New Orleans. Plenty of opportunity for a small dance studio to thrive there.”
“New Orleans isn’t Beauville.”
I huffed out a laugh. “No. It isn’t.”
“Besides,” she added, still holding me in her thrall, “he wasn’t what I wanted.” A softening of her voice. “He wasn’t the one.”
A piercing sensation struck me still, hollowing me out and stealing my breath. Her pointed gaze and soft words, as well as the unspoken ones, kept me from wanting to move beyond this fragile moment of possibility.
She wasn’t really saying, hinting, what I thought she was, was she?
Without a word, I nodded and picked up the sledgehammer.
After that, we worked in silence except for her music. When she turned it off, I stopped bashing at the two-by-four holding up the corner of the last cubicle.
She was tucking her phone in her back pocket when I turned to face her, my breath heaving from exertion. Her gaze wandered over my chest, that pink blush returning to her cheeks and the tips of her ears.
Fuck. If this obsession was even remotely mutual, keeping my hands off her was going to be the death of me. “You leaving?”
“Yeah. I made a spaghetti for you today, so I need to run home and get the sauce. I’ll cook the noodles and bread at your place.”
I was suddenly very thankful she lived in her parents’ garage apartment at the moment. The last thing we needed was them asking who she cooked the spaghetti for.
“Next time, you can cook it at my place if that’s easier.”
Her blush darkened. She bobbed her head in agreement. “Yeah. That would probably be better. So no one…”
She didn’t have to finish the sentence. We both knew that we were keeping secrets. I simply nodded.
“Okay, then. I forgot to give you your own key yesterday.” She handed me what looked to be a newly cut key, her soft fingers grazing my palm. “So you won’t have to wait for me to come to the studio.”
Exchanging keys felt strangely intimate. I’d never given another girl a key to my house. Anna was my first. I could barely admit it to myself, but I wanted her to be the last. The only one.
“Thanks.”
Then she passed close by me, leaving her hypnotic scent in her wake. “I’ll get a quick shower and see you at home.”
My gut tightened at both of those images. Her taking a shower to get the sweat and dirt off her slender, toned body, and her waiting for me at my home.
