Page 14 of Ice Around the Edges

“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you.”

“’Bout what?”

He cleared his throat. “I wanted to know if you weren’t doing anything for New Year’s if I could take you out.”

Tall, dark, handsome man, why on earth would I say no?

“No, I don’t think so,” I told him sadly. “But I appreciate you coming by to ask.”

He was surprised; it was all over his face. “Why?”

“Because I’m sort of in the middle of something right now, and I need to sort it out before I do anything else.”

“Something with a guy?”

“Yeah.”

“Important guy?”

“Pretty much the guy.” I sighed heavily.

He nodded, shrugged, held the plastered smile in place. “Okay, then, I guess I’ll see you around. Give me a call if anything changes.”

“I will, thanks.”

And with that he was gone.

“Can I come out now?”

My head swiveled to the bathroom door, and there, peeking out, was Dixon Bain. “What the hell are you doing back here?”

He came out of the bathroom, and I as he strode forward I noticed how tight his jeans were and how they clung to his long, muscular legs.

“You’re checking me out.”

“I am not,” I grumbled.

His cackle was evil as he moved to the side of the bed, pulled the curtain around, shielding us from prying eyes, and then climbed onto the small bed to lie down beside me.

“What’re you––get off the bed, you’re hurting me.”

“I am not. Shut up,” he growled back, putting his head down on my chest, on the left side where I hadn’t been shot, under my chin so that if I wanted to, if I wanted, I could rub my face in his hair. “God, you’re pain in the ass.”

“Dixon,” I croaked out his name.

“I’m hard to love.”

Weird segue, and I had no response for him. I never had any trouble with it except at the end.

“Most guys don’t get me.”

When we’d gone to school together, overwhelming was the word most used about him. Intimidating was next. He demanded your attention. He was so decisive, so instantly possessive, that there was barely time to breathe once he made up his mind that he wanted you.

“I scare guys off.”

“Me too,” I told him. The heat from his body was seeping into mine and my groin was filling with blood. “They run for the same reason you did: I smother them.”

“I never had a problem with that,” he said, shifting so his thigh dropped between my parted legs.