Scorched

“Shit. I had no idea,” I said, but that wasn’t an excuse.

Sydney didn’t respond, and guilt exploded in my stomach like buckshot. Again, I was reminded of the fact that there was so little I knew of the real Andrea. I murmured a thanks and then made my way across the deck.

Tiny puddles led the way for me once I was inside the house. She’d gone upstairs, and I took the steps two at a time. I went straight to her room, ready to admit to being a complete dick.

“Andy, I’m—” I opened the door, and words left me, flew right out of my mouth and did a power dive out the window, head first. My brain shut the fuck down. I didn’t blink. I’d never blink again, and there was no way I’d ever get this image of Andrea out of my head. I wouldn’t want to, because standing in the middle of the bedroom, Andrea wore nothing but a towel—a small towel. A whole lot of pink skin was on display, sweetly curved and soft-looking, especially where the towel gaped.

Lust—a heated, insane kind of primitive lust slammed into me and I grunted out, “Fuck me.”

Chapter 7

Andrea

It was like someone had pressed the pause button on life. I stood a few feet from the bathroom, my arms at my sides as I stared at Tanner. Neither of us moved for a long moment, but my heart pounded as a flush raced across my cheeks, down my throat and under the towel. Pool water still clung to his bare chest, coursing down his abs, forming little rivers.

Tanner…he stared at me with a heat and intensity that was hard to mistake. My knees weakened for the first time in my life. In that moment, he didn’t look at me like I’d just busted my ass right in front of him and fallen into the pool. Right now, he didn’t look at me like he thought I was a useless party girl.

He looked at me like he saw a woman he wanted—he needed.

Then he moved.

Kicking the door shut behind him, he steadily advanced on me. The thud of the door closing snapped me out of my stupor. “What the hell?” I shrieked, clutching where I knotted the towel above my breasts as I took a step back. I was completely nude under the towel, and I’d never been this undressed in a room with Tanner before. It was too much. “What are you doing up here? Do you know how to knock?”

Tanner didn’t look like he heard me. “I came up here for a reason, but hell if I remember now.”

“W-what?” I sputtered. “You probably came to hurl more insults at me.”

He lifted his gaze to mine then. Some of the heat evaporated from his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insulting, but I was. That’s why I came up here. To tell you I’m sorry.”

For a second, I forgot I was in a towel and he had barged in on me. This was the second time he’d apologized. Never before had he ever apologized. Neither had I. I blinked slowly¸ having no idea what to say.

Tanner’s gaze dipped again, and his lips parted. A rough sound emanated from him, causing my toes to curl against the hardwood floors and my tummy to twist. That was about the moment when I realized there was one hell of a gap in the towel.

Holy crap.

Since I wasn’t a size 2 or even a size 10, a normal towel didn’t cover me completely. The towel parted just below my left breast, exposing the side of my stomach, my hip and my entire upper thigh. I knew he could see the underswell of my breast, and if he looked hard enough, God only knew what else he could see. I couldn’t even fool myself into thinking something different. If I moved too quickly, he’d definitely get an eyeful of my goods.

I almost laughed, because I’d been so against him seeing me in a bikini a few hours before, and now he saw pretty much just the same. But the back of my throat and my eyes burned, and if I laughed, it might’ve sounded a little crazed.

Tanner exhaled harshly, jarring me. “You’re beautiful, Andrea.”

Anger and pleasure warred inside me. He’d said that earlier, but I’d dismissed it. Buried it so deep in my thoughts that it was like hearing it for the first time. “Don’t say things you don’t mean. Not stuff like that.”

He frowned as his eyes met mine. “I do mean it.”

I swallowed hard as I shook my head. My fingers tightened on the knot. I didn’t know what to say to that. “You shouldn’t be in here.”

“I know.” But he made no effort to leave. “You hurt your knee.”

Huh? I glanced down, and saw he was right. Tiny drops of blood beaded over my left knee. “I…I must have skinned it when I fell.” As impossible as it sounded, my face burned even brighter.

“Let me take a look at it,” he said.

“It’s fine. Just a scratch.”

Tanner’s long legs ate up the remaining distance between us, and he was suddenly standing right in front of me. “I’m sure it’s fine, but I’d feel better if I looked at it. I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but why don’t you put some clothes on and let me check it out.”

I wanted him to get the hell out of my room, but he was giving me the option to escape. Shuffling to the bed, I grabbed the clothes I’d laid out before Tanner burst into my room. I stopped at the bathroom door and glanced over my shoulder. He still stood there, his hands clenched at his sides. Something about his stance unsettled me.

Actually, everything about Tanner right then unnerved me.

I slipped into the bathroom, legs shaking. My reflection in the mirror confirmed that my face was only a shade lighter than my hair. God, tonight had gone just amazing. Slipped and fell into the pool like a dork and then caught standing in a towel. I was ready to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.