Page 9 of Tastes of Him

“Totally fine,” I replied, lying through my smile.I’d be even more fine if that asshole would fall off a cliff.I don’t know what came over me, but I knew there was no way in hell I was going to let Kevin spend a week alone with Rod. “But remember, I told you I was going to join you for the drive. We can’t have you disappearing somewhere in the middle of the country. Your mom would have my head.”

I heard Cameran giggle beside me, but I didn’t turn away from where I was now locked in a staring match with my newest adversary. I leaned closer to Rod, smiling wider when I felt him shift toward me and away from Kevin. Without skipping a beat, I placed my hand on Rod’s arm, fighting to ignore how warm and soft his skin was.Keep your head in the game, bitch. There is no way in hell we are letting Kevin ride along with him.

“That’s still okay, right? I can always fly back instead.”

Rod shook his head, and I could swear his smile almost looked relieved. “No way. You offered, so no take-backs.” The disappointment on Kevin’s face made me gleeful inside. “Thanks for the offer, Kev. We’ll have to meet up once I get back to Atlanta.”

Wait…what?

Kevin’s pout made me want to vomit, but I kept my smile pasted to my face. “Oh, fine,” he said, crossing his arms. “Call me when you get in, and we’ll go out for drinks. It’ll be nice to know someone there.”

“Of course. I got you, Kev.”

Part of me bristled at the thought ofKevmoving to the same city as us. This guy was coming on way too strong, and even though Rod was a big boy, I didn’t like it in the slightest. Rod’s shoulder brushing mine caught my attention again and pulled me from my musing.

“So, I guess it’s just you and me for a week.”

“I guess so.” My words were firm, and I held onto my smile, but all I could think about was how the hell I was going to handle sleeping beside Rod this week—and then being alone with him for another entire week—without losing control.

CHAPTER FIVE

Roderick

Maybe I didn’t quite think this through.

The thought echoed through my mind as Cameran shut the bedroom door, leaving Sean and me alone. I thought I had been prepared for this. Having him in my bed was something I had been wanting for so long that I wasn’t sure what to do with myself now that the moment had arrived. I wasn’t a creep. If he even seemed the least bit uncomfortable, I would park my ass on the couch, lumps be damned. Until then, I tried to invoke some calm and treat it like sleeping beside him was no big deal.

“Is it cool if I shower?”

I turned to Sean, swallowing hard as I tried to calm the rapid pounding of my heart. The light framed him, making his chestnut skin glow, and I had to do a double-take when I saw the tattoo branching out on his chest.

“You have a tattoo?” The question slipped out before I could think about it, and internally, I winced when he lifted his shirt, obstructing the view of his chest. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

I shifted my stance and put my hands in my pockets to keep from reaching out. Sean slowly lowered his arms until the shirt was around his waist. My eyes were drawn back to the dark shape that stood out from the rest of his unblemished skin. It was circular with vines of leaves weaving in and out, combining into the shape of a tree. He brought a hand up, brushing fingers over one of the branches.

“I got it a year or so ago.” I could feel him looking at me, but my gaze was entranced by the slow movement of his fingers over the pattern. I wanted to trace my own fingers there to see how it felt. “I saw the design and thought it was cool, so I got it.”

I nodded slowly. “It is.” The fight against gravity was hard, but when my gaze finally lifted up enough to meet his, thesomethingthat was always there lingering at the fringes of our interactions seem to burst forward with new life. “It’s gorgeous.”

Sean’s smile was wide, and even with the barely-there trimmed beard he liked to keep, it was like he de-aged years. It was a smile I wanted to burn into my brain to remember any time I needed a burst of sunshine to brighten my day.Yeah, I’ve got it bad.

“Thanks,” Sean replied. He gestured to the bathroom. “So…shower?”

Fuck yes.

“Right, yeah,” I said, nearly stumbling in place. “Feel free to use anything you need.”

Sean’s eyes slowly moved down my body, and I froze. Heat, pure tantalizing heat ran down my frame as I watched him watch me. This was him checking me out. It had to be. The wide smile he had been sporting slowly morphed into something wicked that made me think of hard kisses and wandering hands. How he managed to turn it on like this would always amaze me, and I was helpless to do anything until he released me from the spell I had fallen under.

“You should be careful,” he said as his eyes finally met mine. “You might be offering a lot more than you bargained for.”

Normally I was quick to come back with something. Our sporadic phone conversations had always been peppered with innuendo and banter, more so than with anyone else, even those I actually dated. But now, with him standing in front of me, shirt off and looking like the start of every fantasy I had under the cover of darkness, I found myself without words.

Sean winked before walking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind him. I stood there staring at the spot on the floor that he had just vacated and tried to reboot my damn brain. This was fucking flirting. I knew how to do that. So why had I been left with only static between my ears? When I heard a door open, I stepped out of my bedroom and into the hallway, just barely missing being run into by Julie. She frowned and cocked her head at me.

“You alright?”

“Yeah,” I replied, pulling my hands out of my pockets, and continuing into the living room. I side-stepped boxes, mind still lost in thought, before walking over and falling onto the couch. “Yeah, totally fine.”