Nobody's Baby but Mine(90)
His eyes had narrowed into mean-street slits at her description of Kevin. “Is that supposed to be comforting?”
“Only if the idea of Kevin and me together is discomfiting.”
He snatched the towel and vigorously rubbed his hair. “You know he’s only interested in you because you’re wearing my ring. If it weren’t for that, he wouldn’t pay any attention to you.”
He’d found her most vulnerable spot, and, just like that, the fun went out of the game. His meaningless threats of violence hadn’t bothered her, but the fact that he believed she was too geeky for another man to find attractive stung to the quick. “No, I don’t know that.” She headed toward her bedroom.
“Where are you going?” he called after her. “I thought you were going to patch me up?”
“The antibiotic is on the vanity. Do it yourself.”
He followed her into her bedroom, coming to a stop just inside the door. “Does Kevin— Does he mean something to you?” He flung down the hand towel. “How the hell could he mean anything to you? You don’t even know him!”
“Our discussion is over.”
“I thought you believed in open communication?”
She said nothing, but gazed out the window, wishing he’d go away.
He came up behind her, and she heard a curious gruffness in his voice. “I hurt your feelings, didn’t I?”
She slowly nodded.
“I didn’t mean to. I just— I don’t want you to get hurt, that’s all. You don’t have a lot of experience with jocks. They can be—I don’t know—hard on women, I guess.”
“I know.” She turned back to him in time to watch a crooked rivulet of water slide toward a flat brown nipple. “I think I’ve had enough high drama for today. You’d better go.”
He came closer instead, and when he spoke, his voice held a surprising note of tenderness. “We didn’t even get to the bare-butt spanking.”
“Maybe some other time.”
“How ’bout we just do the bare-butt part?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to bare anything to each other for a while.”
“Now why do you say that?”
“Because it makes everything too complicated.”
“Last night wasn’t complicated. At least not ’til you got all snooty.”
“Me!” Her head shot up. “I’ve never been snooty in my life!”
“Oh, yeah?” Her renewed feistiness must have been what he was waiting for because the glimmer of battle once again flared in his eyes. “Well, I happen to have been at that drive-in with you, and, believe me, you were snooty.”
“When?”
“You know very well.”
“I don’t.”
“That quite pleasant crap.”
“I don’t know what— Oh, that.” She regarded him more closely. “Did what I said bother you?”
“Hell, no, it didn’t bother me. You think I don’t know how good I am? And if you don’t realize it, well, I guess that’s your problem and not mine.”
He looked sulky, and she realized she had hurt his feelings last night. The knowledge touched her. Despite his seemingly boundless self-confidence, he had insecurities like everyone else. “It was more than pleasant,” she admitted.
“Damn right.”
“I’d say it was— It was—” She regarded him out of the corner of her eye. “What word am I looking for?”
“Why don’t you start out with pretty damn terrific?”
Her spirits made a quantum leap upward. “Terrific? Yes, that’s a good start. It was definitely terrific. It was also . . .” She waited.
“Exciting, and sexy as hell.”
“That, too, but . . .”
“Frustrating.”
“Frustrating?”
“Yeah.” A combative thrust to that square jaw. “I want to see you naked.”
“You do? Why?”
“Because I do.”
“Is this a guy thing?”
His truculence faded, and one corner of his mouth—the uninjured corner—curled. “You could say that.”
“Believe me when I tell you that you’re not missing much.”
“I’m probably a better judge of that than you are.”
“Oh, I’m sure that’s not true. You know those endlessly long legs you see on models? Those legs that go all the way up to their armpits?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I don’t have them.”
“Is that a fact.”
“My legs aren’t short, but they’re not exceptionally long, either. Just average. And as for breasts— Do you consider yourself a breast man?”