Tempting Her Best Friend(16)

He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. “No.”

Pretending he hadn’t just negated her last statement, she clapped her hands together and said, “Okay then, let’s go find you some juice. Or a Snickers. I hear those really satisfy. Then again, your issue isn’t hunger so—eep.”

The squeak escaped her throat when Dillon grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in the opposite direction of her suitor. Her cheeks warmed as the people they wove through stared after them. She hated being the center of attention, and if Dillon kept this up, they’d be the entertainment portion of the evening.

At last, they reached the corner of the ballroom, where Dillon promptly placed her. With his feet planted apart and arms crossed, his wide shoulders effectively hid her from curious eyes. She wasn’t sure if it was the skimpy costume or the way he was standing that made him seem so…so big.

Alyssa rarely ever saw him in anything less than jeans and a T-shirt. He’d been overweight as a child until he’d shot up two feet and started playing football in high school and shed most of it. It wasn’t until college when he found a love for kickboxing that all of his squishiness was replaced with solid muscle.

No one would ever guess he’d struggled with his weight, but he still seemed to have insecurities about his body. He wasn’t one to walk around shirtless, even in the summer. So although Alyssa knew he was muscular from the way he felt when she hugged him, she only ever saw his arms and, on the rare occasion he wore a tank, his shoulders. Only now she wondered if she’d ever truly looked at them, because she didn’t remember them being so…well, big.

She rolled her eyes at her own inability to come up with better adjectives than a preschooler. Apparently noticing well-defined muscles made her as intelligent as a teenager noticing a set of double D’s. How very primitive of me. Maybe I should be the one wearing a caveman costume.

“Tell me you were not about to go up to that douche’s room.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared up at him. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business. What the hell are you doing here, Dillon? And why are you in that ridiculous costume pretending to be a cover model?”

“It was the only way I could get in to stop you from making a huge mistake.”

“What kind of mistake?”

“The kind where you sleep with a total stranger,” he said between clenched teeth.

“It’s not like I’m picking up some guy at a dive bar in a seedy part of town,” she hissed. “Come on, Dillon, you know me better than that. I’m not one to throw caution to the wind. I don’t even jaywalk, for chrissake.”

His rigid stance finally broke. He braced one hand on the wall next to her head and leaned in, his eyes intense. “I know, but I still don’t like the idea of you throwing yourself at some guy just because you have certain…needs.”

The heat of indignation spread from her toes to the roots of her hair faster than a brush fire. Digging her nails into her palms, she forced herself to remain calm. “Oh, I see,” she bit off. “And just who do you suggest I get to attend to my ‘needs,’ hmm? You?”

“Yes.”

“See, even you won’t—” His response hurtled into her brain a little late but still hit her with the force of a cannonball to the chest. She shook her head. No way. She’d heard him wrong. Her subconscious was projecting answers that would quell her out-of-control, starved-for-action libido. “You said ‘no,’ right?”

“No.”

“No you said yes? Or no as in—”

“Alyssa.” Dillon gripped her shoulders and stepped in close. She tried to retreat, at least a little to increase her oxygen intake, as he seemed to be stealing every last molecule between them, but her body was already wedged into the corner.

There was nothing to do but wait for him to confirm whether or not he’d propositioned they have sex, although something told her she’d heard him right the first time. Which begged the question, what did she plan to do about it?





Chapter Four

“Yes,” Dillon repeated. “I think I should be the one to help you.”

Christ, he felt so dumb saying that. Like having sex with her was some huge altruistic favor as her friend. What she didn’t know was that she’d be bringing his years-long fantasy to life. Hell, the moment he laid eyes on her in that red dress and black boots, several fantasies came to mind. None of them compared to the real thing, though. The silky material clung to her body like a second skin and displayed the whole of her back. His fingers itched to trace the line of her spine and continue over the crease of her ass until he reached the hot flesh between her legs.