“Ignore her. The paint fumes have gone to her head.”
“Oh? You redecorating?”
April followed them inside and set four glasses onthe counter with a grumpy thud before walking to the fridge to retrieve the iced tea. “No.”
“We had our nails done!” Emma wiggled her fingers in front of Luke’s face and he smiled, but his attention immediately snapped to April when she thrust out his drink. His hand wrapped around hers, warm, the heat a complete contrast to the cold glass in her palm, and he ran the pad of his thumb over the top of her subtle shimmery design. “Nice. I like that—this, I mean,” he corrected, but she’d seen the way his eyes had darkened and how his gaze fell to her mouth when she licked her suddenly dry lips.
So pretty nails were a turn-on for him? Interesting.
No! It’s not interesting at all. This isLuke;that kiss was a moment of madness. Nothing more. Stop. Looking. At. His. Chest.
April dragged her eyes up, cursing herself, and turned away quickly when Luke began to drink the iced tea, the strong column of his throat working effortlessly as he swallowed.
“Hello? April?” Emma snapped her fingers in April’s face, looking smug. “I said, are these drinks for us?”
“What? Yes. Sorry.” April waved a hand and decided she couldn’t trust herself to look at Luke while his shirt remained off, so she’d have to avoid looking at him at all.
But worse than the satisfied look on Luke’s face? The smug ones on her best friends’.
Even the sweet freshness of her iced tea couldn’t clearher head, not while Luke was watching her intently. The memory of their kiss was written all over his face, there in the challenging crook of his brows, the slight smirk on his mouth, the way he cocked his head to one side as if to ask,Want some more?
“What?” she snapped and ignored the way Em and Izzy dipped their faces to hide in their drinks. “You keep staring at me, Pointer. So spit it out.”
That cocky smirk emerged, now full-blown, and she set her drink down with a thump on the countertop. “How would you know I’m staring at you, unless you’re staring back?”
Her mouth dropped open. “I amnotstaring back. What would I be staring at? Your sweaty … abs?” She huffed a laugh that sounded more flustered than condescending. “Get a grip, Pointer.”
He set his glass down too and raised his hands, palms out. “Sure, Jones. Where do you want me?”
Temper ratcheting up, April’s jaw clenched as he laughed, the sound conjuring up the memory of how his voice had felt vibrating against her chest while they’d kissed. “Where do Iwantyou? How about out of my house? Don’t you have a lawn to poorly mow?”
“Oh, totally. You want me to do your mom’s too while I’m at it? I mean, it’s not likeyou’vebeen keeping it in check. Or do you just like the jungle vibe?” Luke feigned concern, bending slightly to peer into her eyes like he was nothing more than the son of a worried neighbor.
“You know, I think we’re going to go …” Two thunks sounded as Emma’s and Izzy’s glasses were placed on the counter.
“Yeah, actually, I’ve got that thing …” Izzy trailed off as she and Emma hurried from the kitchen, but April barely noticed as she glared at Luke. The click of the front door closing a moment later hardly registered either as April bit out a retort.
“Maybe I do like the overgrown look,” she hissed. “But if I wanted to mow the lawn, which I don’t, I could do it better than you. Faster too, I bet.”
Luke laughed, not bothering to hold it back. “You must besofun at parties.”
She took a step closer, nostrils flaring as she glared at him. “You wouldn’t know, because I’dneverinvite you.”
“Oh? Just like you’d neverkissme?” Luke bit his bottom lip and leaned in to whisper in her ear, “Or are you lying to yourself about that, too?”
Heat flashed through her, curling her toes as her breaths grew shallow. She looked up at him, hating that his height meant she only came up to his chest. “If you’re trying to seduce the bar out of me, you’re too late. Noah and I have already made the arrangements. We’re whiteboxing the place as we speak and opening a flower shop. So you can go now—you won’t change my mind.”
“Luckily for you, I have no intention of trying to change your mind. But,” he added, moving nearer until her back was pressed against the edge of the kitchencounter, “if I wanted to, I could. I can be very,verypersuasive, Jones.”
Suddenly, it occurred to her how close they were standing. The heat from his chest raising the hairs on her arms, his breath lightly ghosting across her mouth, and when his eyes dropped to her lips she knew he was thinking the same thing.
“Don’t.” She placed a hand on his chest, intending to restrain him, push him away, but instead it was like the contact rooted her in place, a live wire coursing through her. “What happened before meant nothing. Ifeltnothing. I said it never happened and I meant it.”
“Jones …”
“You think you can just walk in here with your … yourblue eyesand muscles and that”—she gulped—“that happy trail, and think I’ll—what? Fall to my knees in the hopes of another kiss?” She laughed but the sound was too high, too breathy.
“If you’d rather thatIwas the one who kneeled, I can make that happen,” he murmured, the low rumble of his voice making her nerves stand to attention and her inner walls clench. Slowly, as if giving her the chance to run away, to berate him some more, Luke’s mouth pressed against hers, feather-light. Barely a kiss. “How about it, Jones? You say this means nothing, that our kiss never happened, that it didn’t affect you.”