I took her keys and locked her in as I left. I would have to set my alarm to get back down there early enough in the morning to give her the keys so she could go to school. I wanted to see her again anyway. I really wanted to wake up in bed with, her but that wasn’t safe. I couldn’t take more.
Going up to my apartment, I knew Green had come in an hour ago. I had heard him and the silence that had followed. He hadn’t brought the party home, and I owed him one. For covering for me tonight and understanding that I didn’t want everyone there messing things up.
The door was unlocked when I walked inside, and Green was sitting in the recliner with a beer, watching late-night television. His gaze swung to meet mine as I closed the door behind me. I owed him more of an explanation. He had taken that one small explanation on the phone and handled things.
“Thanks,” I said as I sank down onto the sofa.
“Yeah. That ain’t gonna do it. I need more than that,” he said, and cocked an eyebrow at me.
I nodded. He was right. He deserved more.
“Trisha invited Blythe to Daisy May’s birthday party. Trisha had lunch with her today and, well, you know what Blythe’s like. You spend five minutes with her, and you’re sucked in. You want to get closer,” I let out a chuckle and shook my head. Damn, I was sunk. “Anyway, then I showed up with Britt, which was a stupid move. I was surprised to see Blythe, and I handled it wrong. She assumed I didn’t want her there because for some goddamn reason she thinks the worst of herself. And Amanda and Trisha were about ready to murder me from the looks on their faces.” I turned and looked at Green as the emotion in my throat started clogging me up again. Fuck, if this didn’t get to me every time I thought about it. “She stood in a kitchen full of people she didn’t know and informed them all they were being unfair to me. That I was innocent and that she didn’t want anyone upset with me.” I stopped and swallowed hard. “She f**king said it was her fault.”
“She defended you,” he said, and I could see he understood. I didn’t have to get mushy and act anymore like a pu**y than I was already. He got it.
“Yeah, she did.”
Green took a long drink of his beer, then leaned forward and sat it down on the table before looking over at me again. “She sees you. Not the guy the others see. She sees you. The guy I’ve known all my life. The one you don’t share. That guy. She saw him when she first looked at you.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he looked directly at me. “Thing is, I know for a fact people can only see what you allow them to see. You let her see you. I watched you let her see you. Before you even knew her, you’d let your guard, and all those f**king walls you have built around you, down.” He stood up and stretched. I let his words sink in, and I realized he was right. “She’s seen the ass**le the rest of the world sees. Problem is, you let her see the real you first.” He shrugged. “Maybe that isn’t a problem. But I guess you’ll determine that. Just don’t f**k this up. Because, dude, most every man alive would kill to be in your shoes.”
I watched as my best friend walked down the hall to his room. His door clicked closed behind him.
Chapter Thirteen
BLYTHE
The smell of coffee woke me up. Confused, I stared at the ceiling and tried to figure out when I went to bed last night. A cabinet closed in the kitchen, and I shot up out of bed. Just before I went into full-blown panic, last night came back to me as my sleepy mind began to catch up with the rest of me.
Krit. He had been there. I’d fallen asleep in his arms. Spinning around, I looked down at my bed, but the other side didn’t look like it had been slept on. The covers were much neater than they normally were, but the other pillow was still unused.
I slipped into the bathroom to brush my teeth and my hair before walking out to the kitchen to face him. Not that it mattered much. He had been quiet last night when I had come back into the living room after changing. I didn’t have to ask him to know he had been rethinking things.
I had to reassure him that this changed nothing and that we could still be friends. I wouldn’t act weird and get upset over him dating his slew of women. But for my sanity, I could not allow what we did last night to happen again. It had been . . . It had been the most . . . There were no words for what that had been.
Quietly, I made my way into the kitchen and stopped and watched him as he poured a cup and started fixing it the way I liked it. At least he didn’t look like a man who was about to stop being my friend. Had he stayed there all night? On the sofa maybe?
“Good morning,” I said, hating the sleepy sound still clinging to my voice.
Krit jerked his head around then slowly let his gaze drift down my body and back up again. He had seen me in my oversize T-shirt and boxers last night. He picked up the cup in front of him and brought it to me.
“Morning,” he said, a grin tugging at his lips.
At least he didn’t look like scared runaway Krit.
“Made you coffee,” he said as I took the cup from him.
“Thank you.”
He stood there close to me even after I took the cup and we stared at each other. He was the pro at this kind of thing. I had no idea what I was supposed to say. So I waited.
“Was it too much to ask for you not to look so damn good in the morning?” he asked as he reached out and wrapped a strand of my hair around his finger.
“I brushed it,” I admitted.
He chuckled softly. “Next time I want to see it pre-brushed.”
Next time? There would be a next time? I didn’t want to get too excited. He could mean the next time he stays over and watches a movie and puts me to bed.
“I have a gig tonight about an hour away. What time do you get off work?” he asked as we stood there, my coffee forgotten in my hand. Krit’s blue eyes could make you forget your name when they were focused on you.
“Uh, four,” I replied in a little bit of a daze from his intensity. He was never this close and intense before yesterday.
“I’ll pick you up at six. I want you to go with me.”
As if any female with a beating heart could tell him no. I simply nodded.
He grinned, and his dimples came out. I reached up and touched one before I could stop myself.
His grin slowly faded as his eyes flickered with the heat I remembered from last night. “What you doing, love?”
“I like your dimples,” I replied honestly.
He reached for the coffee he had given me and I let him have it. He set it down on the counter beside him then picked me up and set me on the other counter, leaving him standing snuggly between my legs.
I wasn’t sure what he had planned on doing until he cupped my face with both of his hands and held it as if I were breakable. His eyes locked on mine then dropped to my lips. “I was gonna be good and not kiss you this morning. But I don’t think I can do that.”
I didn’t want him to be good. “Okay,” I said, almost afraid to talk. I didn’t want him to change his mind.
He moved in closer, and then his mouth was on mine and his tongue was teasing my bottom lip. I opened for him and moaned in pleasure as he slid inside. Just like before, I had to grab ahold of him for fear of losing myself somewhere. My head felt light and my heart pounded so hard, I knew he had to hear it.
My body started tingling again, and I needed to squeeze my legs together, but he was standing between them. His hands drifted to my waist, and I wanted to beg him to touch me again. Moving my body closer to him, I hoped to get a brush of his chest.
But before I could feel him, he was gone.
I opened my eyes and he was standing back just a little bit, taking quick short breaths. His eyes were still on me, and I had to bit my tongue to keep from begging him to come back.
“That,” he said, and tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. “I have to get control of that.”
I disagreed. I thought he needed to have less control of that. I had thought kissing Linc had been fun and had felt warm and nice. Well, kissing Krit made my body go into a wild frenzy of feelings that made me lose my mind. It was explosive.
I sat there and watched as he got his breathing evened out. Then he finally looked at me again. The smirk on his face made a giggle bubble up, and I covered my mouth to keep him from hearing it. But he heard it anyway.
“You think this is funny?” he asked, taking a step toward me. The sexy look on his face excited me.
I nodded and watched him as he battled with himself about getting closer to me.
“What if I yank that T-shirt off your body and put my hands back on those pretty titties? Hmmm? Would that be funny?” The playful look in his eyes was meant to tease me, but the way he described it made my body feel flush all over.
“No, it wouldn’t be funny at all,” I replied a little breathlessly.
“It wouldn’t?” he asked, stopping just before he was between my legs again.
I shook my head.
“Then what would it be, little dancer?”
“Wonderful,” I replied honestly, and his eyes went wide before he cursed and backed up.
“Shit, love,” he said, walking over to grip the counter where my coffee had been left. “You’re gonna drive me mad.”
I didn’t want to drive him mad. I just wanted him to touch me again. I had woken up thinking I could never let it happen again, yet here I was ready to throw myself at him. Facing the truth was hard. I could say things in my head all day long. But if Krit wanted to touch me, I wasn’t sure I could say no to that.
I felt like someone had doused me with cold water. What did that make me? I was willing to let him touch me and kiss me, and then what? Go touch and kiss someone else? Or . . . or . . . sleep with them? I pushed myself off the counter and decided to leave my coffee in the kitchen. It was too close to him, and suddenly I needed some distance.
Krit thought I was gonna drive him mad. Well, he was making me crazy.
He looked worried when his eyes met mine again. “Where you going?” he asked.
“I need to get ready. I have class in forty-five minutes,” I explained.
He nodded and picked up my coffee. “Take this,” he said.
I took it from him.
“I’ll see you at six,” he said before making his way to the door.
When he reached it, I couldn’t keep my mouth from blurting out the question that was burning a hole through me.
“What are we doing, Krit?” Because this didn’t feel like friends. At least not to me.
He paused and gripped the door handle tightly. Then he glanced back at me. “Let’s not label it. Let’s just go with it,” he said, then jerked the door open and left.
I took a drink of my coffee, then set it back down. My stomach felt sick, and I wasn’t sure I could handle that now. I wouldn’t push him for anything. That would only push him away. I would go tonight and see how things worked with us while he had all those females throwing themselves at him. If he acts like I’m just a friend and does things with them backstage or flirts, I’ll know. I will have my answer.
Krit will just be my friend. Nothing more. No matter how much I wanted more with him, I couldn’t allow myself to feel too much. He already had so much of me. And if I let my emotions get in the way and hope for more, then I could ruin what we have now, which is friendship.
KRIT
My plan for going back to bed had failed. Blythe’s question was hammering away over and over in my head. She’d asked for something. It hadn’t been the way most women did it, but she’d done it nonetheless. She had wanted me to make promises.
Terrified of saying something I would regret, I had gotten out of there as fast as I could. If it had been any other female, I would have laughed and told her nothing. We’re doing nothing. But Blythe—I couldn’t be flip with her. She’d been honestly asking me for an answer. I hadn’t given her shit.
Which made me feel like shit. She deserved more than this.
“You get any sleep?” Green asked as he walked into the living room in a pair of boxers and his hair sticking up all over the place.
“Yeah, some.”
Green squinted against the sun coming in through the blinds I had opened. “You must not have come up with an answer you like,” he said, then yawned. “ ’Cause you look like you’ve been punched in the stomach. Ain’t no man who has had sexy little Blythe in their arms should look like that.”
Green was an even better choice for Blythe. I hated to admit it, but it was true. He was going to be a lawyer. He wasn’t terrified of commitment, and he didn’t screw around as much as me. He’d actually done a relationship before. One that worked. Not one he’d f**ked up.
Banging on the door jerked me out of my thoughts.
“What the hell?” Green growled as he stalked to the door.
His angry snarl immediately evaporated as my sister pushed him aside. “Go put on clothes,” Trisha ordered him, then swung her gaze to me. Shit. She was pissed.