Page 16 of Meant for You

I’d been stuck, had felt stuck for so long. Controlled, shoved around from place to place, my life in everyone’s hands but my own. Coming here after Dane did his vanishing act—after I’d gotten to know Cassy over several embarrassing blubbering phone calls, wanting to know where he was and being told he didn’t want to be found—had been incredibly hard.

Then Cassy had offered me a new start.

It felt weird at first, being with Dane’s family. But this job, this place, I’d fallen in love with it.

I’d wanted to take control of my own life, and I finally felt like I could make that happen when I moved here. Maybe Dane was right; maybe he had been holding on too tight, because while he was gone I’d learned to be more self-reliant. I’d grown stronger.

If nothing else, losing him had given me that, and I was actually thankful for it despite the debilitating pain it had caused. Despite wishing I’d been given the chance to come to the same realization a different way.

I thought about Dane waiting for me in the main house and about what he’d said to me at The Mule the other night about wanting to make it right between us, that he’d do anything.

An idea popped into my head, a crazy idea that I knew wasn’t going anywhere now that it was there.

Could I really ask that of Dane? Could I go through with it?

Maybe.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was kind of perfect.

After being restricted for so long, I wanted to experience life and live it on my terms. I wanted to date and have fun…and I wanted my best friend back.

My very experienced best friend. Our relationship had always been platonic, but I knew he had skills. He’d had girls chasing after him even when we were kids.

He’d said he’d do anything, whatever it took, to get me back in his life.

I couldn’t go on the way I was, one dating disaster after the next. I was finally free to live my life, but with my nerves and inexperience I was getting in my own way. What if my next kissing-related accident ended in a much more serious injury? Knowing me, anything could happen.

When it came to guys, I was as smooth as a gravel road. I needed help. And it just so happened I knew an expert.

I grabbed a piece of paper and quickly jotted down what I wanted on it, then grinned and added one last thing. Folding it, I put it in my pocket and headed back to the house.

Dane

I didn’t know how long I stood at the top of the stairs after Everly skipped off in her damp fucking towel, but I’d been struggling to think straight since. And I was still struggling to think straight fifteen minutes later.

Somehow I’d made it down to the living room even without seeing my feet past the impressive bulge in my jeans or tripping over my tongue.

I was a bastard.

This was Everly. I shouldn’t be thinking about her like this. Fuck. I thought I had my head on straight again after what happened at the bar. But walking into that kitchen to the sight of Everly’s round ass wrapped in damp terrycloth, naked underneath, swaying while she flicked through a magazine, was burned into my brain.

And when she turned around, the way it hugged her tits. Fuck, I’d seen the outline of her nipples through it, small and tight and hard.

I had to shake this off. There was no way I’d risk losing her again. Wanting her that way and not giving in to it was something I could live with. Losing her completely was not. She was more important to me than the lust riding me, so much more.

I just needed to get that shit under control.

“I hope you saved me some popcorn?” she said, walking back into the room.

“Yeah.” My fucking voice cracked. I quickly sat on the couch, hiding my hard-on.

“You want a drink?” she said as she passed me.

“Sure,” I forced out.

Fucking hell. She was wearing shorts, teeny tiny fucking shorts, and a T-shirt that was probably something she threw on to veg out in front of the TV, but the way Eves was built, the fabric clung to her chest, stretching over all she had going on, and the bra she was wearing under it wasn’t doing its job to control it. They bounced as she walked, in a way that had my mouth going dry.

I quickly looked away, feeling like the worst kind of asshole. She hadn’t kicked me out. She was talking to me. We were making progress. If she caught me eyeing her like a piece of prime rib I wanted to sink my teeth into, it would ruin everything.