“No worries,” she told him, moving to the pantry.
“Okay, then.”
Cheyenne’s sparkling green eyes met his and he saw her confusion as well. Shit, she was probably wondering why he was still there.
He had two choices and neither of them were easy for him. One, he could tell her what his issues were. Two, he could walk out the door and talk to his buddy, get this situation fixed for Cheyenne, and move on with his life.
“Bren?”
Brendon looked up at Cheyenne once again and sighed heavily. “Look, Chey. I … Damn. I don’t even know how to do this.”
“This what?” she questioned.
“This,” he answered, using his hand to motion between them. “I have no fucking clue how to have a civil conversation with a woman I want to sleep with.”
“You … uh …” Cheyenne’s eyes widened. “You want to sleep with me?”
Brendon laughed and the sound reflected the discomfort he was feeling from this entire conversation.
“Yeah,” he answered, as though that should’ve been clear in the first damn place. “Since the first day I met you.”
“Oh.”
Now it was Brendon’s turn to stare at her openmouthed and incredulous. “Oh?”
“Yeah, oh,” she replied, a smile forming on her pretty pink lips.
He was not supposed to be looking at her lips. Damn it.
“I didn’t think you even liked me,” she told him, and the sincerity in her tone also stunned him.
“I think the problem is I like you too much.” The words just tumbled out of his mouth and he couldn’t call them back.
“Too much? Is that why we’re always fighting?”
Hell, he had no idea why they were always fighting, but they were. At every turn, Brendon had made an effort to piss her off or make her jealous. Anything to get a rise out of her, some sort of reaction, because she was so good at hiding her feelings. And fuck it all, he just wanted her to feel something for him.
“Look, Cheyenne. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know the first damn thing about women, aside from how to get them naked. I’m thirty-one years old and I’ve never had a serious relationship with a woman.”
“That’s what I heard.”
Brendon caught the amusement in her tone and his bewilderment only multiplied. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because I think you’re cute.”
“Cute? You seriously did not just call me cute.”
“I did.”
“I’m not cute.”
“Oh, but you are.”
Brendon frowned. He wasn’t cute, damn it.
“No one said we had to get serious, Brendon. Why don’t we try bein’ friends?”
“Friends?” That was as bad as being called cute. “I don’t want to be friends, Chey.”
“No?” She wasn’t smiling anymore.
“You know what I mean.” He hoped, because shit, he didn’t even know what he meant.
“No, I don’t. Enlighten me.”
Brendon stared back at her, his eyes grazing over her flawless skin, her soft pink lips, all of that silky, dark hair falling over her shoulders. Before he knew what he was doing, he was moving closer. When he was within touching distance, he found himself reaching for her, cupping her face in his hands, letting his thumbs graze the smooth skin of her cheek.
“Unless friends do this, I don’t know that I can be friends with you,” he told her as he leaned down. He met her gaze until their faces were too close together, her breath fanning his mouth. When he pressed his lips to hers, he felt the heat generate between them. Her pulse kicked against his fingers as they pressed lightly beneath her jaw.
He’d meant for the kiss to be chaste, just a light peck to get his point across, but the next thing Brendon knew, Cheyenne’s hands were fisting in his shirt and she was kissing him back. When she opened for him, allowing his tongue to slide past her lips, he was in heaven. And when her tongue met his, tentatively at first and then with the same wild abandon that’d consumed him since the first day he met her, Brendon was lost.
Her soft moan sent shards of electricity scattering throughout his entire body. His dick pressed against the zipper of his jeans, all the blood making a detour to his groin. But he couldn’t stop kissing her. Tasting the sweetness of her lips and tongue, feeling the softness of her skin beneath his fingertips, and the urgency with which she pulled him to her. It was more than he had expected, but not enough at the same time.
“Chey.” He said her name on a breath when he finally managed to pull away. He kept his hands on her face, not sure where else to put them, and met her gaze. “I don’t know how to do this.”