Friends Without Benefits: An Unrequited Romance by Penny Reid

Author:Penny Reid [Penny Reid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary, Humor, Romance
Goodreads: 18001399
Publisher: Caped Publishing
Published: 2013-09-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

I stared at him and his . . . everything. Just. Freaking. Everything. And I might have drooled a little bit. In fact, I know I did because I felt drooly water fall to my arm. It was enough to wake me from the Nico-domestic-porn trance. I wiped my arm and hand on the pants of my scrubs and—with every ounce of self-control I had within me—tore my gaze from him and his . . . fritters.

As luck would have it, Nico appeared to notice me at the exact same moment. “Hey, Elizabeth. Want a fritter?”

“Uh, nope.” I noted that the color of the kitchen walls were pale gray.

He crossed to me, holding a golden pastry. “Sure you do.” I lifted my eyes at his approach, was slapped in the face with the unrealness and unfairness of his perfect physique.

“No. I’m good. Really.” I turned slightly and backed up, unthinkingly trapping myself between the island counter and the sink.

He lifted the pastry to my mouth and said, “Open up.”

I leaned backward over the sink, my arms flailing, and forced him to stop his advance. “Hey buddy—you want to put that junk away?”

Nico glanced down at his black boxer briefs. “What are you talking about?”

“The torso of magnificence and thighs of splendor. You want to cover up?”

Nico placed the fritter on the counter to his side; his other hand rested on his chest, and he issued me a soporific smile. “Torso of magnificence?” His hand moved down the front of his chest, over the ridged plane of his abdomen then slowed just above the elastic of his briefs, hovered there. I watched the movement of his hand as though it were a snake ready to strike.

Bad, bad, bad analogy!

“Am I distracting you, Elizabeth?”

“No, no you’re not. You’re just—you just shouldn’t walk around half- or mostly naked when people are out and about. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Do you have a problem with male nudity?”

“I don’t have a problem with male nudity.” I shook my head. “I have a problem with your male nudity—in this apartment.”

“This is my apartment.”

“Yes, I know. But there are women and children in this apartment, in the other room watching cartoons.”

“She’s my niece.”

“I know that.”

“And my mother.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that fact as well, but I’m not related to you.”

“No . . .” His grin was less lazy, more focused. “No, you’re not related to me.”

“No . . . I’m not . . .” I was trapped in his gaze for a moment and may have swayed forward a few inches before catching myself and averting my eyes. “I’m not and we’ve already established that fact and I’m going to leave the kitchen now.” I tried to move past him, but he shifted to the side; my arm made contact with his bare chest, and I recoiled as though burned.

“Well, let me just get out of your way.” He said though he purposefully filled the entire space between the two counters, ensuring that I would have to touch him and his torso of magnificence—if not his thighs of splendor— in order to pass.

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