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THE SECOND ROSIE was out of hearing, Ethan said, “Finish up and get out of here. I want to talk to Rosie alone.”
Riley bit his upper lip, but refrained from saying anything. Buck wasn’t so subtle. “You two hooked up now?”
“No, we’re not ‘hooked up.’ What the hell’s wrong with you? Rosie is a friend and you know it.”
Harris rolled his eyes. “A female friend, and that’s all the distinction she needs far as I’m concerned.”
“That’s about it,” Buck agreed.
Riley set his spoon aside. “Have any of you ever thought of Rosie in a...you know, sexual way?” He saluted the air with two fingers, giving the first admission, and Harris and Buck quickly lifted their hands, too.
Ethan gawked at them. “You can damn well stop thinking of her that way right now!”
“Impossible.”
“No way.”
“Sorry.”
Ethan shoved his chair back. “You’re all...”
“Normal? Healthy?” Riley laughed. “Gifted with perfect eyesight?”
Buck added, “Male.”
And Harris tacked on, “Single.”
“I don’t believe this.”
Unconcerned with Ethan’s escalating temper, Riley took another bite of ice cream. “You know, Ethan, you’re thumping your chest over nothing. Rosie has always treated us as just pals.” He pointed his spoon at him. “’Cept for you.”
“Lucky bastard,” Harris mumbled with feigned but good-natured envy.
Stone-faced, Ethan paced away. Damn it, he was losing his mind. Ever since he’d awakened with Rosie draped over him, he’d been unable to stop thinking about her. But for the most part he’d forcefully kept those thoughts chaste, not carnal. For the most part.
But now, with his best friends putting thoughts in his head, well, how the hell was he supposed to not think about it? The woman was plain hot and that was all there was to it.
Rosie didn’t help any, prancing around in those Daisy Duke cutoffs with her rounded ass and long legs on display. Oh, yeah, he’d noticed the other guys stealing a peek every few minutes. Course, they did that to all females. But still— This wasn’t just any female. This was Rosie.
His Rosie, damn it.
Riley dropped his spoon into his empty bowl with a resounding clink, catching Ethan’s notice. “She seems a little different since this morning, huh?”
Emotions roiling, Ethan asked through his teeth, “What do you mean?”
“It’s like she’s on the make or something. The way she’s watching you—her body language.”
His throat constricting, his eyes burning, Ethan repeated, “Body language?”
“Yeah.” Riley turned to his cohorts. “You two’ve seen it, haven’t you?”
“Yep.” Buck gave a decisive nod. “She wants him.”
“Bad.”
“Stop it!” Ethan paced again, more furiously this time. But he couldn’t outrun his own thoughts. It was too late. Their words were already bouncing around in his brain, making him sweat, causing his muscles to cramp. Last night he’d done...something with her. This morning she’d been so warm and soft and his bed still smelled like her, sexy and female and utterly Rosie.
He breathed hard, walking faster ’round her kitchen, the three stooges looking on. He couldn’t banish the images of Rosie seducing him, touching him, kissing him...
“That’s it.” Ethan grabbed up their bowls and put them in the sink. “Go home. Go away. Just go.”
Harris made no effort to hide his laughter. Buck had to quickly grab for a napkin as Ethan shoved him toward the doorway.
Riley hung back, grinning like a fool. “One thing, Ethan.”
“What?” Ethan could barely breathe and seriously doubted he could manage a chat with Riley.
Somber now, Riley crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Ethan. “Don’t do anything to hurt her. Remember that she is my friend and I care about her.”
Ethan struggled for control. More than anything he wanted to knock Riley on his ass. How dare he act territorial now when seconds before he’d been all but throwing Rosie at him? He looked at Harris and Buck and they nodded, too, equally protective, equally serious about it.
Riley wasn’t done. “She’s a real nice woman, Ethan, with a huge heart. Don’t use what her brother did against her. She had no part in that.”
“Goddamn it,” Ethan exploded, infuriated that Riley thought such a warning was necessary. He would never hurt Rosie and Riley should have damn well known it. “How dare you bring that up?”
Rosie stepped around the corner, the disconnected phone held loosely in her hand. She frowned in worry, her gaze darting back and forth between the men. “Bring what up? What’s going on?”
Refusing to back down, Riley continued to watch Ethan. Harris and Buck moved to flank Rosie—as if she needed protection.
From him.
“Leave,” Ethan said to all three of them. “Or I will.”
Rosie bit her bottom lip. “Ethan? What’s going on?”
Riley stepped away from Ethan. His expression changed when he tugged Rosie up against his chest for a long hug. “Just guy stuff. Nothing important.”
“Don’t give me that.” She shoved back, her eyes filled with annoyance. “You guys are—”
“Drop it, Rosie.” Ethan waited, his temper growing more fractured by the second as each of them took a turn embracing Rosie. Harris even sighed. Buck touched her cheek with poignant regret.
You’d think she was a virgin they’d decided to sacrifice to some evil spirit! Hell, he cared about Rosie, too, always had. Even during his engagement, she’d remained one of his closest friends. The night his fiancée had jilted him, it was Rosie he’d gone to because he’d been too shamed to face anyone else. He could talk with her, just be with her, easier than he could anyone.
Looking back on it now, he realized there was significance in their complete and total trust of one another. There’d always been a special bond between him and Rosie. She liked all of them, hung with all of them, but only he shared that extra closeness with her.
He was the only one she wanted in the sack.
Oh, hell.
Ethan strode to the door and jerked it open. “Enough, all ready. Violins are going to start playing if you guys don’t stop being so melodramatic.”
As they filed past Ethan, they all grinned and winked and bobbed their eyebrows suggestively. Riley clutched his heart and pretended to swoon. Now these were the guys he knew and loved. He even laughed a little at their antics. “Idiots.”
He closed the door behind them, leaned back on it and surveyed Rosie with new eyes—and undiluted male interest.
She looked worried. “Uh...what’s going on?”
Ethan pushed away from the door. Just thinking about getting her into bed now, about doing everything he hadn’t done last night, made him hot. Holding her gaze, his hunger growing, he murmured, “God, I’ve been dense.”
She took a step back, her eyes wide, locked on his. “Yeah, so what’s new?”
Her sarcasm couldn’t quite hide her nervousness. Ethan felt like a superior male, ready to gentle the little woman, ready to give her what she evidently wanted, what he now knew he wanted.
“No more games, Rosie.”
Her chest rose and fell with deep breaths and she planted her feet, done with backing up. “Okay.”
“Do you want me?”
She blinked hard, twice. “You mean...sexually?”
Just hearing her say it nearly tipped him over the edge. His voice turned husky. His chest constricted. “Yeah.”
Silky brown hair shimmered around her shoulders with her nod. “I have for a long time now.”
“Is that right?” Ethan didn’t want to know how long—it might kill him. He stopped two inches from her. “Nothing happened last night, did it?”
“No.”
“Not even a kiss?” He wanted it confirmed that if he’d kissed her, she’d damn well know it.
“No.” She stared down at her feet. “Your redhead accidentally dumped her drink on me, so I had to leave. You were too drunk to drive and so you asked me to call you a cab.” She looked up, determination darkening her gaze. “I decided to take you home myself to be sure you made it safely, and well...I didn’t want to leave.”
“I see.”
She rushed to add, “I did refrain from taking your pants off you.” She made it sound like a huge concession on her part.
Ethan smiled. “I appreciate that.”
“You do?” She started wringing her hands and frowning at him in confusion.
“Oh, yeah.” Her uncertainty in the face of the bizarre circumstance was rather endearing, Ethan decided. It was rare indeed to see Rosie suffer such a human emotion as self-consciousness. “I damn well want to be sober when I lie down with you, so I can remember every little detail.”
Her eyes widened like saucers. “I was going to seduce you,” she blurted.
“What?”
She nodded hard. “I was. But it’s your fault.”
“My fault you were going to seduce me?” Following Rosie’s train of thought proved impossible, especially when he was already so horny.
“Yes. You were being so stubborn about it, refusing to see me as a female and—”
“I’ve always known you were a female, Rosie.” He wouldn’t lie to either of them. “Not once did I ever confuse you with Riley or Harris or, God forbid, Buck.”
Her mouth fell open, then snapped shut. “Really?”
She sounded so hopeful, Ethan’s heart turned over in his chest. He’d always considered Rosie a very special friend. Now he realized she was very special—in all ways. Especially as a woman. “Hell, yeah.” Then he scowled. “So have the other guys.”
“What other guys?”
The way she asked that made his worries disappear. She wasn’t aware of their interest. And she’d made it clear she wanted him. It was enough. “Never mind.”
“But...”
“Shh.” He took hold of her shoulders and gently caressed her, hoping to calm her and himself. She felt so soft, so warm. He’d touched her shoulders before, for crying out loud, but this was the first time he’d done so with sexual intent. It was different. How he felt was different.
Rosie deserved the best he could bring to her, and that meant not jumping her bones and dragging her down to the carpet, even when that was what he most wanted to do. He needed to be gentle and considerate. And slow.
Ethan closed his eyes. It was going to be a close call, but he thought, all things considered, he’d manage. “Being that we’re both here, alone, and finally in agreement about what we want to do, maybe we should—”
She didn’t give him a chance to finish. With an exclamation of delight, Rosie launched herself at him.
Taken off guard, Ethan staggered under her weight, but quickly righted himself. He was already half hard with expectation and now, feeling Rosie hugged up tight to him, her breasts against his chest, her belly against his groin, he lost what little control he’d been hanging on to. “Damn.”
“Ethan.” She caught his face and kissed him, awkwardly at first but with so much enthusiasm, he groaned. “Ethan,” she said again, his name almost a wail.
“Easy,” he tried to tell her even as he stroked his hands down her back to that perfect heart-shaped bottom. Her shorts were very short and it was nothing for him to slip his fingers under the frayed edges to tease her firm, rounded cheeks. Her skin was so silky, he felt sure his blood would boil.
Rosie bit his bottom lip. She wasn’t overly gentle, either. He jerked, but she knotted her hands in his hair and brought his mouth back to hers so she could suck his lip into her mouth, tease it with her tongue.
“Jesus, Rosie, slow down.”
“No.” She sealed their mouths together and Ethan tilted his head so he could take over, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, swallowing her moan. It was the first deep kiss they’d ever shared, and boy, it was good.
“Wait.” She shoved him back and reached for the hem of her shirt. “I want you to touch me. I’ve been thinking about you touching me for days.”
Oh, no. Hell, no. In very Rosie-like fashion, she was running the show. Ethan couldn’t let her do that. She probably had no idea that she drove him wild, that he might lose control at any moment. She’d never driven him wild before, so how could she know?
He caught her wrists and held her still, even when she struggled against him. “Damn it, Rosie. Give me a second.” He panted, trembled, while she continued to fight him. He should have expected as much; Rosie wouldn’t accept any man’s control easily, not even a man she wanted. Above the lust, that struck Ethan as funny, and he laughed roughly.
Rosie glared at him. “What?” she demanded, still pulling against his hold.
“Let’s go into your bedroom.” Maybe if he could get her pinned beneath him on the mattress, he could slow her down a little.
“The bedroom? Oh, okay.” She tried to turn and hurry in that direction.
Ethan pulled her up short, a little desperate. “Honey, this isn’t a race.”
