The right thing to do would be to ignore it, leave it alone, but Mina felt compelled to comment anyway. After all, they’d been calling each other out over stupid or embarrassing stuff for years. Why buck the trend now? Besides, laughing about it hopefully would get her back on an even keel.
“You really have been going through a drought, haven’t you?” she murmured, bumping his crotch gently with her thigh, so there was no mistaking her meaning.
She expected a chuckle, or a witty riposte, not the silence that followed her comment, or the restless movement of his hands on her back, which felt suspiciously like a caress.
Eventually, Kiah inhaled deeply, then replied, “My sexual drought has nothing to do with it, sweet girl. That’s all for you.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
HE’D HOPED SHE wouldn’t notice or, even if she did, wouldn’t comment, but once she had Kiah knew he couldn’t let her go on believing it was just an automatic reaction on his part. That if it were anyone else, his body would respond the same way. Not after the conversation they’d had on the beach, when she’d told him the disgusting things her ex had said.
No. Mina needed to know she was still as desirable as she’d ever been.
To him even more so than ever before.
Seeing her every day over these past weeks, in all her various moods—vulnerable and confident, laughing, crying, and everything in between—had been an emotional revelation. For so long he’d pushed his attraction to her down deep, refusing to let it grow beyond the treasured friendship. Distance had made that easier, but now there was, literally, no hiding from the truth.
He wanted her, badly.
Mina hadn’t responded verbally to his words, but he could feel her rib cage rising and falling rapidly beneath his hands, and her stillness was, in itself, telling. Kiah could almost hear the wheels turning in her head, and it worried him.
Had he frightened or repulsed her? Was their relationship, so carefully nurtured and vastly important to him, in jeopardy, now that she realized his lust for her?
Then she shook her head, just once, against his neck and said, “I know you don’t really mean that.”
He snorted, wishing he could find the situation more amusing than he actually did. “I mean every word. I’m not fifteen, and I don’t get aroused as though I were. Ask Niesha, and she’ll tell you she got no reaction from me, although she tried her level best.”
Reaching down, he tipped her chin up so he could meet her gaze.
“You think I was kidding when I told you how beautiful you are? I wasn’t. And I could have added the fact you’re incredibly sexy. I’ve always thought so, and having you around has reminded me just how much.”
Color tinged her cheeks, and that made him chuckle.
“You’re blushing,” he said, reaching up to run his index finger over her overheated skin. “I haven’t seen that in a while.”
“I haven’t been called sexy in a while,” she retorted. “Actually, in forever.”
Kiah kissed his teeth, once more annoyed at the thought of how poorly she’d been treated by her scumbag ex.
“You should know it, though. Don’t you notice how men look at you? At the club, the hospital, on the beach yesterday? There’s an air about you, Mina—sultry and sassy and sexy, all combined to make you irresistible.”
It was her turn to make an incredulous noise. “You’ve never had a problem resisting me.”
“Our friendship has always been too important to gunk up with sex,” he said, trying to be honest without giving too much away. “Losing you because we slept together and it didn’t end well wasn’t a chance I was willing to take.”
Her gaze searched his, and although her lips quirked into a ghost of a smile, her eyes were solemn. “Is that what sex does? Gunk things up?”
“It definitely can,” he said, his heart thumping, wondering where the conversation would end up leading, although he was trying to stay realistic. “If the people involved let it.”
“And if they don’t let it?”
His heart stopped for an instant, and then set off galloping again. Already aroused, his body tightened, almost to the point of pain, and his lungs seized, making replying impossible in that moment.
The logical part of his brain was telling him not to take this any further, to walk away before things went sideways, but his body... Oh, his body was screaming for him to see where this would lead.
Trying desperately to take the path of reason, he finally found the wherewithal to say, “It would be risky, Mina. Just agreeing not to let it change things doesn’t mean things wouldn’t change anyway.”
She nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact. “But what we share can never really be broken, can it? Dented, or bent, maybe, but I’ll always be your friend, and you’ll always be mine. My best friend. I...”
She paused, looked down, and once more his breath caught in his chest at the sheer beauty of her, the fact they were even having this conversation slamming home again.
“You what?”
She looked back up, meeting his gaze again. “I don’t have a lot of experience, Kiah. You talked about men being interested in me, but it scares me—the thought of being with someone new. These feelings I have for you, those don’t frighten me. Somehow, wanting you feels right.”
She shrugged, as though not sure she’d found the right words, and although there was no lessening of his desire, his heart sank just a little. He was to be an experiment, then. A gateway to finding out what it felt like to be with someone other than the worm.
Hearing that should have lessened the desire, but it didn’t. Instead, strangely, it added another layer to his need, making it even harder to resist the temptation on offer. Trying to figure out why was impossible with her gleaming eyes on him, her hand cupping
