He dug in, and so did Erin. She had put away quite a few glasses of champagne, so he was happy to see her eating her fair share of the food. And if she hadn’t eaten much of anything today, it was no wonder she’d been so affected by the alcohol. He’d nibbled a bit on the appetizers, but since he’d hung out with her, he missed the main course dinner, which was too bad because it had looked amazing.
Still, sharing fried chicken in the privacy of his home with Erin wasn’t a bad thing, either, and if it got her away from memories of what would have been her wedding reception, that was even better.
After finishing the biscuit that she’d loaded with honey, she licked her fingers. He couldn’t help but respond with a tightening in his stomach, watching her tongue swirl around the tips of her fingers, and imagine what her sweet pink mouth and tongue could do wrapped enthusiastically around the head of his cock.
Back the fuck off from that fantasy, dude. Because it’s not happening.
He sucked in a breath and got up to clear the table.
“That was so good,” she said, clearly oblivious to his state of discomfort, as she should be. “I was starving.”
“Yeah? I’m glad you ate.”
“Me, too. I was a little tipsy.”
“More than a little, I think.”
“Uh-oh. What did I do?”
“Nothing embarrassing. I could just tell that you needed to lay off the liquor and get some food.”
“Oh, good. Because I haven’t done naked table dancing since college.”
He frowned. “Wait. What? I missed naked table dancing? We both went to the same college, Erin.”
“You graduated two years ahead of me.”
“And then I stayed for vet school, so I was around the entire time.” He’d polished off his tea, so he filled a glass with ice water and came back to the table. “So when did naked table dancing happen?”
“It wasn’t exactly naked. Or fully naked. And it wasn’t on campus. It was at the lake. I’m surprised you didn’t see the pictures.”
His eyes widened. “There are pics?”
“Well, they tried. But Honor and Brenna both threatened to kill people, so they came down pretty fast.”
He leaned back in the chair. “Okay. Now I need to hear the entire story.”
“It was a bachelorette party for Rachel Novinski, one of my sorority sisters. And let’s just say that tequila and I are not besties. And there were shots. Lots and lots of shots. And then dares and music and suddenly my top is off and everyone’s laughing and I’m dancing and someone took a picture and fortunately it was dark so you can’t really see my boobs all that well, but there you have it.”
She took her phone out of her back pocket, scrolled to an album, and handed the phone to him, which surprised the hell out of him.
Yeah, it was dark, and taken from a distance, but he had damn good eyesight, and there was Erin, on top of the bar, her arms over her head, and damn she had beautiful breasts and dark nipples and goddamn he wanted to see her naked more than he wanted to breathe.
He also wanted to punch Owen more than he wanted anything else in his life. Owen could be having his wedding night with this funny, smart, beautiful and sexy woman right now. Instead, he was . . .
Stupid. Boneheaded. An utter dumbass.
Jason looked up at Erin, who was staring at him in a guileless, innocent way.
He handed the phone back to her. “Nice pic.”
She laughed. “Right. I don’t know why I haven’t deleted it, other than it was a fun night.”
“Save the pic. When you’re eighty years old and wrinkly and your boobs are hanging to your belly, you can look at that picture and say, ‘Hey, look at me. I was hot as fuck.’ ”
She stared at him. “Is that what I am?”
“Hell yeah you are.”
She got up and came over to him, nudged him away from the table, and straddled his lap.
He’d like to think of himself as the kind of guy who’d never take advantage of a woman in a vulnerable state. And Erin was about as vulnerable as anyone right now. She needed validation, to know that she was desirable, that Owen had made a huge mistake. She should already know that, but he understood where her head was right now. And just because she was beautiful and smelled like lemons and she felt perfect sitting on his lap and he’d wanted her since high school didn’t mean he was going to do anything about it.
Not tonight, anyway.
“So if I’m so hot, why aren’t we having sex?”
He grasped her hips—gently, because what he really wanted to do was dig his fingers into the denim of her jeans and rock her against what was fast becoming a hard anatomical problem for him.
“Because you’re hurting, and this isn’t what you want.”
She arched a brow. “How do you know what I want?”
“I don’t. Not really. But tonight, your heart hurts, doesn’t it?”
“My heart doesn’t even figure into this equation.” She pushed off of him and wandered into the living room and plopped down on his sofa. Puddy jumped up next to her and she absently stroked his back.
He took a minute to catch his breath and clean the remnants of their dinner from the table. He put the leftovers in the fridge, then wet a towel to wipe down the table and counter. When he made his way back to the living room, Erin was lying on the sofa. He got closer and realized she was asleep, Puddy curled up against her.
Probably for the best. He had planned to talk to her, try to reason with her and make her see that sex wasn’t what she needed tonight.
He pulled her shoes off and she curled her knees up. He took a blanket off the back of the sofa and
