Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(42)

“You’re right. Juliet and Ophelia fought their feelings until it was too late. So I guess your only choice is to give in and admit it.”

“Admit what, exactly?”

“That you are madly in love with me and you want me to carry you off to the woods so I can have my way with you.”

Her lips crumpled as she tried to hold back a smile. “What about this? I’ll admit I maybe was too hard on you. And I maybe have enjoyed spending time with you.” She bit her lip again, and my eyes were drawn to her smooth, pink lips. “And I don’t regret when you kissed me.”

“Wait. You’re the one who kissed me.”

“No,” she said. “You were definitely the one who made the first move.”

“Nope. I’m far too chivalrous to kiss an inebriated virgin.”

Kira laughed. “Virgin? I don’t know what makes you so sure I’m a virgin.”

“Hmm,” I said, making a show of looking at her from head to toe. “It is hard to believe that a woman who looks as good as you could hold men away for this long, but I think I’m right.”

“You’re lucky you mixed a compliment in with all that.”

“So? Am I right?” I watched her consider how she wanted to answer, from the way she bit her lip and nervously flicked her eyes up to meet mine to how she was idly rubbing her hand across her arm.

That was the moment I knew I had to put a stop to this. I’d come out to West Valley under flimsy pretenses. I’d shown up at her school with the weak excuse of wanting to clear the air between us. I’d even tried to write off my continued interest in Kira as a kind of passing distraction—like a hobby I’d eventually grow tired of. I’d known none of that was true, whether I wanted to admit it to myself or not.

Getting involved with me would make her life difficult. There’d be her father. My parents. Tabloids would slap her picture on them, and they’d snap a thousand pictures of her trying to enjoy the beach until they managed to get one that wasn’t as flattering. It’d be blown up for everyone she ever knew to see. I didn’t even know if I was capable of giving her the kind of love she deserved, because the adorable, sexy, and determined woman sitting beside me deserved a hell of a lot of love.

She finally decided on her answer, and the sound of her voice was enough to stir me from my thoughts. “What you are is an asshole for assuming I’m a virgin. And your reward for being an ass is that you don’t get to know.”

“That’s probably fair.”

The sound of glass breaking from inside the house drew my attention. I frowned up toward the second floor, where my collection was. “Hey, do you want to see something cool?” I asked. I knew exactly why I was asking, and I hated myself for it. I needed to find a way to cut things off with Kira before it got any harder for either of us. I desperately needed to. But it was too easy to convince myself I’d just enjoy her for a little bit longer. Just a few more minutes of pretending like nothing was wrong, and then I’d do the right thing.

She grinned. “If that’s your pickup line, it needs some serious work.”

“I promise, I’m not trying to get you to sleep with me. Not yet, at least. Actually, if anything, I’m pretty sure what I’m about to show you is going to have the complete opposite effect of making you want to sleep with me.”





Chapter 15





KIRA


I stood behind Rich as he unlocked a door on the second floor of his house. Most of the partygoers were downstairs, where the music was loudest and the drinks were closest, and up here it felt like we had a slice of privacy.

I admired the way the muscles of his back were so clearly visible, even through his shirt. He was wearing a simple long-sleeved shirt and jeans. It wasn’t really fair, but something about knowing a guy could afford anything he wanted made casual clothes seem so sexy to me. Then again, I’d seen Rich in a suit plenty of times, and there was a lot to love about that look as well.

Part of me felt like turning and running right then. It was amazing how quickly my thoughts could switch from defensive to offensive. One minute, I’d been so determined to keep him away. No matter how justified it felt to stop hating Rich, it was still hard to go from hating a man to fantasizing about what he looked like under his shirt so quickly. The more frightening part was my attraction to him wasn’t just physical. The physical attraction had been there even when I hated Rich. Any woman with an ounce of the biological imperative to reproduce would be sexually attracted to the man. He was practically crack for the ovaries.

I was beyond curious to know what he was about to show me. Despite his jokes about killing my sex drive with whatever was in the room, I couldn’t help wondering if he was about to reveal some kind of kinky sex dungeon. I hoped not. My idea of a wild night was eating my dessert before I had dinner. The thought of Rich and his penis getting anywhere near me was plenty of excitement for my brain, thank you very much. If he tried to add ropes and chains and whips to the equation, I’d probably have a nervous breakdown.

“Welcome to my little museum,” he said as he opened the door.

My eyebrows drew together as I looked around the room. I suspected it was built to be the library in his mansion of a home. The ceilings were much higher than anywhere else, and the room was almost as large as a school gym. There were dinosaur bones everywhere. They were all carefully arranged by strings from the ceiling and put together in the shape of whatever monster they’d belonged to. There were volumes and volumes of books and a desk scattered with papers and folders full of more documents.