Page 10 of Mr. McBeefcake

Being this close to him is altering my brain chemistry. I think there are warning alarms going off, but I’m still not walking away. My curiosity demands I see where he’s going with this. Because I’m pretty sure Donovan Jewel, star quarterback of the Austin Armadillos and my childhood best friend, is flirting with me.

“I have a confession to make about that kiss,” he says.

“It wasn’t really your first kiss?”

He grins. “No. It was. But it wasn’t really about wanting to practice. It was just because I wanted you to be my first kiss. And I really wanted to kiss you. That day, in that moment. You looked so damn pretty in that yellow sundress you had on.”

“How do you remember that?”

His head tilts. “Yellow’s my favorite color.”

Somehow I doubt that.

“I’m glad you were my first kiss, KitKat. It meant something to me.”

“I’m glad you were my first too.”

“I went home that night and jacked off to memories of that kiss. In fact, I still do that. It’s a favorite in my yank bank.”

I suck in a breath because did he really just say that? “I think it’s spank bank.”

“Semantics.”

He gives me a sexy smile and if my panties weren’t soaked before, they totally are now. What is happening?

“Why were things so different when I came back at the end of the summer? Before everything with Mona?”

I wasn’t too keen on admitting any of this, but we were clearing the air, as it were. “Because you came home a man. You’d grown several inches. Gotten broad shouldered and really muscular.” I stare into his beautiful brown eyes and say the words I’ve hidden from him for more than a decade. “I already had a crush on you when you were just my tall, lanky best friend. But when you came home, you were ridiculously hot. It scrambled my brain. I didn’t even know how to look at you anymore. And I knew then—more than ever—we didn’t make sense together.”

“How can you say we didn’t make sense? I had every intention of asking you to be my girlfriend.”

“But I saw you making out with Mona in her car. I knew if she was your type, then I never stood a chance.”

“What you saw was her kissing me. You must’ve turned away before you could see me push her away. But the next time I talked to you, you were different. Then things just got worse from there.”

“Yeah, I overheard her in the locker room at school telling everyone she’d popped your cherry.”

“I don’t want to talk about Mona anymore. She means nothing to me.”

He bends slightly, grabs me by the hips and effortlessly lifts me to sit on the counter top. I’m pretty sure I squeak, but I pretend to be cool, like big, professional football players pick me up and set me on furniture all the time.

“Now, let’s go back to something you said a minute ago.” His hands wrap around my hips, those fingers digging slightly into my ass. “Tell me more about this crush you had on me.”