“I thought you were gonna tell me that you didn’t want to be friends anymore,” she said, nudging his foot again.

His smile faded a little bit. “I might have said that, because I’m generally really good at protecting myself. But I got some good advice lately. It was about risk. And connection. And yeah. Here I am.”

Cat had a hundred questions. A million. She looked up into his handsome face and couldn’t wait to ask every single one of them. She couldn’t wait to know him better.

A raindrop landed on his forehead and they both looked with confusion at the sky.

“When did those clouds roll in?” he asked.

“I think it happened when we were gazing goofily into one another’s eyes.”

That heart-zapping grin of his was back. “Wanna gaze goofily into one another’s eyes indoors somewhere?”

“Yes!”

They speed-walked back to their building but didn’t beat the rain. Her shirt was stuck to her skin and her jean shorts felt like they’d shrunk two sizes. She couldn’t help but notice that his T-shirt clung to what seemed to be some very nicely shaped back muscles.

“Hubba hubba,” she said, tracing his biceps as they stood in their hallway, dripping from the rain.

He laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”

“I’m melting, is what I am.”

“At the risk of sounding presumptuous,” he said, “your place or mine?”

Cat took him by the hand and unlocked her door, dragging him inside her apartment. Her breath caught at how warm and strong his hand felt.

She kicked the door closed behind her. “Want a towel?”

“Sure—oomph!” He staggered back in surprise when she jumped forward into his arms, her hands linking behind his neck and her legs around his waist. Those warm, strong hands of his found their way to her ass, holding her steady.

“Hi,” he said, blinking at her from four inches away.

“Hi,” she said back, her smile so big her cheeks ached. “The towels are in the back closet.”

“Okay.” He turned and carried her to the linen closet and she couldn’t stop smiling. He scrabbled for a second at the closet door, but apparently couldn’t open it and hold on to her at the same time, so after a brief struggle, simply gave up, pressing her back into the closed door and leaning into her. “I can’t get the towels.”

“Dang,” she said in mock disappointment. “I guess we’ll just have to find some other way to warm up.”

“I guess we will,” he agreed solemnly, his eyes on her mouth.

The blue of his eyes was even more devastating at point-blank range. She couldn’t begin to explain why that friendly color was just so freaking sexy. Faded blue, not piercing or even intense. Just perfect.

His eyes bounced from her gaze to her mouth. He leaned in and Cat inhaled hard, her eyes falling closed. He smelled like his familiar detergent. Mint toothpaste and warm weather. His nose touched hers, his wet hair sliding against her forehead. And then his mouth, warm and sure, closed over hers.