Page 36 of Ruff and Tumble

Her eyes narrowed in the way he was coming to recognize. “I’m not mean.”

“I also said ‘straightforward.’”

“I don’t have a mean bone in my body.”

Cole was unable to resist a good, hard look at the bones under deliberation. Right now, with her hip jutting out to one side and her torso twisted to face him, Hailey looked as though she was poised to attack. But the longer he stood there, his appraisal slow and unblinking, the more she seemed to melt. Her stance became less rigid, her posture a squirming, liquid discomfort.

This was not a woman who was used to having an audience—especially not an appreciative one.

“Stop it,” she snapped, a flush of color starting to creep down her neck. She’d never worn anything this low-cut before, so this was the first time Cole realized that her tendency to blush wasn’t restricted to her face. It started there before blossoming outward, traveling into her neckline and toward her chest.

He felt a profound and sudden urge to know the precise location where it ended. He wanted to see it. He wanted to study it. He wanted totouchit.

“I mean it.” Hailey darted to the other side of the room, positioning herself behind the table, both of her hands gripping the edge as though it was the only thing keeping her standing. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like…that.” She waved a hand in his general direction. “Like you can see through my clothes. I’ve had that nightmare before. It never ends well.”

Cole chuckled and drew closer to the other side of the table. There was an expanse of wood grain between them, an interminable distance when all he wanted to do was examine every inch of her skin, but he also needed to grip the edges. Not to stay standing but to keep himself from launching across the room at her.

“Oh really? I’d like to hear more about these nocturnal habits of yours.”

She bit down on her lower lip and shook her head. “Nuh-uh. No way. Not on my life. Not even on yours.”

“That good, huh?” he asked. “Are you actually naked in this dream, or is it just that your clothes are invisible?”

Even from this distance, he could hear Hailey’s low, back-of-the-throat moan. “Nightmare,” she said. “It wasn’t a dream… It was anightmare. Kind of like this, actually.”

“Naked, then,” he said, nodding. “I like it.”

“I never said I was naked!”

He shifted his position so he half sat on the table’s surface. It brought him close enough to smell the light lavender that always seemed to envelop Hailey but not so close that he lost all reason and accountability.

“So you’re standing in front of a room, presumably naked as the day you were born.” Cole had to force himself to breath before he continued. “Who else is in the room? Is it one of those generic, walk-into-the-classroom sort of deals? Oh! I know… It’s football-related, isn’t it? Everything in your life is football-related.”

“Cole,please.”

The sound in her voice—desperation and desire mingled as one—caused something inside him to click. “Oh shit. It’s me-related, isn’t it?”

She lifted her hands from the table’s edge and buried her face in them.

“So wait,” he said. “If these dreams—oh, I’m sorry—nightmaresof yours never end well, what happens? Do I publicly shame you? Boo and hiss? Or do I just fail to deliver?”

Hailey’s whole body began shaking, her head still in her hands. Cole’s general response time was slower than usual—understandable considering how much of his blood flow had been diverted southward—but he recognized the signs almost immediately.

“Hailey, I’m sorry.” He slid off the table and rushed over to her side, careful not to touch her. “Please don’t be upset. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’ll stop, see? Not another word.”

She continued shaking. Cole had to use every ounce of strength he had not to reach out and pull her into his arms—and even then, it was a struggle. All the strength in the world didn’t mean much when he’d made a woman cry.

“I’m an idiot,” he confessed. “I always have been. Just ask Reggie.”

At the mention of his sister, Hailey glanced up. Her face wasn’t, as he’d feared, streaked with tears or rimmed with red around the eyes. Her makeup was untouched, her color delightfully diffused. In fact, from this angle, it looked as though she hadn’t been crying at all.

It almost looked as though she’d been…laughing.

“Oh, crap!” she cried. “Your sister is going to be at my house in less than an hour.”