SPENDING THE night alone was not what Phillip had in mind.
Claire was staying the night with a friend from dance. Skylar was the girl’s name, and they got along great. Skylar seemed to make Claire happy, too. They giggled a lot, and talked about boys. Even though Phillip didn’t care for the boy talk much, he liked that Claire was smiling. Skylar’s parents were nice, too, and guaranteed that Claire would be taken care of. At first, he was upset she didn’t want to hang with him since he was leaving again in a couple days, but then he decided he was going to convince Reese to hang out with him. Sitting outside of Reese’s studio, like a stalker, he dialed her number but then saw her door opening. He waited as he watched her stand in the doorway, digging her phone out of her purse.
When she saw the screen, a bright smile crossed her face and, for some reason, that made him breathless. He had no clue what that meant, but seeing her smile like that because he called did something to him. It caused him to feel something deep inside his chest but, before he could identify what it was, he hung up the phone and admired her gorgeous body. She was wearing tight jeans, rolled up at the bottom, with a long-sleeved green shirt that hung off her in a flowy way. She wore a dark brown scarf that matched her brown boots. Her hair was piled on top of her head, and she looked amazing. Hot. His body started to tingle with awareness as he watched her face fall and her hand drop to the side before she looked up and met his gaze. The disappointment he was sure was there before fell, and a sneaky little grin came over her beautifully glossed-up lips.
“Stalker,” she called out at him as she came down the stairs.
He laughed. “Maybe. Where you off to looking so hot?”
She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest as she reached him. She tried to act like she didn’t like when he complimented her, but he saw the way her cheeks filled with color when he did.
She liked it.
She liked him.
Call him cocky, but he knew she did.
She just didn’t like to.
There was no other explanation on why she only spent time with him. Or at least, he thought she did. He needed to ask because he liked her, and he sure as hell didn’t like the idea of some other man touching her. She ruined any other females for him, and he wanted to do the same for her.
“Hot date?”
She laughed. “My grandmother is hot, but I’m not sure if Bingo could be classified as hot. They do have hot pink dobbers.”
“Bingo?”
“Yup, I go to Bingo with my grandma every Wednesday.”
“Sounds fun. Jump on, I brought you a helmet,” he said, handing her a bright pink helmet, but she didn’t take it.
“No way,” she said with a laugh. “You can’t go.”
“Why not?”
“Because my grandma will think we are together and since that is not true, you can’t go.”
Phillip eyed her. “But if we tell her it’s not true, then there won’t be a problem.”
“She’ll think it and tell everyone otherwise.”
He stood up, hitting the kickstand of his bike and throwing his leg over. She was watching him, a smile playing on her face as he got close, snaking an arm around her waist to bring her closer. It took force, but she came and looked up at him with a look that told him she wasn’t playing around. However, the problem with Phillip was that he didn’t give up.
“So tell them we’re not. That we are only rocking each other’s world.”
Her lips turned up into his favorite sneaky grin, and he smiled back as she asked, “I rock your world?”
Playfully, he nipped at her bottom lip before nodding. “You know you do, and I know I rock your world.”
“I’ll never admit that.”
He decided not to point out that she had already in fact admitted that. Instead, he scoffed and pinned her with a look as he said, “Of course you will. I’ll get you at a moment of weakness.”