Sweet Imperfection Read Free Page B

depressed him. Maybe she’d never be interested in him sexually. They’d been friends for so long she probably didn’t see him that way. As heightened as his senses were around her, he wondered whether two hours sitting next to her inside a dark movie theater was such a good idea. “What’s this movie about?”
    “I’m going to confess something. It’s in black and white, but it’s excellent. You’ll love it,” she assured him.
    He mock-groaned. “You know I don’t like any movie made before 1994.”
    “Well, this one was made in 1934, and it’s an absolute classic. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Trust me.”
    “All right.” He could handle himself for the length of a movie. When they got out, if he still felt like holding her hand, or kissing her, or taking her back to his dorm room and trying out that twin-sized bed, he was giving himself permission to do it. She might think it was a good idea. If she didn’t, maybe they were such good friends they’d be able to laugh about the time he’d made a pass at her at their next reunion.

 
     
     
Chapter Two
     
     
    Kill me now . The movie was halfway over. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were arguing their way into each other’s hearts, and Emma was so turned on by having Nate three inches from her body she’d jumped out of her tiny cinema seat when he’d tapped her on the arm to offer her a piece of gum.
    Get a grip, Emma.
    She could be excused for acting like a teenage girl. The setting was transporting her right back to freshman year’s introduction to film class. She and Nate had often sat next to each other, talking and teasing through the inevitably long, incomprehensible films. Back then, a hundred other bored college students had surrounded them, and the setting hadn’t seemed romantic, but here, in a half-full theater with the light of the silver screen flickering across their faces, her thoughts could be nowhere except on the man sitting next to her. How different he seemed to her, more mature, a little world-weary. Yet they’d been able to pick up right where they left off, so neither of them had changed that much. Naturally, he was thinking about her only as a friend as their easy banter made plain, but it was oh-so-tempting to read more into the situation.
    He was Nate, her friend, her buddy, her classmate. He was also hot, the muscles on his exposed forearms chiseled from working with his hands. And what hands. Sculpted and sensitive and all too easy to imagine holding a hammer with authority or stroking her skin. He didn’t tower over her, making her feel like a little girl, but he wasn’t so short they’d look out of whack if she wore heels. His face had always appealed to her with its austere lines and sexily prominent nose. His crew cut emphasized that Nate Hirsch was not a boy any longer. He was definitely all man. She caught a trace of his spicy aftershave and shuddered. All man.
    In the cinema seats, it was apparent their bodies fit together like a matched set. Their knees nearly touched, their shoulders grazed if one of them laughed at the witty dialogue. Emma kept her arm and hand carefully folded on her side of the seat, lest she knock into him and betray her awkwardness.
    God, what she wouldn’t do to feel a man on top of her, feeling his weight and the mass of muscle pressing down, trapping her in a sensual vise. She was getting wet just thinking about lying underneath Nate, feeling the rough of his dark stubble on her skin as he plied her with kisses, preparing her to take him inside her.
    Ugh . She needed to stop this line of thought. It wasn’t his fault she was going through a dry spell. She hadn’t even made it to bed with the last guy she’d dated. He had been pleasant, but so polite and nonthreatening, Emma had felt like a bad feminist for dumping him because he was too nice. Apparently she wasn’t attracted to amiable men with no body hair. Nate was hairy in all the right places, at least in those places