Dan let out a barking laugh. “That’s rich, Harper. So rich. There’s nothing you can’t do. You won’t and that’s the difference. You’re scared. You’re scared as shit, so you pretend you don’t feel this too. I’ve never been just a friend. Neither of us lasted a day with that.”
Anger sparked in her eyes. “You don’t get it. I have things to lose here. I’m graduating. I’m moving. I’m starting a career. I don’t even know where I’ll be living in a few months. Do you really think I could give you a relationship right now?”
“What if I don’t care that you’re moving? What if the miles don’t matter to me? I’m willing to do what it takes to make this work.”
Harper opened her mouth to deliver another blow, but he stopped her.
“You think I have nothing to lose?” Dan said, lifting his arms. “You have just as much power to hurt me as I do to hurt you. But I’m not scared of that. I’m willing to face it because being with you is worth more than the prospect of pain.”
Silence pressed between them as Harper watched him, eyes sharp and wary. “Do you do this just to torture me?” she whispered. “Just to make me feel like an idiot?”
Dan jerked his head back in surprise. “What?”
“This!” she exploded, flinging her arms between them. “The grand gestures and the smooth lines and the goddamn prettiness of you,” she hissed, taking a step toward him. “You waltz in and out of my days and absolutely melt me. You back me up against a wall and say all the right things—it turns me into a fool!” She jabbed a finger against his chest. “You turn me into a fool. You make me all sweaty and nervous and tongue-tied. And you stand there—with your ridiculous height—and are completely articulate and composed like you aren’t asking impossible things of me.”
Dan tried to make sense of her words. “Are you telling me you’re offended by my … height?”
Her eyes were angry saucers, and red blotches burned her cheeks.
“No. I’m telling you that I’m offended that you reduce me to some sort of infatuated teenager. You consume all my thoughts and fry my nerves every time you look at me. And you just get to stand there. Completely unaffected and immune to the ridiculous nightmare you’re putting my system through. And on top of that, you’re asking for something I’m not sure I can do.”
Dan studied her. Challenge burned in the depths of her eyes, long lashes flicking up and down as she stared back at him. Her nostrils flared as she sucked in deep breaths, her chest rising sharply with the effort.
She was so beautiful.
“If you think I’m immune to you,” he said slowly, “you aren’t as bright as your reputation holds.”
Her eyes shot wide with indignation. “Excuse me?”
He pressed his finger against her lips and watched a gentle tremble course through her body.
“If you can stand there—looking like a fucking dream with that perfect little mouth that tastes so sweet, and those big, round eyes that I want to see looking up at me while I’m over your body—and think you don’t make my heart hammer and my palms sweat, make me half-hard every time you walk into the room, you don’t have a clue.”
Her pupils dilated and Dan watched the pulse beating in her throat. He wanted to run his teeth over the spot.
“You want to talk about consuming thoughts?” Dan’s voice was a hoarse whisper. “You are the only thing I can think about. How to make you laugh. Smile. Blush. I don’t think about anything without it being in the context of you. I lie in bed every night and think about your voice, the way your nose crinkles when you laugh, the way your eyes go wide every time I catch you looking at me when you think I’m not paying attention. I replay the feel of your kiss, wonder what every inch of your skin would feel like, naked, against my hands. If you think you aren’t running through my mind on loop until I want to crawl out of my skin with wanting you, then you have no clue what the word ‘unaffected’ means.”
He moved toward her.
Closer.
Closer still.
Both were fighting for air. Jagged breaths heaved their chests, just molecules and heat separating them from crashing together.
Every cell in Dan’s body challenged her to contradict the energy between them, to deny that a spark so violent could exist, and Harper’s wild eyes returned the dare.
Time constricted around them like a skin, moving too slowly for the speed of his heart and the immobility of his body. After an eternity in just a moment, Harper lifted her chin even higher, and her gaze pierced through him.