Dirty Little Mistake (Dirty #2) Read Online Free Page A

her light, buttery – and oddly sexy – scent. 
    Breakfast, I thought absently. She smells like the world’s best breakfast. Pancakes and syrup and whipped cream.
    It only took a few seconds, though, before it all started to feel too good.  Blood rushed from every part of my body to the part of my body and I had to pull away.
    I shuffled over on the stump a little, but it was too small to put any useful kind of space between us.  I was still hyper-aware of how close she was and I was torn between standing up and running away to persevere my sanity and turning and devouring her body to sate my libido.  I was leaning heavily toward the latter.
    “Ridley?”
    My name on her lips didn’t help.
    I took a breath. “Brenna?”
    “What are you doing out here?” she asked.
    “What are you doing out here?” I countered.
    “I asked you first.”
    I smiled. “Yeah, but I was jogging along the path in plain sight. You’re the one skulking in the dark. Creepy has to yield to non-creepy.”
    In response, I heard a click, and the small clearing where we sat was illuminated by the soft glow of a flashlight.
    “Now it’s not creepy,” she told me.
    “Oh, it’s not?” I teased. “Sitting out here alone with a flashlight?”
    “I’m not alone!” she protested.
    I looked around pointedly. “You’re not?”
    “Not anymore, ” she amended.
    “Okay then. If it’s not creepy, what is it?”
    “Romantic.”
    Brenna’s face fell before she even finished saying the word.  Tears pooled in her eyes.
    “Ah, shit,” I muttered and slung an arm over her shoulder.
    She sunk straight into my chest like she belonged there.  Her body shook silently against mine and I stroked her back soothingly for a few achingly long minutes before she stopped crying.  The intoxicating smell of her seeped into me and I let it.  Happily. 
    When she finally stilled, she didn’t sit up and her face stayed pressed against me as she murmured an apology.
    “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she whispered.
    I bit back an urge to tell her just how fucking perfect she seemed right at that moment and said instead, “Hey. You’ll be okay, Brenna.”
    “I don’t think I will be,” she replied. “This is just too hard.”
    “I’m going to kick myself later for asking this,” I said. “But are you having a problem with a guy?”
    Her fingers took up a strand of her long hair and twirled it self-consciously.  As she twisted it up and released it and twisted it up again, her knuckles made a small circle just above my knee.
    I swallowed. 
    Twist.
    Release.
    Stroke.
    Twist.
    Release.
    Stroke.
    If her hand moved up any further up, she was going to find a different kind of hardness. 
    “Do you know Ian very well?” she asked abruptly. “I mean, I know you guys live together, but are you friends, too?”
    I pulled away. “Why?”
    “Do you think he could like me?” she asked.
    “Why wouldn’t he like you? You seem easy enough to like. I like you.”
    She blushed a little. “I don’t mean in a friendly way.”
    Not in a friendly way? Jesus.
    Desire left me like air leaving a balloon and I drew my arm away from her shoulders. 
    “Well?” she pressed, a sad little smile touching her lips.
    “Before I answer, can I ask you something?”
    “Sure.”
    “Most of the girls who come after Ian can barely string a whole sentence together.” I paused, unsure how to say what I meant without sounding like both an asshole and a cheeseball.
    I must’ve been silent a few seconds too long, because Brenna nudge d my knee. “Ridley?”
    “Mm hmm?”
    “That wasn’t a question.”
    I bumped her shoulder with mine in an attempt to cover the true emotions that rolled through me.
    “Give me a chance to get there,” I teased. “I’m just wondering what an apparently smart girl like you want with a meathead like Ian?”
    She looked up at me, eyes wide and serious. “Do I have to tell you?”
    “Of course not. I just…” I ran my