Chapter 35

Under Sam’s smoldering gaze, I staggered back a step. Anything to put some much needed distance between us. “I’m positive,” I said, with a shake of my head that negated my words. The pounding throb in my groin was a distraction I didn’t need at the moment. “I thought you were Rick,” I tried to explain.

Sam watched me take another step back, the faintest suggestion of a smirk on his heart-shaped lips. For the first time, I saw him as my sister must’ve, saw the manbeneath the mantle of relative. At his temples, dirty blonde hair curled with sweat, and beads of it trickled down sculpted pecs I had never noticed before. Did he work out? Each muscle was chiseled, well-defined: thick arms, six-pack abs, flat stomach framed by narrow hips, a trail of damp fuzz that began just below his navel and disappeared into the waistband of his jeans.

Which were unbuttoned. When had that happened?