Free The Blank Canvas (Apartment #2) by Amanda Black

defeated. “I’m sorry to end the night so abruptly. I had really only hoped that you would hear me out long enough to agree to go to dinner. I knew that was a long shot in itself, so I wasn’t really prepared to… stay longer.”
    “What do you mean?” she asked. “What does it matter if we talk tonight or tomorrow?”
    “I wasn’t…” he took a deep breath. “I wasn’t ready for this.” At the hurt look on her face he was quick to clarify, “Not
this
, as in you and me.” He gestured back and forth between them with his hand. “I’ve dreamt of nothing more than that for longer than you’ll ever know.”
    Lily suddenly wondered how gravity actually worked. She knew she was still standing in there in front of him, but her heart was soaring somewhere up in the clouds.
    “I meant that I wasn’t ready for how intense this would feel, being back here again. Being this close to you again. I want to give you time to get used to the idea of us… but if I don’t get the fuck out of here right now I’m going to do something we’ll both regret.”
    “Why would we regret it?” she whispered breathlessly, her mind flashing to vivid images of his sweaty flesh as it covered hers in the darkness.
    He groaned at her words, closing his eyes briefly to strengthen his resolve. “Because,” he answered honestly, “I think that you would be angry with yourself for not waiting until you got some more answers out of me.”
    “And you?” she pressed, choosing to ignore how right he was. “What would you regret?”
    “That’s easy. I would hate myself for not making you believe how much you mean to me first. I spent way too fucking long allowing you to think that you were nothing but a warm body to me. It’s not true… and I need to make you believe it.”
    She knew then that her heart had returned to her body, because it was suddenly beating so loudly that she was surprised he couldn’t hear it across the room. “Okay… so tomorrow night, then?” she said, knowing that if he didn’t leave soon she couldn’t be held responsible for what she did to him.
    “Yes,” he smiled knowingly. “Is it alright if I call you tomorrow to set up a time? I need to make a few arrangements.”
    “Call me?” she mumbled. The thought seemed so absurd to her. They had shared so much together and yet had never even spoken on the phone. “Yeah, sure. Call me tomorrow.”
    “I need your number,” he said nonchalantly, as if he asked beautiful women for their numbers everyday, as if the mere thought of her giving him her number didn’t make him want to cry from happiness.
    “Oh!” she said, wanting to smack herself in the forehead. “That might help, huh? Let me see your phone.” She held out her hand, slowly walking forward until she was standing right in front of him.
    Ethan pulled his cell from his pocket and dropped it in her open hand, careful to avoid making contact again. As he watched her quickly enter the number he’d been obsessing over all day, he took a deep breath, tasting her as he inhaled. Fire shot through his veins, traveling along his body rapidly until it settled into his fingertips, making them itch to touch her.
    “There,” she smiled, holding the phone back out to him. “All programmed.”
    “Thank you.” This time he allowed his fingers to slightly brush against hers as he took it back from her, watching for her reaction.
    Lily gasped quietly and froze, staring up at him with heavy-lidded eyes. “Um… I think you should probably go now…
Ethan
.” Her voice dropped to a husky whisper when she said his name, causing his aching erection to twitch.
    He nodded, knowing that it was her way of telling him that she wanted him just as badly, but that she was allowing him to set the pace. Taking her cue, he opened the door quickly and stepped into the hallway, as if being on the other side of the wall might actually weaken his desire enough that he wouldn’t still want to attack her.
    It