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I hadn’t known Jett when his accident happened, but I wanted to be around for him now. Some woman had done a number on him, and he needed to stop looking at the world around him through a cynical pair of glasses. “I’ll help you as much as I can,” I vowed. “And it sounds like losing your fiancée was actually a gift. Maybe it doesn’t feel that way right now, but someday it will.”
“Maybe I was a little clueless back then, but I knew I’d made a lucky escape the minute she walked out the door,” he said hoarsely.
“But she hurt you,” I argued.
“Maybe. But it would have hurt more if I’d married her.”
It was entirely possible that Jett was over his ex, but I was fairly certain that he’d never gotten over the rejection itself if he thought there weren’t a million women out there who would snap him up immediately if they had the chance. Dancing skill or not.
Jett was special.
But he didn’t seem to recognize that he was a whole lot more than just a few scars.
“I think you’re gorgeous,” I blurted out before I could stop the words from flying out of my mouth.
I didn’t retract my statement. Scars included, Jett was one of the hottest guys I’d ever met. He was completely ripped, and I knew he’d been using the gym in the condo to keep up his exercise routine. I hadn’t liked that at first, but he’d explained that he could lift weights without stressing his knee. And he’d start back again with his regular routine to strengthen his leg once he was sure the meniscus had healed.
He crossed his arms in front of him, his biceps flexing as he asked, “What in the hell is attractive about me now?”
I considered his skeptical expression and the way he had one of his brows raised in question.
I melted as I realized he really didn’t see a single good thing about himself anymore.
“I love your eyes,” I said honestly, not exactly wanting to tell him that I lusted after his body. “Did you know they change when you’re happy and when you’re angry? But every shade is beautiful. Your eyes are truly green and not hazel. Did you know that’s the rarest eye color? Only two percent of people in the world have green eyes.”
He was trying to resist the urge to smile, but he didn’t completely accomplish it. “More reading at the library?” he asked with a smirk.
I shrugged. “I told you that strange facts or quotes I’ve read come out of my mouth at the weirdest of times. But what I say is factual. And yeah, it’s information I picked up in the library.”
“What else do you find attractive about me?” he asked hesitantly.
Okay. I was done holding back because I could see he wasn’t quite believing what I said. “You’re completely ripped, and every time I see your ass in a pair of jeans, I want to take a bite out of it.”
“I’m scarred, woman. Are you fucking blind? You saw a small preview the night I got you out of the club.”
I crossed my arms stubbornly. “When I admire your tight butt, I’m not exactly thinking about your scars.”
“You’re a virgin. What do you know about nice asses?”
“Maybe I haven’t touched, but I can sure as hell look.”
A bark of laughter escaped him before he answered, “I give up. You have no idea how unattractive a messed-up body looks naked. Do you always look for something good in everybody?”
“That’s not hard to do with a guy like you,” I said in a breathless voice. “Other than your scars and your bossiness, you’re pretty much perfect. I think your ex was crazy to give you up.”
“But you didn’t want to marry me,” he countered.
“I wanted to say yes,” I confessed. “But you don’t deserve to be stuck with a woman like me. I’ve been homeless all my adult life, Jett. I have no job skills, and I didn’t have any kind of future. You’ve already put out more money to save me than I’m worth. Way more. And it wouldn’t have been a marriage that was happening for the right reasons.”
Jett would have done it because he wanted to rescue me, and even though I liked him, my primary reason for marriage would have been to have a roof over my head and some kind of stability.