Ofwhatexactly?
He rubbed his chest when he felt a fire burning deep inside.
“Must be the bagels,” he muttered.
Tak kicked off his shoes and stripped out of his clothes. Earlier, the motel manager had caught up with him in the parking lot and warned him that if he didn’t pay for that day, he had to be out of the room by three.
Might as well enjoy a hot shower before I have to live in my truck.
Tak moseyed to the bathroom and stepped into the narrow tub. After turning the faucet, he stood beneath the stream of water and unraveled his braid. Large freestanding bathtubs were better, but city folks sure liked their showers. Curious, he looked down at the shampoo bottles that came with the room. It seemed like such a trivial thing, but he’d never used store-bought shampoo before. His tribe made almost everything: soaps, candles, furniture, toys, clothes. They were virtually self-sustainable. Their healers relied on plants like aloe and herbs for treating cuts and burns among the children. They didn’t like waste, and all these plastic bottles and packaging were disrespectful to nature.
When he turned a bottle upside down, a dollop appeared in his hand. The pearl-white substance didn’t seem like nearly enough for his long hair, so he shook it all out and tossed the empty bottle over the curtain rod. After rubbing the shampoo into his scalp, he held his sudsy hands in front of him. A sonorous laugh escaped.
“Whatisthis shit?” He hadn’t seen this much lather since the time he’d driven his truck through a car wash.
After he emptied a bottle of soap to slick up his chest and underarms, some of the shampoo slid into his eyes and burned like liquid fire.
Tak growled and squeezed his eyes shut. When water sprayed him in the face, more shampoo got in his eyes and made him back up a step. As he pulled the curtain open, his foot slipped. Tak felt the rod give way before the metal clanked against the tile.
Someone pounded on his motel room door.
“Hold on!” he snarled.
They knocked again, but it sounded more like someone kicking the door.
“Dammit.” Still blind, he stepped out of the narrow stall and rubbed his eyes.
Big mistake. He’d forgotten about the soap on his hands, and now his eyeballs felt like someone had torched them with gasoline.
Cursing under his breath, he strode blindly toward the insistent banging, thumping his head on the top of the bathroom doorframe. It was lower than most, and Tak usually dipped his head when walking through doorways. The air conditioner instantly chilled his wet body.
“It’s not three yet!” he yelled. What kind of bullshit was this that a man couldn’t even take a shower before checking out?
He smacked into the door and then felt around for the knob. Tak was about to get uncivilized if the manager so much as uttered a single complaint about him not leaving fast enough.
He yanked open the door, eyes still squeezed shut. “I’ll be out of your hair in a minute!” Tak slammed the door, turned around, and tripped over something on his way back to the bathroom. He was a big man, so when he crashed to the floor, it was like timber falling. As he lay there on his back like a twisted root, he felt the comforter within his grasp and used it to wipe his face.
Unfortunately, it didn’t alleviate the searing pain in his eyes.
The knocking sounded again, only this time it was so light that it was like butterfly wings flapping against the door.
Tak lifted his head and pried open his lids just as the door opened… and Hope walked in.
Chapter 19
My eyes widened at the display of gratuitous nudity sprawled out on the floor before me. I’d driven straight over from Asia’s house, hoping to catch Tak before he went out to the bar or someplace else.
Boy, did I ever catch him.
With the sack of veggies in my arms, I’d knocked on the door with my foot. The third time, I gave up and turned away.
“I’ll be out of your hair in a minute!” Tak growled.
I turned around just as he slammed the door in my face. Confused, I shifted the sack in my hand and knocked once more before entering. Nothing could have prepared me for what I found lying on the floor.
Tak’s body glistened, suds running down his chest from the ends of his hair. If I hadn’t seen his penis before, I sure as heck had a grand view under the spotlight of sun pouring into the room.
“Hope?” he asked, his voice quavering as he looked at me with bloodshot eyes.
