Ellis’s loud and panicked shout makes me abruptly turn. He comes out of the bathroom with only a towel around his waist, and he’s shivering. I blink at him.
Don’t look.
Too late. My eyes drift down his thin torso, and my mouth goes dry. Memories of a night I’ve been trying to forget floods my mind, and I think about how smooth that skin had felt underneath my fingers.
How he had writhed when I trailed my mouth over every inch of his skin.
I watch him as he stumbles over to his luggage. He scrambles to open it, the towel around his waist slipping down a fraction and showing off his V-line. Dear God.
Ellis gets on his knees and goes through the mess that is his luggage, his teeth chattering together the whole time. I follow the line of his back to his well-defined ass.
Subtly, I adjust my pants.
“I-I can’t find my shirt,” he says. “Dee, help me. I’m freezing.”
“So dramatic,” I mumble, but I circle around the bed to get to him. I nudge him aside and lean down, going through his clothes. “These are way too thin for Buffalo. Is that sweater you were wearing outside the only thick clothing you brought? It’s drenched in sweat and you can’t wear it tonight.”
Ellis is still trembling and blinking rapidly at me. “Yes, that’s the only one I brought because I thought I’d be in Florida by now.”
God. He’s hopeless. At least he brought sweatpants. I hand them to him to put on.
“I’ll lend you something,” I tell him.
He must be sicker than I thought because he doesn’t complain as I open up my own luggage and grab the smallest sweater I can find. It’s thick and dark and probably going to be way too big on him, but it’s better than nothing.
“T-thank you,” he says, taking it from me.
Then he fucking drops his towel, as if I’m not here. As if he’s the only goddamn person in the room. He gives me a view of his perfect, naked body. It’s inevitable how my stare drifts down, how my breath gets stuck in my throat.
“Not that it bothers me, but I thought you wouldn’t peek?” he asks, making me jump. I snap my eyes to his, and I can’t tell if it’s a good thing he caught me or not because then I didn’t let my gaze drift down further.
“Be quiet,” I mumble. “You’re the one who suddenly dropped your towel.”
Ellis laughs quietly behind me. It’s a soft but irritating sound. “Nothing you haven’t seen before, Dee.”
My face heats.
Yeah.
I’mnotgoing to survive this.
As I watch him struggle with putting the sweats on, I realize thathemight not survive this. His breaths are ragged and his eyes are unfocused, and he trips putting one leg in the sweatpants. I don’t say anything, just watch him. He puts the sweatpants on with great effort and then goes to work with my sweater.
His arm gets stuck in the neck hole, and he grumbles something under his breath as he attempts to fix it.
I press my fingers against my eyes.Jesus.I can’t take it anymore
“Stay still,” I say. Ellis makes a disgruntled sound but stops moving as I grab the sweater. I move his arms around, putting his arms where they’re supposed to go, and then yank the sweater down. It’s big enough to reach down his thighs, and the sleeves go past his hands.
I let go of the hem of the sweater, but not before my fingers accidentally brush against his skin. He’s too hot. Literally.
“Have you taken anything?”
He blinks at me as if he didn’t hear me.
“Ellis,” I say. “Have you taken any medicine? And what time?”
“I took an ibuprofen before I showered.”
