We lapse into silence again.
I don’t know what she’s thinking about, but I’m thinking about how miserable my drive home will be, and how much I’m looking forward to rubbing out this boner.
Unless she lets me push her against the wall and take her right here.
I’d be good with that.
We were good together. If she needs the reminder…
“My bosses don’t want me participating in any more auctions,” she mutters, which is so far from where my brain has gone that I almost don’t comprehend the words. “They also noticed people noticing that I’m a woman, and they were…uncomfortable…with certain parts of last night.”
Focus, dumbass. Focus. “That’s a complicated mess ofnot fair.”
“It is.”
“Do you want to offer another experience?”
“Fuck, no.”
I chuckle.
“Conditioner time. You can turn around again.”
I shift in the shower and take the conditioner bottle she points to, squirt some in my hand, and go to work on her hair again.
I love her hair. It’s thick and smooth and gorgeous, and it smells like her.
“My sister-in-law offered to come help me while I recover,” Addie says. “I should call her back and accept.”
I make a noncommittal noise. She didn’t saywill. She saidshould. And I know she knows I noticed.
“If I don’t, you’ll keep showing up to try to see me naked,” she adds.
“I’m not doing this to see you naked. I’m doing it because you in makeup scares me and that’s the other thing that’ll keep me from sleeping at night.”
I would absolutely come to her house every day to help her shower to see her naked.
I’d do it every day for months without expectation that I’ll ever recover from this case of blue balls if that’s what it takes to prove to her that she can trust me.
No matter how uncomfortable my junk is as I’m massaging sweet-smelling conditioner into her hair and sneaking peeks at her slender waist and the dimples at the base of her spine and the way her thick ass muscles flare out.
“I’d be offended, but I saw what I looked like before I got in the shower,” Addie says.
“You looked gorgeous last night. But you almost always do. In a dress or in your baseball pants or completely naked or in a Minnesota Wild shirt, which I’ll deny saying if you ever tell one of my teammates.”
“Stop.”
“This is calledsetting standardsif you ever change your mind about being single forever. Don’t settle for anyone who doesn’t think you’re gorgeous all the time. Don’t even do casual with someone who doesn’t think you’re gorgeous all the time. You’re welcome.”
She glances over her shoulder at me. Her face is makeup-free again, glistening with the moisture in the shower. Eyes wary. Lips pursed.
I aim for a poker face.
She’s gonna be pissed when she looks at her phone again and sees the last message she sent me after the auction last night.
Probably even more pissed now that she’s let me help her do her dishes and take a shower.
But that one message is the very root of why I’m here.
