The bathroom doorclicks shut behind us, and I can't think.Can't breathe.There's just heat and want and the way Nate's looking at me like he's starving and I'm the only thing that can save him.My skin is already on fire, every nerve ending screaming for his touch.
He reaches for the shower knobs, and I watch the muscles in his back shift under his shirt.
I need him so badly it's making me dizzy.
"We really doing this?"His voice is rough, careful, but I can see the way his hands are shaking, the way he's fighting to maintain control.
I don't answer with words.
I can't.
My brain has completely short-circuited, reduced to pure instinct and this desperate, clawing hunger.I grab the hem of my shirt and pull it over my head, watching his pupils blow wide as his eyes rake over my skin.
The sound he makes—low and desperate and completely wrecked—goes straight through me.
I'm moving before I can think, pressing myself against him, my mouth finding his neck, tasting salt and heat.His hands are everywhere, mapping every inch of exposed skin with reverent desperation, and I'm making sounds I've never made before—little gasps and whimpers that should probably embarrass me but don't because this is Nate, and with him I'm fearless.
This is what drowning feels like, I think distantly.
This overwhelming, all-consuming need that wipes out everything else.
When he lifts me, pressing me back against the cold tile, I wrap my legs around him instinctively, my body knowing what it wants even if my mind has gone completely blank.The contrast—scalding water, freezing wall, burning skin—makes me arch against him, chasing friction, chasing relief from this ache that's building inside me like a storm.
"Nate," I breathe, and it comes out broken, desperate, like a prayer.
"Fuck, Len, I've never wanted anything so fucking badly in my life, the way I want you."His voice is wrecked, barely human, and it sends heat spiraling through me.
"Please, Nate—" I don't even know what I'm begging for, but he seems to understand.
His mouth crashes into mine and I'm drowning again, lost in the taste of him, the way he responds to every sound I make like it's music.I can feel myself getting close to something, something that's going to shatter me completely, when?—
Knock knock knock.
"Nate?"Ollie's voice cuts through the steam like a blade."Me and Jake are going out for food.You want to come?"
We freeze.
Hearts hammering.
Water still running.
I want to scream, want to sob from frustration because my entire body is wound so tight I feel like I might actually combust.Nate's forehead drops against mine, his breathing as ragged as mine, and I can see the same desperate need in his eyes.
"No," he calls back, his voice only slightly strained.Somehow managing to sound normal when I can barely remember how to breathe."I'm busy."
"Alright, see you later then."
We wait, listening to Ollie's footsteps retreat down the hallway.The second I think we're safe, I'm pulling Nate's mouth back to mine, desperate to recapture what we'd lost.
But then Ollie's voice drifts through the door again.
"Oh and Nora?Mom's looking for you."
I want to die.
Actually cease to exist.
The mortification crashes over me like ice water, and I bury my face in Nate's shoulder, my whole body burning with embarrassment.Nate's chest shakes against me, and when I look up, he's biting his lip, clearly trying not to laugh.
