I finger-combed my hair, doing the best I could to squeeze out all the water before hanging the towel back up to dry. Gathering my clothes, I felt completely naked. There was no way I was putting day-old underwear back on, even if I was in my neighbor’s house.
Now, all that was left was to walk out the door and go to sleep. Simple enough. I would just put my hand on the knob and turn it. I reached forward, but my hand trembled at the thought.
What if he was out there? What if he was waiting on me and he saw me with my nipples sticking out? What if he could tell I wasn’t wearing underwear?
Rolling my eyes, I yanked the door open with more force than necessary and stormed forward.
Right into JR.
“Oh, sorry!” I screeched as his hands braced my hips.
His fingertips burned through the thin fabric, leaving imprints on my skin. By the look in his eyes, he could tell I wasn’t wearing anything beneath his shirt. But how he felt about that, I couldn’t tell.
With his jaw clenched hard and his eyes burning with what looked like rage, I was desperate to escape before he yelled at me for being so inconsiderate.
My mouth dropped open to apologize, to say something.Anything. But nothing came out. I swore I felt something hard stir behind his jeans, but I could have been imagining that. I mean, he was wearing denim, after all. Maybe I was feeling a button or his zipper. Maybe it was all my imagination.
A dry spell that was playing with my mind and forcing me to think of things that I hoped to happen, but deep down knew they never would.
In other words, I was going insane.
“I should…” I gestured around him, dropping my eyes so I wasn’t staring at him with that desperation I knew was dripping off me.
“Right. Sorry.”
“Um…I used your towel. Sorry, I couldn’t find another.”
“That’s okay,” he answered gruffly.
“Right.”
And yet, we still stood there. Still just centimeters from each other. Neither of us moving. At this rate, the little amount of sleep I was going to get would be null.
“Uh…I put a blanket on the couch for you.”
“Oh! Good! Thank you!”
Wow, that was way too enthusiastic for two o’clock in the morning.
Deciding to go for it, I shuffled to my left, not surprised at all when he made the same exact move. So, I moved right, running straight into him again. He gripped my arms and moved me bodily to the left while he went right. And there it was. We were no longer in each other’s way, and I could go to the couch and get some sleep.
Alone.
I peeked back at him one last time, just enough to watch as he grabbed the hem of his shirt and peeled it over his head. Musclesstretched across his back, along with the most mouth-watering tattoos I’d ever seen.
And then he started to turn.
I scampered out of there so fast, I nailed my baby toe on the doorframe. But did I stop? Not even for a second when I thought my toe might actually fall off.
“Ow, ow, ow!” I whimpered, holding my foot in my hand as I sat on the couch. Tears sprang to my eyes and thoughts of cutting off my toe to make the pain stop entered my mind for just the slightest second before reality burst through.
Ice. I needed something cold. Anything cold.
Hobbling off the couch, I headed for the kitchen and flung the freezer open, but nothing was in there. Not even a lonely bag of peas. Slamming the door, I made my way back to the couch and muttered to myself about all the unjust things in my life, starting with my lack of anything cold to put on my foot, and finishing with the skank next door who had so irritatingly worked her way into my brother’s life and essentially ruined mine.
The water shut off in the bathroom and I quickly leapt up from the couch, turned off the light by the door, then hopped back to my spot, flinging myself into a prone position.
Huffing, I grabbed the blanket and yanked it over my body, huddling deep within it so he couldn’t see my face and how badly I had wanted to join him in the shower, if only my foot hadn’t been so disagreeable.
