Michael: Yup.
Naomi: I’m coming over.
Michael: Sweet. I hope the talk went well. Really. I know that’s been weighing on you.
He meant the words too. Even in our lust-fueled haze, he’d known how much Cami meant to me and left so I didn’t have to ask him to. Dangerous territory for me. That was for sure.
Something stung on my lower back as I made the journey there and then again on my side. I scratched at the spot but winced at the continual stings and went faster toward Michael’s place. All my thoughts about getting him naked, about confiding in him about Cami evaporated from my mind as the stings grew worse. I slammed my fist against his door, and he opened it not two seconds later.
“Hey—what’s wrong?”
“My backpack.” I dropped my bag on the ground and lifted part of my shirt. Red dots covered my side and back, and a little black thing crawled on my skin. “What the hell is that?”
“Ants.” Michael winced and swatted at my skin a few times. “Shit, they’re all over you. Come on, you need to take this off.”
I cringed and wanted to throw up. Ants were so gross. SO GROSS. I followed him into his bathroom and started stripping. I had one thing on my mind—getting these little insect fuckers away from me. “I must’ve sat on them or something.”
“They’re on your bag too.” He cringed and held it up. “Is anything valuable in here?”
My shirt was on the floor. Then my shorts. “My phone. Wallet.”
Michael frowned as he opened the large part of my backpack and pulled them out. “I’m setting this outside. Be right back.”
He left the bathroom. An ant was in the waistband of my panties, and that was it. I stepped out of them, kicking them across the room and yanking my bra off. This was my worst nightmare. Ant bites. What if they’d crawledinside me? I shook in disgust and turned the water on in the shower, not waiting for it to get hot before I went in.
“Here I brought you a—” Michael froze at the doorway. His shower was a clear glass wall, and I stood, naked as hell, three feet from him.
His throat bobbed, and the tube of medicine dropped as he joined me in the bathroom and shut the door. His eyes trailed from my face to my chest, to my pussy, then down my legs. He ran a hand through his hair, and he cleared his throat. “Uh, do you need me to uh, check out the bites?”
“Could you? I can’t see on my back.” My voice came out strong and smooth, which was the opposite of my insides. He looked at me like I was the sexiest thing alive, and my lower stomach tightened with lust. He swallowed and took a step closer to the shower. I turned, giving him full view of my back and my ass, and he reached out to trail a finger over my bites. The hot water blasted over my already burning body.
“Shit. They look infected.” His touch gave me goosebumps, and hetotallysaw me shiver. His fingers lingered on my lower back, then trailed up my spine. “Naomi.”
The way he said my name had me closing my eyes. He said it like it mattered, like I mattered, totally shattering thelet’s hook-upplan. I turned around slowly, watching how his gaze heated as he glanced at my mouth. I bit down on my lip, unsure what to do when Michael stepped into the shower, clothes and all. He was getting soaked, but he didn’t seem to care.
I didn’t have time to react when he slammed his mouth on mine, searing me with a kiss that made me weak in the knees, all tongue and teeth. Holy boner town.
He backed me up into the shower wall and kissed down my neck, biting my earlobe as he groaned. “Fuck, Naomi. You’re a walking dream.”
I shivered at his words and gasped when he hoisted me up and wrapped my legs around him. He was soaking wet and clothed. That was a real problem.
“This. Off.” I tugged at his shirt, unable to form normal sentences now that he was here kissing me, looking at me with the same hunger I felt in my core. He smiled before using his hips to hold me in place as he yanked off his shirt.
His muscles were divine. No other way to describe them. I ran my hands over every curve and bulge, and he groaned into my mouth again. He moved his hands to graze the sides of my breasts before he gripped my waist, hard. He panted when he rested his forehead against mine.
“I should take care of your bites. That was my goal,” he said, just above a whisper. The hot water pounded onto us, filling the air with a mist, and the shower smelled like him. His soap.
“Take care of me then,” I said into his mouth. He broke our kiss and turned me around, getting a bar of soap from the ledge and running it over my back. He was so gentle, feathering kissing on my shoulder, neck, back as he cleaned the bite marks.
He spent a lot of time on them before returning the bar to the edge. But now, he gripped my ass. He kneaded each cheek and spread them apart before reaching between my thighs. I sucked in a breath, and he stilled.
“No, that wasn’tstopgasp. That was anabout timegasp. Touch me, Michael, please.”
Still with my back to his chest, he reached between my legs, and I sighed in relief when he slid a finger inside me. The fact I couldn’t see him made this better, kinkier. Morefriends with benefits.It fit what I needed us to be, but after a few seconds of his thrusting finger, he slid out and turned me around.
His eyes were hooded and filled with heat as he brought the finger to his mouth. Oh my word. He flashed me a dangerous smile before getting onto his knees. Michael Reiner, who still wore pants, was on his knees in the shower. It was possible I could pass out from lust.
“I’m being selfish right now, but god, look at you.” He eyed my legs, running his hands up and down my thighs before spreading them and lifting me. He had my legs resting on his shoulders, my back pressed against the wall, and he looked up at me with water falling from his lashes. “Tell me what you like, okay? I’ll start slow.”
