“No! I was joking!” I exclaimed, embarrassed by his sharp gaze. “And obviously I’m not taking off my tank top,” I added, grabbing the sink with both hands.
“Well, at least show your stomach, how else am I supposed to paint it?”
“No.”
At that point James lifted his hands in surrender.
“Suit yourself, princess,” he said, putting both palms between my thighs to spread them slightly.
I bit my lip to repress the quiver from that unexpected contact while his full attention was on creating light and shapes on my skin.
“What happened to ‘I’m not touching you’?” I teased.
“Would you prefer if I said ‘Open your legs’?’”
I was speechless. His crass comments never ceased to amaze me.
“Are you gonna tell your mom, White?”
“What?”
“That I discovered my newest talent. One of many.” He pointed at my legs, marked with multicolored brush strokes. “Do you want a little bit on the lip too?” he asked.
My throat closed up on me and my eyelids got heavier when I saw James put a little electric blue on his index finger to apply it directly to his mouth. His fingertip slid back and forth on his lower lip, forcing me to watch every movement. Then he did the same with the upper lip. I was so entranced by the sight that I even stopped breathing.
“Give it to me. I’ll put it on myself.”
I tried to take the paint out of his hands, but James pulled away before I could grab it.
“I asked you a question,” he said seriously.
“Yeah, blue. Same as yours.”
A husky moan slipped out of his throat when he realized he was staring at my lips.
“Fuck.”
I felt my stomach turn, and a strange, warm sensation washed over my chest.
“Okay.” He panted slightly out of breath as I stared at the tube between his lightly spotted fingers.
“How many girls have you used that brush on?”
“I’ll warn you, the number might shock you.” I saw him suppress a sly laugh.
“Are you a moron? I wanted to know if it was clean. I don’t want to get a disease!” I screamed, pushing him.
“It’s new, you pain in the ass.”
Then he turned to the sink and put soap on his hands to wash off the paint residue. Two cackling girls walked behind James and shot him an interested look. They commented on his muscular bare back, his sculpted hips in his swimsuit, and then lingered on the reflection in the mirror.
I stared daggers at them so hard that they got annoyed and left the bathroom. After wiping his hands with some paper, James put the blue paint on his thumb.
“I’ll warn you, if you make out with someone, this goes away.”
His eyes slowly descended on my lips, and I started not to understand anything anymore. I couldn’t handle the tension any longer. I couldn’t look up; my gaze was glued to the floor when he started carefully spreading the color over my quivering mouth. He pressed his warm fingertip along my lower lip and slowly made the paint flow on my upper lip too. I looked up just in time to see him giggle smugly.
He quickly slid two fingers into my hair tie and undid my messy bun, causing my blond hair to fall across my cheeks.
