She stepped towards him and inside the door frame, he brought his lips to hers and kissed her. No tongues, but firm yet tender intent. He lingered a moment, as if on the verge of giving more, taking more. Carli savoured any part of his body touching hers. She would never tire of it.
They parted from the kiss, but their faces remained close and Niall’s eyes sparkled. ‘Have a nice time in Eilidh’s room,’ he said. The emphasis he put on Eilidh’s name was flirtatious, as if he wanted her to consider his room as an alternative. But not for gossip and chocolate. They’d talked about going all the way, but Carli hadn’t felt ready, and Niall had said they’d only do it if she was. Was she ready? Seeing him in his towel like this and feeling the fever from his body as he kissed her, even with her own clothes on, she wondered if she might be.
‘You okay to find the bathroom?’ Eilidh asked.
Carli nodded. ‘Of course. I won’t be long.’ She made her way up the stairs with her bag. Sean’s house was bright with an airy, open-plan lower floor that afforded ample light, but was also the sort of room that could be cosy in the winter with the log burning stove. The perfect place to be if a galewere blowing outside. Upstairs was much the same. The carpet in the hall was thick and soft, like walking through soft, spongy moss.
At the top of the stairs, she stopped, momentarily overwhelmed by all the doors. Okay, so the bathroom was at the end on the right. There were three other doors. One would be Sean’s bedroom and the others must be spare bedrooms, one of which Niall was using while staying here. Two of the four doors were slightly ajar and two fully closed. Carli stood for a moment, listening for the sound of the shower. Which room was Niall in? Where was he? Metres from her, he stood, naked, under a showerhead. Droplets free-falling down those rippled abs. Niall soaping himself up, strong hands all over that powerful body. She soaked in the image.
Stop!
But what was the harm? It was all in her head. Nobody need know.
The faint sound of water was coming from the room on the far left so Carli tiptoed towards the door, fully aware how this might look should Niall stroll out fully dressed. Or worse, one of his sisters appear.
Carli leaned against the wall outside the bedroom where Niall was showering. Her feet were planted safely in the soft pile of the carpet, but her mind was at high altitude. She closed her eyes and listened, trying to latch onto the sound of the water again. What would happen if she walked in there? He wouldn’t say no to her, would he? He’d invite her in. They’d be together again. Something she’d given up on indulging as a fantasy a long time ago. But now here she was, thinking of him. Fantasising about him. They were mere metres from each other, one of them naked, and yet they weren’t together.
‘Hey, Cass? You alright?’
Carli’s eyes flew open and she jolted back to reality, only to see Niall walking down the corridor towards her, with merely a towel knotted round his waist.
Fuck! On so many levels.
It was like some sort of adults only, sexually charged re-enactment of that teenage moment in his parents’ house. Only now, Niall was broader than Australia, had abs that could keep a woman up all night and a towel hanging so perilously low that there was no chance of avoiding the enticing line of hair that disappeared under the fabric. Sure, she’d seen him naked a long time ago, but, oh my, she had not seen this before. Niall Butler had filled out into one stunning specimen of a man. Surfing for a living might do that.
‘Oh, hey,’ she said, her voice like limp lettuce.
‘What you doing leaning against that wall there? You feeling alright?’ Niall stopped a couple of feet away from her. Jesus! The heat was coming off him in sheets. Or was that her own body turning into a furnace? Carli dragged her gaze to his face, but it was too rugged, his eyes too bright against the dark shadow of his stubble. Every part of him did it for her.
‘Yeah, yeah, I’m good. I was looking for the bathroom. And all the doors look the same.’
‘Aye, they do. Were you looking at them with the back of your head?’
‘What?’
‘Well, normally when I’m looking for things, I use my eyes, but you were leaning against the wall with yours shut.’
Well, didn’t he have a point? ‘Ah, I’m jet-lagged still. Maybe that and boogie boarding aren’t a great combo?’
Niall raised his eyebrows. ‘Aye, maybe. Or maybe.’ He stepped towards her. ‘Maybe you were looking for me?’
‘What?’
‘Maybe you were standing outside this door because you thought I was in there and you were almost ready to give in to temptation.’ He moved closer, placing his palms on the wall behind her – one either side – a dangerous move considering that loosely knotted towel. ‘Were you leaning against that wall thinking about me on the other side?’ His skin was gleaming from the shower and the fresh scent of male body wash and lemony shampoo radiated straight to her core.
Fuck.
He had her. Physically with the pulsing heat from his broad frame and with his incisive insight into her thoughts. Not that it was rocket science, and she had to remember that she and Niall had always had an amazing way of being in tune with what the other was thinking or doing.
‘What if I was?’ she countered as best she could. ‘Would that be a crime?’
Niall laughed and his Adam’s apple danced in his throat. ‘It would definitely not be a crime. Not in my rule book, anyway. But we were going to be friends. Friends don’t listen outside the room where friends are showering, imagining them naked. Do they?’
Carli met Niall’s gaze; his eyes twinkling again, kaleidoscopes of blue and green, the same way they had done back in the hall at his parents. That cheeky glint was there still, but now he was a man and there was an adult twist to it. Sexual intent. An abundance of masculine promise. Holy moly. To say yes. To tell him, fuck it, I was thinking of you so get that towel off and get back in the shower, now, Butler. To reach down and yank that flimsy bit of fabric right off his taunting hips.
‘Anyway,’ Niall said, an indisputableknowing in his voice, ‘the answer is no, they don’t, and I’ve already had a shower so you can get that fantasy out of your head. I’ll leave you to “get clean” on your own.’ He pushed back from the wall, unboxing her, the surrounding space dipping to its normal temperature.
Carli heard herself mumble something that sounded like ‘okay,’ but was possibly more of an indiscriminate noise that betrayed how discombobulated this encounter had left her.
