“Zach,” she finally whispers, resting her cheek along mine.
“Hmm?” I breathe. Turning my face into her neck, I nuzzle softly, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo that lingers in her hair.
“I… I think I really like you.”
Her confession is quiet, hesitant. Raw and vulnerable and endearing. Wrapping one arm around her back, I squeeze her tight to my chest and press a kiss to her temple. “I think I really like you, too.”
And it scares the shit out of me that I mean it.
Because, what if she leaves just like Britt?
Twenty-Seven
Louise
“Why is your shower so much better than mine?”
Standing beneath the spray of the shower head in Zach’s bathroom, I moan audibly at how incredible it feels.
“What do you mean?” he asks from the other side of the shower curtain. Peeking out around the fabric, I watch him for a moment in the mirror. He’s shaving the lower portion of his face, white shaving cream covering his neck and chin. He glances at me in the mirror and grins.
“Your water pressure is amazing.”
His brows draw together then. “I’ll come by and take a look.”
Rolling my eyes at him, I disappear back behind the curtain to finish washing my hair. “I think it’s just the shower head. This thing is incredible.”
The curtain opens and Zach pops his head in. “I’ll talk to the landlordand get a replacement.”
“You don’t have to do that. I can talk to the landlord myself, Zach.”
“I know that. But look at all that hair. You need a good shower head to rinse that properly.”
“It’s not necessary, but thank you.” I blow him a kiss from where I’m languishing beneath the warm spray. He grins, then disappears from sight again. Raising my hands to comb through the long strands with conditioner, I say, “I like it when you smile.”
“I thought you liked me grumpy.”
“I do like you grumpy. But I like it when you smile at me, too. It’s like a little glimpse behind theWizard of Oz’scurtain.”
“I like seeing behindthiscurtain,” he drawls, dragging the shower curtain back again. His face is clean of the shaving cream. Those blue eyes travel from my head to my pink painted toes and back, lingering heavily on the spot between my thighs, and higher to my breasts. With my arms raised over my head, my breasts are practically begging for his attention. He bites his lower lip before raising those eyes to mine. I grin impishly, shimmying my upper body, making them sway. “Fuck, you’re so damn pretty, Louise.”
Turning, I give him my back, and he groans, low and guttural. Peeking at him over my shoulder, I smile teasingly.
“Do you do nothing but squats all day every day?” he asks, leaning his shoulder against the wall, still peering into the shower around the curtain, his attention on my ass, now. He scrubs one hand down his freshly shaved face, cupping his palmover his mouth and chin, his gaze scorching. “Jesus Christ, your ass is literally what my dreams are made of.”
I do another little shimmy and the sound that comes out of him is damn near feral. I laugh, winking at him.
“I really like seeing my handprint there, too, Princess.”
Looking at him over my shoulder again, I whisper, “I do, too.”
The residual heat of the spankings he’d administered last night linger, but it’s not painful. It’s like the sexiest reminder. A secret claiming that only he and I know about.
Zach adjusts himself behind the fly of his jeans and I grin again before turning to rinse the conditioner out of my hair. Our eyes never leave each other as I thoroughly rinse the product out of the long tresses, and then I turn the water off before wringing the excess water out of my hair.
Pulling the curtain open, Zach stands there with a towel ready, wrapping me in the largest, fluffiest towel I’ve ever seen as soon as I step out. He wraps the material around my shoulders, much like one would to a small child, and I grin up at him before rising on my tiptoes to kiss his mouth.
His hands slide over my shoulders, fingers gathering the wet strands of my hair and gently pulling it out of the towel draped around me like a cape. He fans the long tresses down my back, his eyes roving over me entirely. It’s intense and adoring and my delicate heart doesn’t know how to handle any of this.
