I felt clammy and dirty after our flight. There was no way I was getting in the same bed as a man who could smell my sweat without a shower.
“Well, cold plunging is all the rage right now.” I gathered my pile of clothes, skirting around him to reach the bathroom door.
Rhett sidestepped, blocking my path. His pecs were at eye level. A droplet of water fell from his hair and trailed down them. Suddenly, I wanted to be a drop of water.
That thought was immediately followed by a nauseating guilt. I was supposed to be marrying someone else. Even though he completely threw our future together away, I hadn’t fully broken the attachment. The expectations.
Hold up.A little admiration didn’t cause any harm. Rhett was objectively attractive.
But standing here, drooling over his chest and imagining my tongue replacing that water droplet, felt wrong.
Like infidelity.
That tug in my chest twisted uncomfortably. An angry, rebellious version of me wanted to throw myself at Rhett just to break through that feeling.
I didn’t owe loyalty to a man whotook a job out of state without telling me.A man who asked me to mail my engagement ring back to him.
Screw him.
I could admire every inch of a hot shifter guilt-free.
And I did, taking time to look Rhett up and down, not bothering to hide my interest.
The intensity in his expression shifted to something wild, and a shiver whispered down my spine. He was a predator, and my first instinct was to run from him when he looked at me like that.
My second instinct was to hope he chased me.
I was almost to the bathroom when he grabbed my forearm and growled, “Don’t talk to me about your ex. Not unless you really do want me to kill him.”
I stood on my tiptoes, inclining my head so my mouth hovered near his as I whispered, “What if I do want you to?”
“Say the word.”
I couldn’t feel the cold anymore, warmth coiling in my middle and traveling down between my thighs. A fierce jerk in my chest startled me from my trance, and I hurried past him, shutting the door behind me.
This was just harmless flirting, right? Weird, murderous flirting. Rhett wasn’t actually going to kill my ex-fiancé.
There was a layer beneath his small town good boy personality, and I got my first glimpse of it. He was dangerous when he wanted to be.
Of course, he was. He was a wolf shifter.
A wolf shifter on his way home from a private security mission.
Why was that such a turn-on?
My sister would have filed a restraining order by now.
I cranked the shower all the way to hot, stripping out of my clothes and jumping up and down like an athlete warming up.
When I stepped into the spray of water, I almost screamed.
“Fuck, that’s cold.”
All of my suffering was going to be worth it. In a few days, I would get my closure, and then I could move on with my life.
Ten minutes later, my hair was wet and my teeth were chattering. I scrambled into my clothes, still damp, and lunged for the blow dryer.
It didn’t work.
