23
RYAN
HOW THE TABLES TURN
The shower cut off as I gazed blearily through hooded eyes. Sunlight danced through the curtains as the ceiling fan whipped them around. The clock said it was just after 11:00 a.m., but it felt like dawn.
Willow had caught a writing bug and didn’t stop working last night, even as the hands of the clock went around and around. I made the most of it, tackling my own pile of work as the night rolled on.
She finally turned in around four in the morning, curling up beside me and staying there until the sun broke through the trees and sliced through the windows.
I was way too fucking old to be staying up that late. I had no idea how she was up and at ‘em already.
I had just closed my eyes again and dozed off when the bathroom door opened. I peered over the covers and spotted Willow with a towel around her body and one on top of her head.
Damn . . .
The edge of the towel stopped just below the curve of her ass. The tail was tucked between her breasts. Sure, I had seen her ina bra and panties—we had been living with each other for nearly two months. But I always respectfully excused myself when she was changing.
But right now . . .
Right now I didn’t want to.
She must have thought I was asleep. That’s why she hadn’t grabbed her clothes to go back to the bathroom to get dressed.
“If you drop that towel, you’re going to fucking kill me, cupcake.”
Willow whipped around, clutching the towel to her chest. Her eyes went wide as I sat up in bed, letting the covers pool around my waist.
“I thought you were asleep,” she whispered as she stood frozen. Whispers from the ceiling fan kissed her shower-speckled skin, making goosebumps dance along her shoulders and arms.
I wanted to kiss each one until they all disappeared. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from her. All I wanted to know was what was underneath that towel. I wanted to know what she felt like. Willow was my obsession. I thought about nothing else. I sought no one else. And if it wasn’t going to be her, I wasn’t sure it was going to be anyone.
“I know,” I said as sleep and sex rattled in my voice. “I was just letting you know in case you wanted me to step out.”
The noon rays of light reflected in her bottle green eyes, bringing out the flecks of gold that hid behind emerald prisms.
And then those eyes darkened.
“What if I don’t want you to leave?”
“Wills—” Her name came out tangled in a breath.
“If you don’t want to look, then don’t look.” With one hand still holding the towel around her chest, she pulled off the one around her hair. “But I think you want to look.”
She was fucking teasing me. Testing me. Taunting me. Pink hair damp from the shower caressed her skin the way I wanted to.
Willow and I had reached a fork in the road. Either I had to be all-in, or I had to keep this thing between us as low-stakes as possible, so we could part ways in four weeks with minimal damage.
Well . . . soshecould escape the crash with minimal damage. I would be wrecked when she walked away.
Ifshe walked away.
I wasn’t planning to make it easy for her to turn her back and walk that road alone.
I sat against the headboard and lazily draped an arm over her empty stack of pillows as I pushed the covers away from my hips. “Go on, then. Give me a show.”
“Doesn’t seem very fair . . .” she mused as she fingered the terrycloth hugging her breasts. “I’ll be naked and you have boxers on.”
