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He couldn’t have seen me.

He was in the shower. There was steam. Noise. He was—

Distracted.

Right?

I stopped in the middle of the room, my brain spiraling.

But what if he did?

What if he saw me standing there watching…

Watching him masturbate!

I put my hand over my heart, feeling it pump too fast, and shut my eyes, forcing a few deep breaths.

In through the mouth.

Out through the nose.

In through the mouth.

Out through the nose.

My pulse began to slow—just a little.

And just as I dared to think maybe everything would be okay…

Knock-knock.

CHAPTER 14

“This was stuck to the front door downstairs.” Calder held out a UPS call tag. He’d just gotten home.

“Oh. That must be the box of stuff I asked my mom to ship me.”

“Were you out when they came?”

“Yeah, I went for a run.”

Another day, another lie. This time, I had no idea why I’d even said it. I could’ve just not heard the delivery guy at the door. If I wasn’t already on edge, it might’ve freaked me out how easily the lies rolled off my tongue these days.

But what was a white lie compared to the truth of why I’d locked myself in the apartment all day? Sorry, babe. I couldn’t get the door because I was too busy holding my breath so your best friend would think I wasn’t home. I couldn’t face him after watching him jerk off. Yeah, that would go over well.

Thankfully, Calder was too busy changing out of his suit to notice how far gone I was. But I was going to have to pull my shit together. Fast. I couldn’t keep jumping at every sound. Avoiding the front door. Holding my breath every time I heard a creak in the hall.

“I have a surprise for you.” Calder unbuttoned his dress shirt and shrugged it from his shoulders.

I did my best to sound excited. “Oh yeah?”

He nodded. “I got us a reservation at that Michelin-starred omakase restaurant you wanted to try. The one you and Rafe read about in that article.”

“Takumi?”

“That’s the one.”

“When is it? They have a three-month waitlist.”