Truth

d onto the dry floor, with his dark gaze set toward me.

Warmth spread through my chest and down every limb. He narrowed his eyes like he was angry with me—or maybe with himself—and then stepped out of the shower and left the bathroom, leaving me alone, all hot and bothered, surrounded by so much sexual tension that I wanted to melt right there.

Reid King, the most talented man I’d ever met and easily one of the most attractive men I’d ever seen, just saw me naked.

He saw me naked, and the look he gave me had my stomach dropping so low I didn’t think I’d ever be able to pick it up.

???

After finally getting the guts to leave the bathroom, I sat in my room with a firmly closed door (FYI, if you leave your bedroom door open in a suite, people can hear you screaming when there’s a fake snake in your shower, and they’re likely to come investigate) with my legs crossed underneath me. A bottle of Fiji water was clenched in my hand, the silver platter of room service still on my bed, and I only sat there, still trying to clear my head from earlier.

Reid King saw me naked, and now I had to be in a room with him, pretending like it didn’t happen.

I’d written down a few lesson plans for upcoming sessions, and the next was to work on writing a dummy song. A dummy song meant writing a song about something totally insignificant, something creative, yet something that the world would never see. I figured it was a great start to getting the ball rolling. The sooner Reid and I collaborated and figured out a song, the sooner I could leave and stop feeling so… anxious. Our last session was getting to know one another, to maybe make things a little more comfortable. But now? God. It felt like I had a gorilla squeezing my throat at the same time an elephant was sitting on my chest.

Reid King saw me naked, and I didn’t even try to hide the fact that it turned me on. I liked it. I liked that he saw me naked. I liked the way his hands gripped my torso.

Small beads of sweat were forming on my forehead.

Just go in there and act professional, and tell him you’re ready for the next lesson. I blew air out of my mouth and shook out my shaky fingers.

Working with kids was never this stressful or intense. I rolled my eyes as I pulled my legs over the bed. Of course working with Reid would be stressful and intense. Just look at him! He was the broodiest, most stubborn, most talented, attractive-as-sin man in the world.

Grabbing a pen and notebook, eyeing my old, wood-chipped guitar for a brief second, I walked over to my room door and swung it open. You have maybe ten yards to get your bearings together before you knock on his door. Chill.

Then all the air evaporated from my lungs.

My face could have been used as an example for the old adage “Looking like a deer in the headlights.”

Reid freaking King was standing right outside my door.

The lie detector test determined that having ten yards to get my bearings together was a lie.

I had negative three seconds, and my bearings were most definitely not together.

“Reid,” I breathed, instantly wanting to punch myself in the face.

“We have a lesson to finish, right?” he asked, all calm and relaxed.

I coughed, shifting on my feet, averting my eyes elsewhere. “Um…”

Reid shifted on his heels. “We never finished our twenty questions from last night.”

Confused, I brought my gaze up to his. “You want to finish our twenty questions? I was going to say we could work on some actual songwriting…”

Reid’s lower lip disappeared behind his teeth, causing my mouth to go dry. Why was I so out of control?

Reid’s eyes from our little shower episode shined brightly in my head like they were on a jumbo screen that I couldn’t look away from. He drank me in, every inch of my wet body, and the twinkle in the amber color was nothing less than lustful. That was why I was so out of control; I suddenly had a taste of what it was like to have someone like him give me a type of carnal attention, and now I wanted more.

“You know,” Reid said, that lip of his jutting out from behind his teeth, “I think I’d rather do the whole twenty questions thing than try to write right now. Remember… baby steps?”

I narrowed my eyes for a brief second. I was certain that I’d give Reid King anything he wanted in that moment, and that was a big, big problem.

“Fine,” I answered, acting just as normal as him as I crossed my arms over my small chest. “But the next lesson, we’re getting down to work, okay?”

We had to. Otherwise, Carissa and the rest of the record label would fire me on the spot and that couldn’t happen. It wouldn’t happen—I’d make sure of it. Because if I were to get fired or let go for not doing the job I was sent here to do, then that text message I’d gotten from Cara earlier about them thinking about selling their second vehicle would come true.

Reid pushed through the threshold of my door, walking right past me, and plopped down on my bed. “You’ve got it, Teach. Now, where were we?”