Ethan (Face-Off 5)

I look up at Ethan with my jaw clenched in anger. “Nope, not anymore.”

He reaches behind me, pushing my face into his wet chest to shut the bathroom door. “Don’t let Will hear you say that.”

I step back and roll my eyes at him, wiping the water from my face. “Like he would ever believe we were friends.”

“You didn’t sneak outside to talk to me every night because you wanted to be friends.”

“Don’t act like you know what I wanted from you,” I spit back. “You bailed on me without a second thought and still won’t admit why you left. It’s not like you would’ve been interested in a kid. You were on your way to college, and now look at you.” I wave my hand at his body. “You have plenty of women falling all over you, and why wouldn’t they?”

Damn, my stupid mouth and my inability to control saying my thoughts aloud.

Ethan flashes one of his panty-dropper grins even I’m not immune to after all these years. “If things were different, I would have waited until you were older.” He lifts a razor from the sink. “I didn’t move on. I had my reasons for going back to Boston.”

I lean my back against the wall and stare at him, folding my hands over my chest. “Whatever. You don’t owe me an explanation. We were two kids who needed someone to talk to about our shitty lives.”

“And now you hate me because I left.” He says it more as a statement.

I nod in answer.

Ethan lathers his face with shaving cream, staring at me out of the corner of his eye. “You hate me for the wrong reason.”

“I don’t want to live in the past anymore.” I remove my toothbrush from the holder and nudge Ethan with my hip to make him share the sink with me. “I have to get to work before I don’t have a shithole apartment for you to crash.”

Without another word, Ethan glides the razor along his jaw, his gaze still fixed on me. I wish he would stop looking at me. The intensity in his eyes pricks my skin with tiny bumps. A strange feeling stirs inside my chest, and if I’m being one hundred percent honest, he’s doing something between my legs, too.

I want to ask him so many questions. But what’s the point? My brother still has no clue we used to meet every night in my parents’ backyard. Since his return from Boston, we’ve pretended to hate each other to keep Will from seeing the sparks between us. So, why stop now? Let’s keep this charade going.

Ethan shaves his face as I brush my teeth, all while we continue to stare at each other in the mirror. Electricity pulses between us and sets fire to my skin. I spit and rinse. He washes his face, peeking up at me from between his fingers.

Even though the hatred I feel for Ethan is re

al, I still find him attractive. And it’s not just his body that holds my interest. Ethan is smart. He graduated at the top of his class in both high school and college. On occasion, he would even help me with my homework. I struggled with math during my freshman year of high school, and Ethan was the only reason I passed algebra.

I wish I could shake the way my body responds to him when he places his hand on my hip. I should be able to control my breathing when he moves his palm over my ass. But I can’t move or think. Ethan has always thrown me off my game.

“What are you doing?” I choke out once Ethan moves behind me and grips both of my hips, pulling me back against his… erection.

“Testing your limits,” he whispers in my ear.

He smells of shaving cream and my shea butter body wash, the two scents now burned into my nostrils.

His breath on my earlobe causes me to still. “Who said you can touch me?” I glance at him in the mirror. “And why are you hard?”

“I’m horny, and you look good in this shirt.” He slides his hand up my side and cups the side of my breast. “You’re not a girl anymore, little lamb.”

“Thanks for noticing, Captain Obvious.” I shove his hands away from me. “Will is in the living room, and I have to get to work. Just because you’re staying here doesn’t mean I have to like you or let you touch me. When I get home tonight, we’re going over the rules.”

He laughs. “What rules?”

“The ones you and my brother will follow if you plan to sleep here for the next…” I squeeze my eyebrows together in thought. “How long will you two be here?”

He shrugs. “Two weeks to a month. Our apartment is trashed, and the association doesn’t have any vacancies to move us.”

Annoyed, I sigh. “Wonderful. Then, we need to talk later because this living arrangement won’t last long if you think you’re going to hog up the bathroom every morning and make me late for work.” I point at his long, hard cock tenting his towel and shake my head. “That can’t happen ever again. I already told you to keep your dick away from me. I meant it.”

“It’s not something I can help, Mia.” He grabs himself over his towel. “This is what you do to me. Don’t deny it. You want me, too.” His gesture causes the fabric to loosen at his waist, and before I have time to prepare myself, I get a perfect view of Ethan’s very long, very thick, and very hard cock.

Holy mother of dragons.