Messy Love (Stumbling into Love 3)

“I hate you,” I replied, but I didn’t. I was smiling and…glad to have this, to have a relationship with Will.

“Both,” he said after a moment. “You were both looking at each other like that. I’ve never seen it from Danny.”

I didn’t reply, and I had a feeling Will didn’t expect me to. But my chest was suddenly warm, and not due to the temperature outside either.

I just got home and I had to piss really bad, so I hurried down the hall, shoved the door open, and—“Oh shit.”

Danny wasn’t supposed to be home from work yet.

Danny was there.

Danny was home, naked and in the bathtub.

I wasn’t moving.

He was…fuck, he was gorgeous. All that warm, brown skin. I’d seen him shirtless before, but it was different with the whole package; muscular, defined abs, midnight hair at his groin… He wasn’t hard, his cock sort of floating there in the water, but fuck, he was big. If he was this big while flaccid…

Move, move, move.

Why wasn’t I moving?

“Fancy seeing you here,” he said. “The door was closed.”

It had been, but I’d been in a hurry and hadn’t been thinking. He always used his own bathroom, even to pee. “Damn it. I’m sorry.” I tilted my head down, used my hand to block my line of sight so I couldn’t see him, and yep, I was getting hard. How could I not? “I didn’t mean to stare.”

“It’s okay.”

“Or burst in on you.”

“That’s okay too.”

Any logical person would back out of the room, but at the moment, I didn’t seem to be logical. I stayed there, one hand on the doorknob, the other in front of my face, like he would somehow forget I was in the room with him.

“I should, um…go,” I finally managed.

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

I dropped my hand, tried not to look at him and moved backward, closing the door when, “Handsome?”

“Yeah?” On reflex, my eyes found him, and…Christ, he was half-hard now. From me being in the room with him? My reaction?

“Movie night, okay? Don’t be embarrassed. And you can use my bathroom.”

My insides deflated slightly. I’d been hoping…well, I’d been hoping he was going to tell me to strip naked and join him. “Yep.”

I went in and took a quick leak, which wasn’t easy, let me tell you, before making my way back to my room. I was silently grumbling at myself, or at Danny, hell, maybe at both of us as I changed into a pair of basketball shorts and a tee.

I didn’t know why I was suddenly so grumpy. Maybe it was just sexual frustration because I’d never…I’d never wanted anyone the way I wanted Danny. Tangled up in all that want was a healthy dose of fear, confusion about exactly why we couldn’t do this, and embarrassment over how much I clearly was attracted to him.

Danny liked sex, he was a sexual person, so I just had to face up to the fact that he didn’t want sex with me.

I heard the bathroom door open, and I gave it a few minutes before I went into the living room.

Danny was shirtless, in a similar style of shorts as mine, and sitting on the couch. “You eat?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“What do you want to watch?”

“I don’t know.” I groaned, rubbed my face with both hands, and looked up at the ceiling. “I really didn’t do that on purpose. I was in a hurry and—”

“What the fuck? I would never think that.”

“I just wanted to make sure. It’s obvious I’m attracted to you, so I didn’t want to be the creepy roommate.”

“I’m the one who told you I liked looking and like you looking at me. I think the creepy one would be me.”

Which didn’t make sense… He liked looking at me, but he didn’t want to kiss or touch me? He’d hooked up with other friends, but wouldn’t with me, which was the answer I needed.

“I guess neither of us is creepy. I just want you to know it doesn’t matter. I’ll rein it in. Jesus, first I jump you in the elevator, you tell me you’re not interested, and then I’m a peeping Tom when you take a bath.”

“Wait. What? Slow your roll.” Danny walked over to me, not stopping until we were so close, our chests nearly touched. “You really think I’m not attracted to you? Interested in you? Have you seen the way I look at you?”

My pulse thudded in my ears. My cock began to fill again, with him so close, the scent of his woodsy soap all around me.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t know what I planned to say. I didn’t have the chance anyway, because Danny’s hand came up and his finger pressed against my lips. “Shh.”

I motherfucking trembled in response—that easily. There were so many things I wanted him to do to me, places I wanted him to touch me that I’d never let anyone touch me before.