“Tell E to grab my stuff from the locker.”
“You got it, Champ.” I shift his extra large body to leverage my weight and tuck my shoulder under his pit. He’s looking down at me, his expression open, as if he’s about to say something of import.
“What is it?”
He licks his lush bottom lip, tugs it between his teeth. And so help me God a missile of heat shoots straight to my groin. Then it pulls a 180 and travels up to my face. No doubt he’s noticed the bloom of sweat on my forehead.
“I…” He exhales sharply. In frustration, it sounds like. He catches my eyes again. “Thank you.” Whatever else he was about to say, he chooses to keep to himself.
This time, I don’t hold back what I’m feeling. That’s why I say, “What are friends for?” and unleash a smile that’s all for him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Camilla!” The shout travels across the gym to find me in the hallway. He’s in the “treatment” room––the man has more medical gadgets than a hospital. He’s supposed to be sitting in a tub filled with ice, waiting patiently for my return. “Camillaaaaa!”
Patience has exited the building.
“Stop your bellowing,” I scream back from down the hall. When I reach the open doorway, a remember who I’m dealing with. “Are you decent?”
“Course not, but come in anyway.” I poke my head into the room and find him in the steel whirlpool, submerged up to his waist. His eyes are closed and his head is tipped back resting on a bath pillow. “Where’d you go?”
“To get your bathrobe.”
“Are you coming in, or are you just going to stand there and stare at me?” A rare, brief smile appears on his face.
“Your eyes are closed. How would you know what I’m doing.”
I don’t know what’s worse that I was ogling him, or that the smug bastard knows and is taking pleasure in it. His eyes creep open. Heavy lidded, sulky and beyond sexy, he pins me in place with those pale orbs. All of a sudden, it feels like I’m the one that’s naked. But I will not be cowed by a pair of bedroom eyes. No, sir. Therefore, I march into the room holding the bathrobe as a privacy curtain between us, and my gaze directed as far away from him as possible.
“Camilla,” he drawls. “Put the robe down. I need your help to get out. If I slip, I could hurt myself even worse.” He’s right, damn it. “I don’t have anything you haven’t seen before.”
I really wish he would stop exerting his infallible frigging logic on me. “How do you want to do this?” I say, dropping the robe.
“I’ll try to push myself up and grab onto to you.”
Holding onto the sides of the tub, he starts to emerge from the water. My mouth goes bone dry while the rest of me feels like it’s being burned at the stake. Droplets cling to his bare chest, onto the sprinkle of dark hair covering it, onto his tight nipples puckered from the cold. I’m in a daze watching him. Who wouldn’t be when you have a work of perfection inches from your face. And then he gets to his feet.
Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Whatever happened to shrinkage? Because there is definitely none happening here. And if there is, then what the fuuu..
“You stare at it any longer, honey, and you’ll get more than an eyeful.” His voice is quiet and deep, a bit husky, and as rich as molten chocolate. And God help me because I can’t stop myself from licking my lips. A sharp intake of breath prompts me to glance up. He shifts and suddenly slips. Instinctively, I grab him around the waist and he clings to my shoulders, our bodies smashing together as we fight to regain our balance. My clothes are soaked. And even though he’s been sitting in ice, his body heat is scorching me from my breasts to everything bellow.
“We’re going.” Mercedes is standing in the open doorway. Her well-groomed brow arches. “Can I bring you two anything to eat?”
“I’m not hungry,” I say rather loudly.
“Nothing for me, thanks,” Cal adds over me.
“I’ll make him something later,” I tell her. “Where are you and Sam going to eat?” The ridiculousness of this situation is beyond explanation.
“The Italian restaurant in town.” Her eyes narrow just a touch and a smile ghosts across her face. “We’ll be an hour––have some clothes on when we get back.”
With that, she leaves us alone, standing there clinging to each other. I look up into his smiling face and feel the soft squeeze of his mitts on my shoulders. Holy hell, does it feel good. The warmth, the weight of him. For a moment, I imagine what all that weight would feel like bearing down on me, pushing me into the mattress. Shiiiiit!!! Every cell in my body is screaming at me to press closer.