He spanks my ass over his shoulder, spreading warmth all through me. “Are you going to fix my car?”
My teeth begin to chatter. “Are you going to fix the Kindle?”
Noah continues holding onto me, but the water between our skin makes it hard for him to keep me there and I slid down his body until my feet are safely on the tiled shower floor. His arms cage me in, keeping me from darting out of the spraying water, but in doing that, he’s also drenching himself, and I have to admit, the way his grey shirt sticks to his abs is a tasty little treat.
“I’ll fix the Kindle if you go on a date with me.”
My teeth continue to chatter while shivers begin to take over my whole body. “I’ll go out on a date with you if you let me out of the shower.”
A smile brightens his already beaming face and damn, it looks good on him.
“Deal,” he says before reaching around me and turning off the water.
We stand face to face, dripping wet and within the blink of an eye, Noah reaches out of the shower and grabs a towel before pulling it tight around me and rubbing his hands up and down, trying to bring a little more warmth into my skin. “You’re an ass,” I inform him just in case nobody has reminded him lately.
“Yeah, but you like it.”
“You’re cocky as well.”
“You’d be disappointed if I wasn’t.”
I press my lips together, refusing to respond to that as he might just be right. If he wasn’t a cocky prick in all the right ways, making him charming, exciting, and unpredictable, he’d be just like everyone else and that would be a tragedy.
“Yeah,” he says with a confident scoff. “That’s what I thought.”
I roll my eyes and I do my best to keep a straight face, but a grin spreads wide and the laughter comes howling out of me. Noah takes my hand and a second later is leading me out of the bathroom. “Come on,” he says. “Let me get you some dry clothes.”
I follow Noah down the hall and a strange nervousness settles over me as he turns into his bedroom. I don’t know why, but I had assumed he’d take me to Tully’s room and steal her clothes, but apparently, that’s not the case.
He leads me deeper into his room and drops my hand as he reaches for his closet door. He pulls it open and slides his wet shirt over his head, putting that beautiful body on show.
I shouldn’t stare. What I should be doing is peeking around in his room, searching out the skeletons in his closet, but fuck it, my eyes are drawn to his body like a moth to a flame. It’s simply perfection.
“Quit staring,” he murmurs as he riffles through his closet, reminding me of that first day together.
I pull the towel tighter around me, hoping it can somehow mask the effect he has on my body. Maybe he’ll mistake the goosebumps from the cold shower rather than the shivers that come from watching that perfectly round drip of water sliding down his spine, over the impressive tattoos, and all the way down to his low hanging jeans.
Damn. This is too much.
I need to get my ass out of here before I jump the guy.
You’re a strong independent woman. You’re a strong independent woman. Damn it. No, you’re not. You’re weak. You’re mean. Pathetic. Nothing but a loser. You feed on the defenseless souls of attractive teenage boys. Attractive boys who ask you out.
Wait… Ask me out?
What the hell did I agree to?
“Ummmmm…” I start, realizing the whole date thing probably isn’t such a great idea, considering the fact he’s Noah Cage and I’m… me. “About this whole date thing.”
“Nope,” he buts in, not even bothering to turn around to face me. “No way in hell are you bailing on me. We made a deal. We shook on it.”
“What?” I grunt, dumbfounded. I mean, it’s kind of eerie how quickly he picked up on the fact that I was about to bail. Am I that predictable? Or maybe the guy just made an effort to get to know me over the past week and I haven’t realized how much attention he’s been sending my way. “We didn’t shake on anything.”
At that, he finally turns around and flashes me those green eyes before winking and sending my brain into meltdown. “It’s your word against my word, babe.”
Babe…sigh.
I go to defend myself, but Noah cuts me off before I have the chance. “Besides,” he says, grabbing a shirt and walking towards me with heat rising behind his eyes that makes my knees shake with need. “You like me too much to bail.”
“I…” swallow. “That’s absurd. I don’t like you.”
“Really?” he questions with that cocky sureness that I seem to love as he hands me the dry shirt, letting his fingers brush against mine and leaving them there a second longer than necessary. He leans into me and gently presses his lips against my neck. “So, you’re telling me that every time I do this and your breath catches, that’s you not liking me?”