Page 97 of Unlikely
CLEM
“Oh my God,” I squeal. “How much longer are you going to be?”
“You know better than to rush me,” she scolds. “I’m shaving your legs, and cutting you isn’t an option.”
I roll my eyes. “You know I can do them myself, right?”
She drags her eyes away from my legs and meets my gaze. “And where’s the fun in that?”
“Everybody is coming over in an hour,” I remind her. “You said it would be a quick bath.”
“Sweetheart, when have we ever been naked and anything be quick?”
I smack the water with the back of my hand, splashing her. “Are you saying I should’ve known better?”
“Absolutely,” she quips. “Now, stay still.”
We sit opposite one another, my leg propped up on the lip of the bath as Zara runs the razor over my soapy skin. She does this often, finds a million and one ways to show me how much she loves me, how much she cares for me… how much she wants to take care of me.
“I love you.” I smile at her. “But maybe you shouldn’t have invited everyone over,” I say a little more seriously. “It doesn’t have to be this big deal.”
She shifts her gaze to mine again. “But it does, because it is.”
“It’s just community college,” I argue.
“Firstly, it’s getting accepted to community collegeandyour birthday.” She maneuvers my leg back into the water, places the razor on the niche beside us, and slides closer to me, wrapping her arms and legs around my body, her perfect breasts pressing against mine. “Secondly, and most importantly, do you think the children’s lives you’re going to change give a fuck about whether you went to community college versus a big university?”
“Okay,” I scoff. “Changing lives is a bit presumptuous,” I state. “And also, it’s so sexy when you say the word ‘fuck.’”
She bites her bottom lip. “Sexy enough for you to let mefuckyou before everyone gets here?”
“How much time do you think we have?” I ask rhetorically.
She buries her head in my neck, nipping at my collarbone. “There’s always time for you.”
My body coils at the seduction in her words, the need between us almost never abating. It’s been a whole year since that first night together, and every day I wonder if a lifetime will ever be enough.
I lean in to kiss her. “I’ll make you a deal. You let me finish shaving my legs so we can get dressed and not be naked when Jesse, Leo, and Raine come back home.”
She laughs. Loudly. “Do you even know how deals work? You didn’t say what I get if I let you shave your own legs.”
“Oh.” I gesture to my naked body. “You get me. But at a later time.”
She rolls her eyes dramatically but pushes herself up to her feet anyway.
“Thank you,” I drawl as I grab the razor and continue on with the job she started.
Stepping out of the bath, she quickly runs the shower to rinse off any excess soap, then steps out and dries herself. My hands move quickly and then it’s my turn to jump in the shower and do the same.
Within fifteen minutes we’re both dressed and downstairs, and Zara’s got five bowls of chips and five different dips set up across the kitchen counter.
She does this stuff on autopilot, like she’s the perfect hostess and never flinches at having too many guests; it’s a world and then some away from the life I knew. And yet everything we do together feels so natural and normal. When I moved in two months ago, she insisted that my brothers feel welcome enough to visit me, and now, at least one of them, if not all of them, are over having dinner here once a week.
It’s surreal in the best kind of way.
Standing in the middle of the kitchen, I run my clammy hands up and down my denim-covered thighs.
“Everyone comes over all the time,” I state. “So, can you tell me why I’m nervous?”