Page 135 of You Found Me

He came out of the bathroom to find Della rummaging in a drawer instead of out in the hall where she belonged. “You’re supposed to wait until I call clear.”

“You were taking too long.” She pulled out a slip of cloth that he supposed was underwear and the old flannel shirt she’d been sleeping in and tossed them on the bed.

Great. Now he was picturing her in nothing but flannel. It was more of a tease than imagining her naked. He ripped his gaze away before the traitorous half of his body made that obvious.

“It doesn’t take a minute for me to do a sweep.”

“If I stood there thirty more seconds, I was going to collapse in the hallway, and I don’t want to crawl into bed until I’ve had a shower. We both smell like apples, and not in a good way. I’m going to rinse the day off, then pass out.”

“Fine.” He strode past her, trying hard not to make eye contact. “Good night.”

“Night.”

He shut the door just as she started to pull off her shirt. He covered the ground back to his room like the building was on fire.

There weren’t enough closed doors between the two of them. If he listened hard enough, he could hear the water running.

Maybe he should sleep downstairs in the office. Or in the truck.

No, dammit. He could handle this. He could be in the same house with her and act like a professional. No problem.

Ward pulled off his shirt and sniffed. She was right, it smelled like fermented apples and smoke. He tossed the shirt into the laundry basket and headed for the shower, where he ruthlessly turned the dial to arctic and stepped in.

The frigid water did nothing to ease the tension.

A fantasy spun out in his head.

Della’s smile was knowing and flirty and all kinds of sinful as she welcomed him into the shower. Her arms snaked around his shoulders while his hands traced the contours of her back all the way down to the strong curves of her ass.

His hands roamed over every bare inch of her backside before he pulled her even closer. She was warm and soft and as eager to get to know him as he was her.

They didn’t speak.

In his daydream, he kissed her with all the pent-up need he’d been burying for the past month.

His lips traced a path down her throat to her breasts and when she moaned, he pushed her up against the wall of the shower. Her legs wrapped around him, leaving her open for exploration.

Pounding at the bedroom door jolted him out of the fantasy. He turned off the spray and listened. Had he imagined it?

Another knock, a little lighter this time.Tap-tap-tap.

On high alert, he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel.

She never knocked on his door.

“Ward?” Della called through the door.

He wrapped the towel around his waist and thrust open the door. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Della squeaked. She took a step back, clearly startled. Her eyes widened. “I…oh.”

Her hair was damp, and the fresh scent of her shampoo beckoned to him. She wore that damn red flannel shirt. It reached the middle of her thigh and left a whole lot of bare leg on display, the same legs that had just been wrapped around him in his imagination.

Reality was even more tantalizing.

He put his hand on the edge of the door and gripped it. Hard. “What do you want, Lucy.”

For the first time since he’d met her, she seemed uncertain. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your shower.”