Should I turn off the shower?
“We may be running for our lives but for once I’ve got five minutes for what I want and I don’t want to waste it and regret that when I’m back home and… Hell, Jeremy, would you say something? Because this isn’t really working out the way I pictured it and I kinda feel like a sex offender right now and wow, way to go, Cali, points for a sultry vocabulary.” She rolls her eyes, fidgeting with her shirt.
Was she planning on joining me in the shower? My heart kicks up so fast that my hearing stutters out for a second and when I tune back in, she’s taking a breath for another round of explanations.
I turn off the water.
She holds up her hands. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m obviously the world’s biggest jerk and I swear I’ll pack right now and move back in with Motormouth McGee and I won’t breathe a word of complaint about it and I’ll find a way to make it up to you—”
I step out of the shower, and her words cut off as if my foot touching the floor flipped some kind of switch inside of her.
Her eyes light with surprise, and then as I come closer, with an un-veiled enthusiasm that makes me huff out a quiet laugh, even though the last ten minutes have got to be the most embarrassing ones I’ve ever lived through.
I tuck the end of my towel more securely around my waist and flatten my hand on the doorframe above her head to balance myself, because I didn’t get a chance to dry off and my chest is still beaded with water that she probably doesn’t want all over her.
I duck my head until I’m close enough to feel the breath that escapes her lips, and pause because if I’ve read this completely wrong, she deserves the chance to slap me before I really start digging my own grave here.
My heart is slamming so hard I’m not sure I’d even hear it if she started to protest, and I lean in and kiss her before I lose my nerve, only remembering at the last second to keep my lips gentle so I won’t knock her piercing against her teeth.
But at the first touch of her I forget all about planning. My hand comes up, palm settling into her neck and my thumb brushing under the delicate line of her jaw, drunk on the intimacy of the soft skin there. Her lips sigh open and everything between us is lost to warmth and the loosening tug of something deep in my belly that I didn’t know was tight until I let it go.
The metal of her lip ring feels kinky against my tongue and she shivers and presses closer when I play with it, her tank top clinging damply to my overheated chest. A deep moan rumbles up out of my chest and gets caught between our mouths, and I can feel her smile against my lips as if she likes the sound.
My other hand slides down the doorframe and gets tangled in her hair as I press her back, catching her between my body and the hard surface behind her. Pleasure bursts in the base of my spine when she arches against me, the friction of the towel between us some kind of exotic sensation that I could get seriously addicted to.
My thumb beneath her jaw sweeps a trembling path, trying to be gentle despite the roar of everything I want right now. She’s not the kind of girl I want to rush with, but I’m not sure I can help it.
“Cali,” I whisper into her lips, and it sounds like I’m in pain even though I feel incredible, even just the caress of her hair wound around my fingers tingling pleasure all the way up into my scalp.
She turns her head away from me with a jagged inhale and I cradle her between my arms, lowering my forehead until it brushes her temple so I can touch her, so I can feel her even while I let her catch her breath. But then she’s spinning away from me, ducking out from beneath my elbow and I’m left blinking and gulping air, the towel feeling like the most stifling hot thing I’ve ever worn on my body.
“Um,” I say, turning toward the hotel room, where Cali has already paced all the way to the door and is spinning around for another lap.
She turns scared eyes on me and I flinch, backing up a step.
Oh, shit, did I massively screw this up?
“Look, Jeremy,” she says, almost desperately, “I can’t have a boyfriend right now. You know how things are with my grandma, and once I get back, I’m there pretty much 24/7 with her. I can’t…” She holds out her hands. “I just can’t.”
My head rears back and I remember, in excruciating detail, how it felt the first time I had to watch Vickie kiss Tyler after she said she didn't want anything serious with me.
“Right.” My jaw flexes and I brace my arms to either side of me on the bathroom door, energy steaming through my muscles like I could just snap the whole frame if I pushed the smallest bit. “That was supposed to be a hookup kiss. My bad.”
I whip around before I break something and I grab the door to slam it behind me, looking for my clothes even though I’m not really registering anything passing in front of my eyes right now.
“Whoa, Jeremy,” Cali says, taken aback. “I didn’t mean it like…” She moves quickly across the room. Her hand alights tentatively on my back and my fingers tighten on the edge of the door with a small crack as I stop myself just in time before I close it right into her face.
She grabs my arm and turns me to face her but I keep my jaw clenched and eyes staring out over her head because I’m so not in the mood for a “lost puppy” speech.
“Look, you’re the one who busted in on my shower,” I snap. “So don’t act like this was all my idea.”
“I never said that,” she says fervently, her brow creasing. “Hey, listen, I didn’t mean it like a one-night stand or some throw away thing. I wouldn’t do that to you, and I’m not into that anyway. It’s just…you’re my friend. I like you. And I’m attracted to you and I—” Her hand falls away and she shrugs one shoulder. “I trust you.” Her lips twist with a wry, awkward little smile. “I know our lives are way too complicated to throw a new relationship into the mix. But I figured if we were honest about what was happening, maybe we could take care of each other, since we’re both obviously having the same, erm, issue.”
Heat creeps up my neck, but I don’t move and she rushes on, barely pausing for breath.
“And believe me when I say if you were anyone else we wouldn’t be having this conversation. My bandmates would bust something laughing if they heard me proposing something like friends with benefits, but when I’m around you…”
When she realizes I’m not responding, she trails off, tilting her head and peering up at me, but it feels like too much to look in her eyes right now, so I stare fiercely at the doorframe that I still irrationally want to punch.
She takes my arm by the elbow, my bicep jumping twitchily under her palm, and she shakes me playfully. “Most guys would take that as a compliment, you know,” she teases, still trying to catch my eyes. “Hey, Jer, come on.” She shakes me a little more. “Don’t be mad. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m just comfortable around you.” She rolls her eyes. “Apparently too comfortable considering I’m proposing things that I probably shouldn’t have.”
When she says that, something twinges in my chest and I inhale quickly through my nose.
“Hey,” she murmurs when our eyes finally meet, hers creased at the edges with worry. “My bad,” she insists, moving her hand from my arm to flatten it on my chest. And it’s probably nothing but an accident that it is right over my heart. “Not yours, okay?”
I’m being a jerk. It’s not even that big of a deal, probably, though it sure as hell feels like one. I make myself nod in response, though all I want is a minute to myself and maybe something cheap that I can break. Loudly.
She tilts her head, smiling a little sheepish smile at me. “Sore spot, huh?”
My breath comes out all at once in something that sounds like a laugh, and I shove a hand back through my hair, squeezing water out of it with restless fingers. “Yeah, guess so.”
“Look, it’s not that I wouldn’t go after you,” she says, shifting to lean a shoulder against the door, her fingers slipping away from me while a smile flirts with her eyes. “At fifty miles an hour with the grabby hands, probably.” She raises her hands in m
ockingly grasping claws, and I crack a smile in spite of myself. “You know, if the timing were different,” she adds, pressing her lips together in a way that she has that always makes her look tired.
It makes me want to put my arms around her, but I don’t.
“It’s not you…” she tells me, her eyes apologetic.
“It’s me.” I laugh harshly as I finish her cliché. “Yeah. Well.” I roll my shoulders in a tense shrug. “I don’t do that anymore. I don’t do casual.”
As soon as I say it, I know it’s the truth, though I’ve never thought about it like that before. And somehow, once the words are off my tongue, I feel lighter. Stronger.
“Fair enough,” Cali says, and there’s warmth to her eyes even though the angle of them is a little sad. “I should have guessed that about you,” she says, tapping a teasing finger against my bare chest.
“Maybe,” I say, to be polite, though I only just figured it out myself.
She bites her lip and peeks up at me through her eyelashes. “So, Roomie…you gonna kick me out for trying to sexually assault you?”
I burst out laughing, and it feels good.
“Nah.”
“Good.” She sidles by me so I have to turn to keep her in sight, her eyes darting to the bathtub as a tinge of pink touches her cheeks. “In that case, I think I’m going to take an, erm…shower. If you don’t mind.”
I shout with laughter, my stomach shaking so hard that I have to catch my towel as it works itself loose. I tuck it back into place, subsiding into a grin. Cali’s smiling sheepishly, her cheeks still a little flushed, and for some reason that makes me think about what it’s going to be like for me. Being on the other side of that thin door, knowing what she’s doing…
I swallow, my smile fading.
“You can borrow my ear buds,” she says pointedly, shooing me playfully toward the door. But suddenly I don’t want to go.
I reach out and wind an arm around her small waist, hauling her closer on a reckless impulse. Right now, I’d do just about anything to keep her from closing that door.
“Just because I’m off-limits doesn’t mean you have to be,” I whisper in her ear.
Her breath flutters against my neck, her hands tightening where they’re caught between us.
“Um...” she says, and my pulse jumps with a spike of hope.
“Besides, we’re out of hot water,” I tell her. “Remember? You took your shower before mine.”
“Yeah, well, it didn’t stick,” she mutters, and my eyebrows leap.
“Wait, you were already…” I swallow. Jesus, that’s hot.
She shoves me, mortified. “Shut up.”
“Come on…” I hold her tight with one arm, letting the other hand drift daringly down to the curve of her bottom. “Let me help. I promise if you do, it’ll stick this time.”
She laughs, a little shakily. “What do you have that can combat home court advantage?”
“Attention span,” I murmur, and her hands jerk against me in response. I slip my fingers daringly under the hem of her tank top. “What do you say, Roomie?”
“God, yes,” she says emphatically and I grin and sweep her shirt up over her head.
Once I see her skin, I can’t slow myself down, even though I have a vague notion that this is a terrible idea. I tighten my arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground and she wraps her legs around me without hesitation, tipping her chin back to find my mouth. I duck my head without really thinking about it and touch my lips to her neck instead, not realizing until after I've done it that it was my kiss that made her realize I wanted something more than sex.
Somehow, it doesn’t seem right to do it again. Not yet.
Instead I carry her to the hotel bed she already claimed as hers, sweeping the covers back with one hand before I lower her onto the sheets. She pulls me down after her, biting playfully at my pectoral muscle, and my breath hisses out. I pause, wondering hazily if that’s too much, if I should stop her. I didn’t really think through the details of how this would all work.
I blink and reach for the button on her jeans. She lifts up helpfully before I even finish unzipping them, wiggling her hips to help me pull them down her legs. I laugh, because the motion is so gleeful, and she pinches me in the shoulder and pouts.
“Shut up, I’m finally getting laid. I’m allowed to be happy.”
“Only a little bit laid.” I smirk, and she rolls her eyes.
“Fine, only a little bit.”
I peel her jeans the rest of the way off and my breathing stutters to a standstill at the sight of the tiny blue stone glistening at her naval. The piercing is not big and gaudy like the plastic crap most girls wear, and I end up just staring dumbly at it because for jewelry, it’s sexy as all hell.
Cali shifts and she glances toward the switch for the lamp. “Should we hit the lights?” she asks self-consciously.
I blink at her. “Do we have to?”
Wow, super sensitive, Gilbert. Nice job.
“I mean,” I backpedal. “We can if you want to…”
Her face softens and she catches my arm, pulling me down on top of her. I’m only too happy to go, fully distracted by the sight of her bright purple bra and hipster panties, edged with flirty little polka-dot ribbons, not to mention all the smooth skin they don’t cover.
If I stay here for long, her whole body stretched out against mine and her neck warm against my cheek, I think my head is going to explode with the sheer, inconceivable joy of it all. So I drift lower, away from the temptation of her lips, away from the shadows that found her eyes when she said, “I can’t.”
I start with that incredible naval ring, placing a kiss squarely on the jewel before I smooth my lips down the flat plane of her belly, my heart in my throat the whole time because I can’t quite believe she’s not stopping me.
She squirms like it tickles but her hand comes up and cups the back of my neck, nails flirting with my hairline. My pulse leaps happily in response as she tries to tug me back up toward her mouth.
I move to kneel beside her legs instead, daring one look at her face. She’s smiling at me, her fingers trailing over my shoulder and down my bare skin. I catch them, narrowing my eyes at her teasingly.
“Hey!”
She looks appropriately contrite, but her face is bright with mischief and it’s impossible to argue with her when she looks like that so I just kiss the palm of her hand and release her fingers. I shouldn’t let her touch me because it will murder my resolve, but then again, every bit of this is probably a bad idea if I don’t want to end up caring about her even more than I already do.
But I don’t want to stop.
When my fingertips tuck under the waistband of her panties, she sucks in a breath, her stomach hollowing and something flashing across her face that’s different than before. More serious. I slow, brushing my lips across her lower belly to distract her. As I draw her panties down her legs, I close my eyes, because she seemed nervous about me seeing her.
But with my eyes closed, I’m even more aware of every tiny texture of her skin. I flatten my hand on her ribs and draw it slowly down her side, my breath catching when my palm crosses the smooth swell of her hip, bare where the line of her panties used to be. She must have shaved her legs in the shower she took before mine, because her legs are flawless. She shifts them restlessly, pushing into my touch.
I nuzzle my head up until it rests on her ribs, right below the line of her bra, and I keep my eyes closed as her sternum flutters beneath my cheek. She’s obviously turned on, but we haven’t known each other that long and I don’t want her to be all wrapped up inside her own head while we do this. I want her to feel safe with me.
Without opening my eyes, I lift my head and dare a kiss over the center closure of her bra. Her chest jumps under my lips and she threads her fingers through my hair, her breathing ragged. I can’t believe I’m here. I never figured during any of those long nights riding in the backseat of the Camaro that I woul
d really ever get to touch her this way. That she would ever want me to.
“Jeremy…” she growls, and I can’t help but smile at the ferocity of her tone.
She catches my wrist and starts to guide my hand lower. I resist a little, just to mess with her.
“You in a hurry?” I whisper, pulling back a little so I can see her face.
She scowls at me, but her eyes are hazy and urgent and I clench my teeth at the sight. I want to listen to her losing control, to hear her beg me not to stop. It’s the sexiest thing in the world to me, to see a woman melting in pleasure and to know it’s because of what I can do for her.
“If you knew how long it had been, you wouldn’t ask me that…” she singsongs.
I chuckle and drop my head down to touch her collarbone. “Me too,” I tell her hoarsely, trying not to think of Bonnie. “Too long.”
The Vampire Diaries: Trust In Betrayal (Kindle Worlds) (In Time We Trust Trilogy Book 3) Page 7