Chapter Thirteen
Liam
For the firsttime in all the years that Charlie and I had been friends, things were fucking awkward and I didn’t know what to do to fix them. In any other situation, I’d know what to do to dispel the tension. If she were any other girl, I’d be able to bullshit my way out of any circumstance. But this was Charlie and none of my moves seem remotely appropriate.
Each day since she’d moved in had been pure torture.
Not that she wasn’t a great roommate. She was reasonably clean, quiet, and at some point, had learned to cook like she’d been doing it for years. Hell, under any other circumstances, I’d be asking her to room with me for the foreseeable future, but that wasn’t what was driving me crazy.
It was all the things I’d never noticed before because I’d framed her as a friend and nothing more. It was all the things I’d conveniently forgotten because she was “one of the guys” instead of one hundred percent woman.
But now I couldn’t escape them.
We’re both sitting at the island pretending to eat cold cereal and looking at our phones, except I can’t focus on anything but the way her shirt is hugging her breasts and how I’m dying to know what she’s hiding underneath it. If anything. I shifted in my seat and gulped down my soggy cereal, but no amount of distasteful visualizations can undo the reality of her oh-so-delectable body sitting across from me.
When I managed to pull my eyes away from her tits, I realized she’d been watching me, and I clear my throat. “I’m sorry, what?” I’m such a tool.
“I said, what time is your interview?”
How had I never noticed her lips before? They were slightly top-heavy and the most delicious shade of pink. Last night she’d made pasta for me and she’d licked away some sauce from her bottom lip. I’d nearly lost my ever-loving mind. With any other woman, I would have pushed her back against the refrigerator and taken that mouth. I would have had my hands everywhere on her body, anywhere they could reach. With any other woman, I would have slipped her little pajama shorts down over her hips and thrown one of her legs over my shoulders to feast on what I was really craving.
It didn’t help that I was 99.9% certain I’d nearly caught her playing with herself this morning.
In that one moment I’d nearly taken back all the promises I’d made myself about keeping my distance. I’d weathered the nights with her a few feet away in those frequent showers. It nearly killed me going for a run every time she took one, but I made it work. The mantra that we’d only need to live together for three more months is what kept me going.
Then, I’d stepped into her room and seen her red-faced and hiding underneath the comforter. At first, I thought she hadn’t been feeling good. I’d almost offered to get her, I don’t know, some soup or some shit. Then, I realized she couldn’t meet my eyes. I’d barely been able to speak, let alone keep my dick from tenting the towel I’d stupidly worn to talk to her. I don’t even remember what I’d said, but I do remember catching the scent of her arousal. It was burned into my brain.
Despite all the voices in my head telling me it would be a mistake, it was hard to listen to reason when my whole body was screaming yes.
She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Liam? Hellooo? Did you study too hard last night, or what?”
“Yeah,” I managed to say, then dumped the rest of my breakfast. There was no way I was going to be able to focus on anything other than what was going on beneath her sexy-as-hell scrubs. Christ, she was driving me insane. Since when were scrubs sexy? “I mean, I must have.”
I’d braced my hands on the sink as I tried to control my reaction without looking like an idiot or coming off as a jerk for staring at her body. God knows I didn’t need to be just as much of a dick as her ex. I was supposed to be the person she could trust not to be an asshole. Not the guy who took advantage of her when she was vulnerable. This was Charlie. I shouldn’t have to remind myself, but I did. I repeated her name over and over in my mind. Tried to remember all the times I considered her to be one of the guys.
Her chair scraped against the linoleum floor and her feet padded toward me. The warmth of her hit my back, followed by a soft cloud of that fucking green apple shampoo. I was going to have to find every bottle of it and hoard them when she left.
Then it hit me. She was leaving. It wouldn’t be now, but in a few months she’d be hundreds of miles away doing God-only-knew what and I wouldn’t get these early mornings with her.
“Is everything okay?” she asked from behind me.
Her voice was smoky with sleep and sexy as hell. I wanted to hear her screaming for me in that voice. Pleading in it. Then I wanted to make her breathless until she couldn’t speak at all.
My hands fisted on the counter and I straightened without turning to run cool water from the sink and splash it on my face. “Yeah. Yeah, everything’s fine.”
Everything wasnotfine.I was about ten seconds away from doing something I’d regret. Like taking her back to her bed,mybed, and giving her a round two that’d have her seeing stars.
“You sure? You don’t sound so good. Are you getting sick? I could run you to the clinic. Of course, I’m almost an official nurse. I could probably give you an exam right now.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me. Normally I’d give as good as I got, but if I wasn’t on fire before, the thought of her stripping me down and playing doctor sure pushed me over the edge.
I shoved away from the sink, keeping my back to her. “I’m fine, Charlotte.” My tone was too harsh to be teasing.
“Don’t call me Charlotte just because you’re in a pissy mood,” she said to my back. I knew if I turned around I’d find her with a hand on her hip and her eyes shooting fire. It was almost worse than seeing her all soft and sleepy.
Keep walking Walsh.
“I’m not in a pissy mood.”
“Could’ve fooled me! If you have a problem with me living here, just man up and say so. You don’t have to be a dick about it.”
