“I have to use the restroom,” I said then, in a hurry, “I can wait, though.”
“If you could wait, then why’d you knock?”
I could hear the laughter in Grey’s voice. But something else was there, something… seductive? Maybe I was making that up.
“Can I come in? I won’t take long.”
“Yes.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened the door. The room was filled with steam. The water was still running, and Grey stood on the other side of the shower curtain. I could just make out his silhouette as he shifted beneath the water.
“I’ll be quick,” I said.
I was true to my word. I finished using the bathroom and walked to the sink to wash my hands. Being in the bathroom made it seem much less scary than it had on the outside. It had lost all of its mystery, only leaving the mundane.What did I think would happen if I asked to take a quick pee? That Grey would lose all self-control and ravage me?
A guy could hope.Icertainly wasn’t brave enough to start anything, even with the alcohol in my system, but if Grey had started things…well, who would I be to stop him?
But he didn’t start anything. He let me leave the bathroom without a word beyond my light “Thanks!” as I left. I flung my body back down on the bed, cursing myself for the stunt I’d just pulled. Before I could get too deep into my self-loathing, I heard the shower shut off and the curtain pull to the side.
I froze, heart hammering in my chest. He was getting out of the shower, which meant he would be on his way to the bed. Trying desperately to pull myself together, I tore the suit from my body and tossed it in the corner. Flinging my suitcase open, I found my pajamas—well, the drawstring shorts and the old T-shirt that served as my pajamas—and yanked them on.
I’d just made it back to the bed and positioned myself to look as nonchalant as possible when Grey opened the bathroom door. He stepped out, and my jaw dropped.
Somehow, while watching him pull out his clothes, I’d completely missed the fact that he hadn’t grabbed a shirt as well. Now, he stood in the tiny hall outside the bathroom, his hair damp and hanging into his eyes—eyes that stared directly at me. My gaze lingered on his for a second before breaking away to take in the rest of him. Light streamed from the bathroom, falling across his chest, catching the tiny flecks of water still there. The lighting defined the lines of his abs, shrouding the low points of his skin in shadow.
Then there were the sweats. I stifled a gasp when my eyes landed below his waistband because I could see his bulge, on display in the sweatpants. They left very little to the imagination. I might as well have been staring at him naked. I gulped.
“You okay?” Grey asked, approaching the bed.
I nodded. “Just a bit drunk still.”
“I see.” He paused for a long moment before saying, “We should probably go to bed, huh?”
“Yeah.”
He awkwardly joined me on the bed, lying next to me under the comforter. A second later, Grey reached over and turned the light out, plunging us into darkness. And in the darkness, my mind reeled.
I tried to play it cool, but my breath kept catching in my chest. My throat was suddenly dry—so dry that it stung a bit to swallow. My tongue felt fat and clumsy in my mouth, like it’d been replaced by a thick piece of rubber.
The heat of Grey’s body radiated across the small space between us, and I desperately wanted to close that distance, to cuddle up to him, to kiss him, anything to stop the yearning in my chest.
But I didn’t. I couldn’t even say something with my dry throat and rubber tongue. And sleep was nowhere to be found. My skin buzzed with electricity caused by Grey’s very existence. He was there. Right there. If I just stretched my fingers, I was sure I would brush against him. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So, instead, I stayed where I was, my chest writhing in agony.
“I’m glad you came,” Grey said in the darkness. “I have a hard time being alone around people.”
“Really?” I said, genuinely surprised. “I thought you’d be used to people, what with the band and all.”
Grey gave a dry laugh. “You’d think, but as the band has gotten more popular on campus, things have gotten more… complicated.”
“Too many people trying to jump your bones?” I teased.
A long silence stretched between us, so long that I wondered if my joke had hit too close to home. I was beginning to think Grey had fallen asleep until he finally spoke again.
“Actually, kind of.” He took a shaky breath. “A little over a year ago, I had an overzealous fan break into my apartment.”
Cold dread pooled at the base of my spine. It was both a relief and a distraction from the sensations I had been feeling—even if the emotion wasn’t a particularly pleasant one. “What happened?” I asked.
I could feel Grey’s shrug. “She came in while I was sleeping. Apparently, she’d been the head of my fan club ever since the band started getting popular at Redmond. Well, I was getting a lot of fan letters and DMs and stuff at the time, and she had sent me some that I’d never gotten back to.”
