I’m rinsing the shampoo from my hair when I hear the door swing open, wicking the water away from my face and glancing across the dimly lit locker room to find him hesitating in the doorway.
“Can I help you?” I ask, a bite of accusation in my tone.
Matty holds up a stack of neatly folded clothes. “Just came to shower, but, uh…” His Adam’s apple bobs with a hard swallow, his cheeks reddening. “I can come back later.”
“I’m not gonna look at your dick, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I scoff, rolling my eyes as I turn my back on him andstep beneath the shower spray to finish rinsing out my shampoo. “Honestly, why are humans such prudes?”
“We’re not. I mean, I’m not, I’m just not used to showering with other people. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just different, and I don’t wanna make anyone uncomfortable,” he babbles as he lingers in the doorway.
“That was rhetorical,” I snort, flicking him a glance over my shoulder.
“Oh,” he breathes, his blush deepening.
Damnit, it’s kind of adorable.
“Well, if you’re okay with it,” he says hesitantly, finally stepping over the threshold into the locker room.
“Do what you want,” I mumble with a dismissive wave, reaching for the conditioner. Turning my back on Matty again, I squeeze a healthy glob of it into my palm and begin finger-combing it through my tresses, acutely aware of every sound he makes.
I hear the door swing closed behind him, followed by the pad of his footsteps against the tile. I listen to the rustle of his clothes as he undresses, then the slap of his bare feet as he makes his way over to a shower. The faucet creaks as he turns it on, the splash of the spray loud against the floor, then muffled when he steps beneath it.
Spinning around to rinse the conditioner from my hair, my gaze unwittingly drifts in his direction, my pulse skipping when it lands on him. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t a body likethat. Matty is stacked with hard-earned muscle, every inch of him toned and well-defined. My eyes comb over the ladder of his abs, following the cut of his v-lines down lower…
I do a double take.
A triple-take.
Because holy fuckingshit, Matty Blue Eyes is packing some serious heat. As someone who has seen hundreds of dicks in her lifetime– not as wild as it sounds, considering I’m a shifter– I can categorically say that he’s in the top ten for size. It’s longandthick, and it’s…
I suck in a breath through my teeth, gaze pinging up to his face. Matty’s expression is almost pained, his eyes trained on the floor as he hurriedly soaps up his hard body.
That’s not the only thing that’s hard.
Heat crawls up my neck and I spin around, putting my back to him once more. I quickly finish rinsing out my hair, pretending Ididn’tjust see his boner, pretending I’mnotfighting the urge to look again.
What the fuck?
Suddenly I’m the one that’s flustered, cranking off the faucet before my hair’s even completely rinsed and making a mad dash for the towel rack. I yank one off the stack and wrap it around my body, heart beating a riot in my chest as I start for the door.
“See you tomorrow, Blair,” Matty calls after me.
I falter a step, throwing up a hand and sticking out my thumb.
A fucking thumbs-up.
That’swhat my dumbass brain decides is an appropriate response. It’s a good thing he can’t see my face, because I immediately wince in regret, my cheeks flaming as I dash for the locker room door.
CHAPTER FIVE
the slip-up
MATTY
“Aren’t you glad you decided to come out tonight?” Cam remarks as he returns from the bar with two fresh beers in hand, clapping a palm against my back as he sets one down in front of me.
I flash him an appreciative grin, reaching for the bottle. “Yeah, for sure,” I reply as I bring it to my lips and take a swig, the carbonation tickling my throat on the way down.
Cam rounds to the high-top table to retake his seat beside Avery, tossing an arm over her shoulders as he sips his beer.
