He turns fully with a guarded expression.
Fuck me… The urge to face-palm myself strikes like a damn wrecking ball. I just asked a guy who doesn’t talk if he has questions. Smooth, Zach. Real fucking smooth.
“The bathroom is through here,” I explain, ambling over to the door and pushing it open. “We’ll have to share.”
He just watches me, and I don’t know what to make of it. He almost looks scared, as though he thinks I have bad intentions or something.
I close the door and walk toward him, but perhaps I approach too quickly because he flinches. I draw to a halt, my heart beating hard in the silence. He looks at me again, so big in my room yet somehow small. He’s taller than me, easily 6’4, but the way he watches me has me wondering what happened to the guy.
“Hey, it’s cool,” I say, holding my hands up. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
A minute passes before I carefully open the chest of drawers beside his bed. “You can put your clothes in here. The two top drawers are empty.”
Arkin is closer now, his scent drifting around me. When our eyes meet, a jolt of nerves has me stepping away and clapping the chest of drawers awkwardly, the way people do when they don’t know what the hell to say but want to escape the room ASAP. If I don’t watch my tongue, I’ll blurt something stupidlike,It’s sturdy. Made of solid wood. And to drive the point home, I’ll knock on it with my knuckles.
My dad did something similar once when he came to have the birds and the bees talk. But he clapped the nightstand instead as he stood up, fidgeting like I am now, short of snapping his fingers and doing a damn Irish tap dance.
I’m saved from any further embarrassment when Mum calls for me. “I’ll go see what she wants. Why don’t you help yourself to a shower in the meantime? Clean towels and whatever else you need are in there,” I tell Arkin before spinning around and mouthing, “What the fuck?”
He watches me leave, his gaze burning into my back.
Flustered, I almost trip on the steps. Mum pokes her head out of the kitchen when I come stumbling down, glancing behind me as though an army of evil gnomes is chasing me.
“Hi, Mum. What’s up?”
“Are you okay?” she asks, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel, a lock of honey-blonde hair escaping her updo.
“Yeah, of course.”
I sound anything but okay. I sound frazzled as fuck. “What’s up?” I ask again, aware that he’s alone and probably naked in my bathroom.
I pull up short in the kitchen doorway.
What the hell? Did I just think of him naked?
“Is it too much?” Mum asks, chewing on her lip and wringing her apron.
“Is what too much?” I poke my head back out of the kitchen. The stairs are empty.
Of course, they are. Arkin is in the shower.
Naked.
“The food?”
Mum’s voice startles me, causing me almost to jump five feet into the air. I look at her questioningly and then at the table.
Oh, the food? She wants me to compliment the table setup. Is that why she dragged me down here? To reassure her that it doesn’t look like she tried too hard? She definitely did, but she’ll cry if I tell her that, so I shake my head instead.
“It looks great, Mum.”
Her shoulders slump in relief. “You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay. Good.” She nods as though she’s trying to reassure herself. “That’s good. Will you let him know breakfast is ready?”
My smile feels weird as I exit the kitchen and make my way back to the stairs. Arkin is still in the shower when I return to my room.
