Saturday’s bookingwas a fuckingdivorceparty, and it was wild. The former Mrs. Challenor was finally free after twenty-seven years, and it showed. She’d gotten rid of that deadweight and she was soaring. She was in her fifties, short and plump and dressed like a church lady, but it only took a couple of cocktails before she was getting frisky. Her college-aged daughter, who had arranged the party, had underestimated exactly how much fun Mom had to make up for after those twenty-seven years. She explained this to me as she apologetically unpeeled Mrs. Challenor’s face from my ass crack. I had no idea what she was trying to do down there. Go spelunking?
“It’s cool,” I told the daughter with a wink, knowing she’d add it to my tip.
I’d worked some crazy bachelorette parties before, but those women had nothing on ladies twice their age.
I was worn out when my time was up, and I left a smear of sweat and glitter across the cracked seat of my truck when I got in. It was an uncomfortable drive back to Goose Run, but the wad of bills in my gym bag sure made up for that.
When I got back to the house, Chase was sitting on the livingroom floor playing a video game, and I could hear the shower running.
I dropped my bag in the corner of the room. “Danny home?”
“He and Miller are visiting Jane,” he said.
The glitter itched. “Cash gonna be in the bathroom a while?”
Chase shrugged. “He took his speaker in there, so.”
So it wasn’t going to be a five-minute shower.
“Okay.” I picked up my bag. “I’ll see you later.”
“Later,” he echoed with a nod and went back to killing bad guys.
My heart was in my throat as I crossed the dry grass to Avery’s house. He was home, because his car was in his driveway. He’d let me use his shower, right? He was super neighborly. But I also couldn’t pretend I wasn’t thinking about how he’d looked at me last night and how I’d been dancing just for him. The bar had been noisy and crowded, but somehow it had felt like we were the only two people there. And now here I was going over to his place, where wewouldbe the only two people there. Did I want something to happen? Yes. Was I ready for something to happen? I still didn’t know that. But nobody ever learned to swim by standing on the side of the pool. There came a point where you just had to dive in headfirst.
I climbed the steps to Avery’s front door and raised my fist to knock.
Froze.
My courage deserted me, and I was just about to turn around and bolt back home when Avery opened the door.
He smiled at me. “Wilder, hi. Wow, you look—” He tilted his head. “Like you were caught in an explosion at a craft store.”
“Uh, hey,” I said. “This is weird, but can I use your shower? I just got back from a gig, and I’m gross, and ours is taken.”
“Sure,” he said, opening the door wider. “And you’re not gross.”
“I’m sweaty and oily and glittery,” I mumbled.
His smile grew. “Not gross.” He turned before I had to comeup with an answer to that. “You know where the bathroom is, right? There are clean towels in the linen closet. I mean, I think there’s at least one. I’m really overdue with my laundry.”
“Thanks,” I said, my face hot, and scuttled into his bathroom like I was doing something illegal.
Avery’s shower had good water pressure, and it smelled faintly of the same things he did: brands of shampoo and bodywash that we didn’t use at our place. I popped the lid on the bodywash just to smell it and then figured he wouldn’t mind if I used some as well. The label said it was sea salt and cedar, but it didn’t really smell like anything to me except Avery. My dick made the association before my brain did, and I turned the hot water down so I got a cold blast that reminded it to behave. It did, but I knew it was only temporary good behavior at best.
Once I’d washed and dried myself, I went to hang the towel on the rail but paused, my heart thumping. While I had needed a shower, that wasn’t why I was here. And while I wasn’t always the best with words, I was pretty good at letting my body do the talking.
So why not let it speak for me now?
I took a second to run my fingers through my damp hair, then checked out my reflection in the mirror. I looked about as nervous as I felt. But at the same time, there was a tremor of excitement thrumming through my veins. I was really gonna do this.
I grabbed the towel and wrapped it around my hips, making sure it sat low, and tucked the ends into a knot at the front, and then I opened the bathroom door and made my way back to the living room where Avery was sitting on the couch with a book in his hands. I leaned against the doorframe, aiming for casual but sexy, and said, “Hey.”
“Oh hey, did you find the—holyshit.” Avery’s eyes went wide when he looked up, and the book tumbled from his grip as he stood. He closed the space between us, his raised eyebrows asking a silent question that I answered with a nod. He reached out, his throat bobbing as he swallowed, and his fingertips trailed overmy pecs. I was used to people touching me, but Avery’s touch felt different, almost reverent, and it reassured me on a gut-deep level that he wasn’t going to go back on his offer.
I straightened up and cleared my throat. “So, uh, I didn’t really come for a shower. I mean, I did, but not just that.”
“I kind of guessed, what with you standing here in a towel,” he said. The smile he gave me was warm and inviting, and the knot of tension in my chest loosened a little. Maybe I was ready for this after all—even if I wasn’t sure what, exactly, this was.
