She jerks a thumb toward the living room. “Look outside, dumbass. It’s pouring down out there. I get that you’re a hopeless romantic and all, but hypothermia isn’t sexy, boo.”
Pulling a rain jacket from the coat rack as I pass, I ready myself for a show down with Justin. He’s going to be mad, and I’m going to have to find a way to make him believe me when I say it wasn’t me that ratted him out to Tabitha.
Sucking in one last breath and tucking the jacket under my arm to put on when I get out of the building, I jerk the front door open and am ready to face Justin Ashe.
Which is just as well really, since he’s standing right in front of me, rain water still sluicing down his face and dripping from his sodden body. My jaw falls open as I step back from him. His UCR tee is stuck to every ridge and muscle on his chest, his hair is pasted to his forehead, and there’s a puddle forming around his sneakers.
He must have left a water trail into the lobby. There’s probably a pool in the elevator where he rode up to Athena’s apartment. Athena. She had to have given him the code to get in, and I care, I do, but… I can’t tear my eyes from his body.
He might be wearing dark colored sweatpants, but I can still see his…uh…outline, so I’m glad he didn’t run out into the rain in pale gray sweats or he’d have a line of really wet women waiting behind him, too.
Wait.
He couldn’t have gotten up to the penthouse unaided, which means my bestie is complicit.
“What are you doing here?” My heart’s hammering. I’m not ready to lose this beautiful, loving man.
Searching his face for anger, all I see is warmth despite his shivering.
“We need to talk.”
Regardless of where this conversation goes, I still need to go out to pick up my freefalling stomach from the ground floor. No conversation that starts with “We need to talk” ends well.
Shit.
“It wasn’t me.”
“I know it wasn’t you.”
We speak together, awkward laugh, and he shifts his weight which makes his wet shoes squeak against the floor. I should really invite him in.
Athena’s voice comes from behind me. “Told you hypothermia isn’t sexy.”
I turn just in time to catch the towels she has launched at me. “Invite the man in before he freezes to death. The neighbors will talk.” With that, she disappears, and when I turn to hand Justin a towel, he’s already peeling his soaking shirt from his body.
That is one fine as fuck man right there.
He shakes his head, and where I’d look like a golden retriever shaking off after a fall into a muddy lake, Justin looks like a deity of some kind, flinging away water droplets in slow motion. I’m struggling to remember the panic, the fear, or anything other than my sexy parts right now because hot damn, I want to lick every droplet of rain off those abs.
He tilts his head when I meet his eyes again and flashes me a cheeky grin.
The boy knows what I was thinking. Am thinking. Because his abs are bite-able.
He reaches out a hand. “You gonna give me one of those so I can come in?” He’s kicked off his shoes and moved them to the side with his wet feet.
I hand over the towel so he can dry his hair and pat down his chest as Athena appears behind me with a mop and bucket.
“Make sure he doesn’t bring all that,” she points to the puddle on the tiles, “in here.”
It’s kind of comical. We all know Justin and I need to talk, but the logistics of him having been caught in the downpour outside haven’t exactly lent themselves to making it easy for us. He’s tugging off his pants and wrapping a towel around his middle while I mop up the pool around his feet.
Hen holds out an empty basket and collects his clothes. How he managed to shuck his boxers without the towel falling, or flashing us bothMjöllnir, Thor’s Hammer, is anyone’s guess.
Athena runs off to throw his clothes in the dryer, and I take another step back to let him in.
“This didn’t exactly go how I’d planned it in my head.” He wraps a second towel around his shoulders and follows me into the living room. “It was supposed to be romantic.”
While Athena had a real, open fire installed in her living room, it’s not lit, but the heat is on and there’s a box of blankets at the end of the sofa in case his shivering escalates and he can’t get warm.
