“Ahem,” she cleared her throat and knocked.
Go away, go away.
I wasn’t sure who, or what, I was talking to at this point.
“Um, Devlin?”
I let out a long slow breath. “Yes?”
“I just want to apologize.” Her tone was far more composed than how I felt.
“Okay.”
“I did knock. And I didn’t mean to barge in. Down here or on your family dinner. I was just dropping off my cello, like we discussed. I was about to leave but then your brother sent me down—”
Brothers were overrated. I was going to murder Wes.
“But he said I should tell you that dinner was ready. Oh, yeah. That’s what I was gonna say. Dinner is ready,” she added with a nervous laugh.
“Okay.”
“Also.”
Oh God.
“You should know that I saw your penis.” Her business-like tone distracted me for a flash before the words sunk in. My eyes popped open. I hadn’t expected her to own up to it. Couldn’t we ignore the elephant—or rather, the eggplant—in the room?
“I didn’t mean to do that either.” But her voice lifted, and I could tell she was fighting a smile. “I mean, not at first. But you know. Penis. In your face. How are you not going to look?” She laughed again.
“Are you laughing?”
“Yes. Sorry.” As second later she gasped, “No. Oh, God—no. Not at your penis. You have a lovely penis. You should know. I’ve not seen too many penises … penii? But anyway, it was a very nice penis.”
“Please stop saying penis.”
“Should I say cock? Or dick?”
I was wrong before. Now I was rock hard. I bit my lip to keep my hand from lowering to stroke. This was torture. We were maintaining boundaries. We weren’t supposed to be thinking about physical attraction. I roused some anger to help find a balance. It was either get angry or pull open that door and kiss her.
“You can go now. I’ll be upstairs in a minute,” I growled.
“Okay.”
The shadow of her feet remained, and her internal debate was audible.
“What, Kim?”
“It’s just … I think it’s important to talk about these things. Clear the air before it gets awkward.” Her tone was cautious, almost clinical.
“I don’t see how you constantly mentioning my dick makes it less awkward.”
“Heh. Yeah, true. Well, just so you know. I’m fine. And this was one hundred percent my fault. I don’t want you thinking anything … um, weird. It’s just a body. A nice body, a very nice body. You should know that. You probably do know that. You have eyes…”
“Kim.”
“Okay. Sorry. Again. Leaving now.”
I let out a long breath. My hands braced the door. I was fighting a lot of different feelings. I could rip the door open to let her look her fill. Or punch the mirror to distract myself with pain, an easily identifiable sensation.
