Page 57 of Golden Ruin

A quiet laugh leaves him, and my head spins.

“You don’t have to go,” he says, and there’s movement behind me. “If I’d known you were awake, I would’ve been more careful.”

I don’t respond right away, because I’m still stuck on what he said before. About it not being anything I haven’t seen before.

“No, I… it’s totally my fault,” I stammer, squeezing my eyes shut to rid them of the image now burned into my vision. “I should’ve knocked or something.”

“Stop apologizing. Seriously,” he adds. “I’m dressed now, so… you can turn around.”

Reluctant, I face him, fully expecting to find him wearing pants. But instead, he’s only slipped into a pair of dark boxer briefs. Technically, he’s covered, but something about this still feels too personal.

Too… intimate.

He stands at the dresser with his back to me, casually swiping deodorant underneath his arms. In the two seconds before my eyes cut away from him, I notice his solid back, flexing with every movement, the thin gold chain around his neck.

When he finally does turn to me, there’s no way my face isn’t completely red, flush with embarrassment.

Sterling takes in the frazzled sight of me and smiles a little. “Damn, you okay?”

I can’t even believe he just asked me that, because of course I’m not okay.

I nod anyway, pretending this was nothing.

“You said you needed something for your arm,” he says, rubbing lotion on his face and biceps. “Is it giving you trouble?”

Finding him like that honestly distracted me from the pain, so I glance down at it before giving a response.

“It—yeah. I forgot to put something on it when I finished my bath.”

He nods once, then disappears in the bathroom. When he comes back, he has the tube I left on the counter. But instead of handing it over, he twists the cap off as he comes closer.

“Give me your arm,” he says gently, and every warning signal inside my body is sounding off, telling me to run while I can.

But I don’t.

Instead, I lift my arm like he told me to. He slips one hand beneath my elbow, gripping it as he uses the other hand to smooth cream over my burn. So gently I hardly feel the pressure.

My eyes are fixed on his chest, how it tenses when he moves his fingertips over the tender scars. Without realizing it, my breaths slow and sync with his. I inhale the scent of whatever soap he used in the shower, and I distinctly remember the feel of his freshly washed skin, the sensation of it as his body would curve around mine as we slept.

Then, my mind wanders, visualizing my name etched into his skin again. All this time, I thought he must’ve removed or covered it but tonight has proven me wrong.

Very wrong.

“Better?”

I breathe deep, blinking slowly before I nod. “Yeah. Thank you.”

He releases my arm but doesn’t step away as he twists the cap on. He hands it over, and I remind myself not to let my gaze wander too low. The boxer briefs leave entirely too little to the imagination.

It dawns on me that I’m lingering longer than I should, so I clear my throat and take a small step.

“I should um… I should probably let you finish getting ready for bed.”

Sterling glances down at himself and huffs a laugh. “That’s probably a solid call.”

I’m not sure when it got to be so hard to breathe around him, but I’m aware of it now. Painfully aware.

“Thanks again,” I say softly, crossing the threshold into the hallway.