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“I’m sorry,” he said, turning away from her to pull himself together. He was probably scaring her. She’s wounded, you asshole. She needs help, not you slobbering all over her.
He closed his eyes and thought about sitting in traffic.
He thought about getting his teeth cleaned. Sitting in traffic while getting his teeth cleaned. There we go. That did it.
He turned back around to find her with a drop of water running down the slope of her nose. His heart squeezed.
“Sorry,” he said again around his thick tongue. “Overestimated my own endurance.”
“What do you mean?” Her fragile voice broke through his lust stupor, at least for a moment.
He finally took in the blue and purple splotches blooming on her neck. He straightened his shoulders with renewed resolve to take care of her. “Just that I should have prepared myself more before I came in so that I could help you without sporting a rampant erection.”
Clara’s eyes wandered to his groin at his words. When she licked her top lip, the tiny gesture made him almost double over.
“Jesus fucking Christ.” Traffic. Dentist. Grandma Pearl.
Clara’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see anything. Honest.” She kept her eyes firmly trained on the sink behind him.
“Let’s get you clean.” He remembered he was going to have to get in the shower with her. Naked. The guidelines did not cover this shit.
Clara seemed to have come to the same conclusion because she’d directed her gaze to the tile floor.
“We don’t have to do this,” he said, taking the coward’s way out. “I could call Jill.” Yes, Jill. Her aunt wouldn’t be in danger of coming in her pants over Clara’s convalescing body.
Clara’s wet hair dripped into a little puddle at their feet. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Are you fine?”
“Yep.” Josh swallowed twice. “Fine.”
She’s just a naked woman. Just another naked woman. Seen one, you’ve seen ’em all. No big deal.
He ripped off his T-shirt like a Band-Aid. If he lingered in the act of undressing, his cock would continue to get the wrong idea. As he reached for the zipper of his jeans he made the colossal mistake of looking at Clara. The spark in her eyes, the hunger that she didn’t know how to hide made his hands shake.
This is how I die.
He left his briefs on.
They would be clingy and uncomfortable once they got wet, but even that thin layer of cotton felt like a shield against the siren song emitting from Clara’s skin.
He turned the knob to restart the hot water, holding his hand under the spray until it was warm enough to step inside the glass doors. “Ready?”
She held on to the towel for another long moment but then gave him a tiny nod and released it, draping the material over a hook by the sink before reaching for the hand he offered to help her step inside. There was about a foot of space in front of him for her to slide into.
Have mercy. He’d thought he’d be safe back here, out of the direct line of sight of her tits, but the sweet dip of her waist into her perfect peach of an ass was almost worse. Especially considering there was now only about four inches between his cotton-covered cock and her soft, slippery body.
When she turned to look at him over her shoulder, probably because he was breathing like an asthmatic, he ground out, “Turn around.”
He hadn’t meant for it to come out a gruff command, but he’d never get through this if he had to make eye contact with her.
Josh needed to unlearn his entire persona. Over the years he’d honed God-given charisma into a finely crafted weapon. He’d wielded his charm without thought for so long that Josh Darling became a natural extension of
him, as unconscious as breathing. But he couldn’t risk flirting with Clara, not now that he knew he might be falling for her.
He picked up her floral shampoo and poured some into his hand. Her head was a safe place to start. Nothing erotic about her hair. Besides how silky it felt.
“Close your eyes.” The words felt jagged in his throat. He massaged his fingers across her temples with quick, efficient movements.
But Clara didn’t play fair. She tipped her head back ever so slightly into his hands. He found himself slowing down, watching as her mouth fell open a little when he applied the right amount of pressure. She made tiny noises, breathy little moans, and he didn’t know if they were signals of pleasure or pain.
