For a few still seconds, we catch our breath. “I wanted to,” I manage, finally, figuring he knows what I mean.
“I know.” His hair slips through my fingers, silky, and he turns his face, kissing my thigh before reaching for the shirt he dropped on the floor, cleaning us both up. “I don’t have a ton of time and knew if I let you, I would want it to take longer.”
After helping me to my feet, he kicks his clothes all the way off, bending to remove his socks, and then leads me into the bathroom. Alec leans in, turning on the shower. “Come in with me.”
He steps in, guiding me in after him, and the water is lukewarm and perfect for my overheated skin. But when he tilts his chin up, letting the stream of water soak his hair, I pretend to pout. “I liked the idea of you going to your thing tonight with your hair all messed up.”
Laughing, he cups my hand and squeezes shampoo into it before guiding it to the top of his head. “I would have smelled like sex.”
“And?” I scrub as he lathers me up with body wash.
“And I’m supposed to be getting a quick bite and change before meeting up with Yael at six.”
He really is in a hurry.
“You think she doesn’t know you came back here for this?” He’s quiet in response, and I realize my mistake. “Yael doesn’t know I’m staying here, does she?”
“I’m sure she suspects, but it’s one of those things with us. A don’t-ask-if-you-don’t-want-to-know sort of thing.”
“Mmm.” I tilt his head back into the water again, rinsing the shampoo, and then reach for the conditioner. “That reminds me, actually.”
His attention seems to be on getting my breasts as clean as possible, thumbs circling and circling…
I lean in, whispering, “You are doing a very good job at that, but I did shower only about an hour ago.”
Busted, he relents with a laugh, leaning back to rinse his hair again. “What were you going to say? Reminds you of what?”
“Does Sunny know I’m the one you’re talking to?”
“Yes,” he says, and turns me so that the water rinses the suds from my skin. “I mentioned I ran into you. I mentioned you were working on the story. And I’m sure even if I hadn’t, Yael would.”
“True.” I chew my lip. “What did Sunny say?”
“I mean, we didn’t talk about our run-in at length because—”
“That would be an awkward conversation.”
“Right.” He begins quickly lathering up his skin and I help, only in the sense that I basically slide my hands around and around the muscular bunching of his shoulders. “But she thought it was weird and great.”
“？‘Weird and great’？”
“Those were her words,” he says, laughing. “She says hello. Wanted the full Gigi update. I told her to call you sometime.”
“I like that plan.”
I stare at the way he quickly rubs soapy hands down his chest, his abs, his cock. Legs and shoulders. When washing me, he was slow, nearly reverent. He catches me watching. “You’re looking at me like you’re going to eat me.”
Very serious, I nod. “I feel I should return the favor.”
Laughing again, he reaches behind me to shut off the water. Steam rises around us, and water drips like crystals from his eyelashes. Alec licks his wet lips. “I promise you can eat me later.” He kisses me then, warm and sliding, and when he moans quietly, it sucks me into a spiral of want. But too soon he pulls away and glances at the watch I am genuinely hoping is waterproof. “Shit. I have forty-five minutes to get to Santa Monica in a tux.”
* * *
I sit cross-legged on the bed, watching him as he gets ready. Alec pulls a suit bag out of the closet and drapes it over a chair, unzipping it.
“I’m excited,” I sing.
He leans down, pulling the suit free. “Why?”
“I get to see you in a tuxedo.”
He slants an amused look my way. “That’s exciting?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You’re gonna look like the world’s hottest cake topper.”
Alec laughs at this. “I only brought one, so Elodie had better not spill wine on me.” He steps into the trousers, then shrugs on the shirt. “It started out as a joke,” he says, buttoning. “But she’s spilled her drink on me on three separate occasions.”
“Is this woman trying to get you to take off your clothes?”