“I’m glad I trusted you to follow me on the app.”
For the briefest second, he couldn’t quite disguise his vulnerability. It was fleeting, but potent. “Even after I kicked in your door?”
“Especially after you kicked in my door. You . . .” She searched for the right words, because the moment called for them. “You make me feel capable and healthy. But still like there’s someone who has my back. That’s not an easy balance and you somehow . . . know how to navigate it. Without me having to guide you. It’s hard and you just . . . do it.”
Visibly caught off guard, he opened his mouth, then closed it. “If you’re trying to butter me up for matching pink outfits, you can forget it right now.”
“Not even a soft pastel? Easter is coming up!”
He stomped away from her down the hall and slammed the bathroom door.
Wow. It had been a long time since her face hurt from smiling. She hadn’t had that problem since the last time she’d seen Tallulah.
When the shower water started running, however, her smile started to vanish little by little, followed by a punctuated swallow. Her palms grew clammy, thighs tensing at the sight of shadows moving beneath the door.
Wells was getting naked.
In her bathroom.
To be fair, he’d barged into the apartment half-dressed, but the reality of those mesh workout shorts coming off was extremely hard to ignore.
Still, she wouldn’t be spectating that big reveal. She’d been the one to put the brakes on their relationship. And for good reason. This was her chance to take the knowledge she’d been digesting her entire life and put it to use. To make herself and her family proud by revitalizing and legitimizing their business. Dating Wells in the public eye would lead to her being pigeonholed as the strong woman behind the successful man.
Or worse, his pet pity project.
Uh-uh.
But they could be friends. Really good friends.
After all, she couldn’t just send him home after he’d driven from Miami thinking she was a goner. As soon as he got out of the shower and they figured out something for him to wear, she’d ask him if he wanted to order takeout and watch a movie that didn’t have Gerard Butler humping anyone in it. They could discuss strategy for Torrey Pines next week and gossip about the other golfers. It would be great. Maybe she’d even show him her high school yearbook so they could laugh over her humidity bangs, braces, and puka shell necklace trifecta.
Mind made up, Josephine wedged the broken front door closed as best she could and walked down the hallway toward the bedroom, intending to find an oversized shirt for Wells to put on. She paused only for the barest of seconds outside of the bathroom door. “Do you have everything you need?”
“No,” he called back immediately.
Josephine frowned. “I just put fresh towels on the rack this morning.”
“Yeah, I found those.”
The bathroom door opened.
Steam rolled out in a dreamy waft.
There stood shirtless Wells, forearm braced on the doorframe. In a very brief towel. The sucker barely made it around his hips, leaving a very sizable slit running up his sinewy thigh. “This towel is more like Kleenex, belle.”
“Oh,” she rasped. “Is it?”
“Yeah.” He tucked his tongue into his cheek. “It could fall off any second.”
“Oh.” A terribly wonderful tingle started in her breasts and slowly spiraled lower, lower, to her belly and the flesh between her thighs. Uh-oh. “Could it?”
“Afraid so.” He dropped his forearm from the door and prowled toward where she stood transfixed in the hallway. “Listen, Josephine. I know you want to be seen as a professional. You need to be taken seriously to build your dream—and I get that. I want that for you. But, baby . . .” He crowded her up against the hallway wall and the horny sound that left her mouth would have been embarrassing if she could manage to think straight. “It’s only you and me here. We can be professionals later.” He leaned in, his mouth finding the pulse at the base of her neck and spreading warm air across that fluttering skin, kissing her there. “No one is watching us right now, Josephine. Makes you wonder why you’ve still got your panties on, doesn’t it?” Slowly, torturously, his tongue licked all the way to her ear and bit down. “I know I’m wondering.”
Wells grazed their lips together, held that position without kissing her for a beat, both of them already breathing like they’d just completed a swim to Aruba. Then he backed away, leaving her trembling against the wall, all sensitive hips, feverish skin, and jelly thighs, her mouth dying for the taste of him.