“Having showered here is the criteria we’re basing this on?” I ask with a scoff.
“Yes.” She doubles down.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“Fine,” I repeat, guzzling down the rest of my wine, setting the glass on the table, and then heading straight for the bedroom. With a hand between both my shoulders, I strip off my shirt before I reach the end of the hallway, and the air conditioning pebbles goose bumps on my freshly exposed skin.
Immediately, Katy comes unstuck from her place in the living room and starts chasing after me.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Her voice is a screech. “What are you doing?”
“I’m showering.”
“Oh no, you’re not!”
“Yes. I am,” I disagree, unbuttoning my shorts and shoving them to the floor so I can step out of them as I walk.
“Oh my God!” she yells behind me. “You just took off your pants!”
“Very astute, Ms. Dayton. You should be a teacher.”
“Shut up, you lunatic. Stop taking off your clothes!”
“I really don’t want to shower in my clothes,” I contest, doing a little spin in my boxer briefs to give her a grin. “All that wet fabric freaks me out.”
“What?” she yells, annoyed with my nonsense.
“I have a thing about wet clothing.”
“No, you don’t.” She scoffs. “You literally had a water balloon fight at school yesterday!”
“Ah, but you only get wet if you lose.”
“What are we even talking about? Stop trying to change the subject, and stop taking off your clothes!” she commands on a scream, her volume and panic escalating notably as I grab the waistband of my boxer briefs and start to shove.
“Sorry,” I say without turning around. “Can’t.”
“Oh my God, that’s your ass. I see your ass!”
“Too enthralled to close your eyes?” I tease. “That’s understandable.”
“You’re a total psycho, you know that?”
I look back over my shoulder and wink, and she lets out a cry of animalistic proportions. “Oh my God, you’re a child!”
“Say that sentence and the one about my ass back-to-back again and do it a little louder, and the situation with the double-booking will take care of itself.”
It takes her a minute to catch my teasing drift, but her dramatic reaction doesn’t disappoint.
“Oh, gross!” she says through a groan. “Insinuating I’m some kind of child sex offender is not funny.”
“Trust me, Katy Cat, it’s funny,” I call over my shoulder as I step into the shower and turn on the spray. “Anyway, if you want to finish up with your shower, don’t be afraid to come in here. I, personally, am not scared of a double-booking,” I tease, even though I’m fully aware inside a shower with me is the last place Katy Dayton would ever allow herself to go.
But I can’t deny, pretty little Katy joining me in the shower would most certainly make my fucking day.
5
Katy
When Mack finally comes out of the shower, I’ve managed to rinse the shampoo out of my hair in the kitchen sink and thrown on some clothes from my bag. Luckily, I’ve also succeeded in washing away some of the bad feelings too. I’m not saying I’m feeling a sense of camaraderie and am ready to sing “Kumbaya” around a campfire with him, but I’m not wielding a pitchfork either. That said, it might be because I didn’t have the foresight to pack one in my luggage.
His hair curls around his ears, beads of water still clinging to the strands, and his bright green eyes shine with an intangible mix of mischief and good nature. I don’t know what to make of him—I never know what to make of him. But in this environment, without the pressure of professionalism, it’s as if the power of his smile is a little—okay, a lot—more potent.
I should be annoyed with him for the way he’s handled this debacle, but for whatever reason, all I can think about is the way his bare ass looked when he dropped his drawers in the middle of the hallway. Tight and toned and…juicy.
Sweet Jesus. I’m losing it.
I suck my lips into my mouth as he comes over to the couch I’m sitting on and takes a seat on the other end. I chew on the inside of my cheek and pull my knees up to my chest as he crosses his ankle over his knee and smiles a downright gorgeous smile at me.
Handsome freak.
Now you’re starting to understand why everyone loves him so much…
“Listen…” he starts, holding up his hands almost nervously. “I feel a little bad. We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot here. We shouldn’t be bickering. We should be making the best out of this free vacation, you know? I don’t want to be your enemy, and I don’t intend to get in the way of your fun.” He meets my eyes, and his lips bend down slightly at the corners. “I shouldn’t have been so flippant about getting in the shower when I knew you were upset. I’m really sorry about that, Katy.”
His words completely disarm me, and a soft sigh escapes my lips as I search the depths of his green eyes to gauge his honesty.
But all I find is an obvious genuineness. A certified truth.
No red flags. No obvious tells. Just straight-up facts.
I flit my eyes away from the strength of his mesmerizing gaze and stare down at my hands.
As annoyed at him as I am, and as easy as it would be to keep fighting, he’s right. I don’t want to be stressed the whole time I’m here, and I don’t want to leave. I want to go to sleep without my always-tension-filled shoulders touching my ears, for God’s sake. And watching him strip himself on the way to the shower is so ingrained in my thoughts at this point, I can’t even pretend to complain about it.
Although, there’s no way in hell I’ll let him know how affected I was by it. So, I keep my response simple and focused. No discussion of sexy, toned butts, whatsoever.
“You’re right.” I meet his eyes. “We should call a truce. Put down our weapons. Just give each other some peace and space.”
He winces a little and then laughs.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. I just… Well, I was going to invite you to come down to the beach while I surf. Kind of the opposite of giving you some space. But if you want to be left alone, I get it.”
I consider the options carefully—staying alone in the house or going down to the beach…and secretly watching his juicy ass surf.
That thought shouldn’t make me feel giddy, but hell’s bells, it does.
Careful to be casual, I shrug one shoulder. “I guess I could come down to the beach and read. I was thinking of doing that anyway.”
“Yeah?” he asks, and if I’m not imagining it, I could swear he almost sounds hopeful.
“Yeah,” I agree. “It’s not like you’re going to be chatting my ear off while you take some slices of the water.”
“Take some slices of the water?” he asks with an amused chuckle.
“Isn’t that something they say in surfing?”
“Not exactly. But now, I’m thinking they should.” He smirks and lifts his eyebrows playfully. “So…the beach?”