And then she turned and walked into the bathroom, quietly shutting the door behind her. The closing of that door signaled our time was over. This was usually my cue to leave. To throw on my clothes, climb in my truck, and drive home.
I threw off the remaining blanket and stood. My pants were lying on the floor at the end of the bed.
I ignored them.
I wasn’t getting dressed.
The shower was already running when I let myself into the bathroom. The white sheet was lying in crumpled heap on the floor and steam was wafting up from behind the curtain, dissipating in the air, creating humidity in the small room.
I felt angry for some reason. Cheated. I didn’t like it and I wasn’t going to accept it.
The shower curtain made a sharp scraping sound when I yanked it across the rod. Charlotte gasped and leapt back beneath the spray. For several long seconds, I was transfixed with the water running freely over her naked skin.
“Tucker! What the hell are you doing?” she said, crossing her arms over her chest like she was embarrassed.
It was amusing. “I already know every inch of that chest intimately. Covering them up is a waste of energy,” I said darkly.
“We shouldn’t have done that,” she said, turning her back on me completely. I got a nice view of her ass.
Anger burned my throat and I swallowed it down.
“Water is getting all over the floor,” she fussed without turning around.
I stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain closed. The water was hot, scalding even. Like she was trying to wash me off her skin. I wouldn’t allow it.
Charlotte spun, shock written across her features.
“You liked it,” I said, a challenge in my tone.
Water poured over her head and dragged her hair down, and small drops of the liquid clung to her golden lashes.
“Tell me you liked it.” I demanded.
“If I tell you, will you get out?”
I regarded her with stony silence. I wasn’t promising one damn thing.
Eventually she sighed wearily. “Yes, I liked it.” Her voice was low like she was whispering a secret.
“I’m not done with you yet.”
Her eyes snapped up to mine and she pushed at the wet strands that had fallen in her eyes. “Yes, you are. We shouldn’t have done that! You’re Max’s brother.” At the mention of my brother, her lower lip wobbled and her shoulders slumped.
I hated to see the sorrow that swam within her. I wanted to kiss it away.
Yeah, it was wrong, but that’s how I felt.
We stood there with water raining down around us, the drops splashing off her skin and landing on mine. It seemed we were at a stalemate.
“One night,” I heard myself say.
“What?” she asked, leaning toward me ever so slightly.
“Give me one night with you. One night for us to get this attraction out of our system. One night without guilt, without telling ourselves how horrible we are.” It made perfect sense. Charlotte was off limits to me, which is exactly why I wanted her so badly.
All we had to do was remove the barriers between us, the temptations. Our thirsts would be quenched and in the morning, neither of us would want the other.
I could see her thinking about it. I could see her weighing the pros and cons. I knew that in her mind, she was creating a neat little list and mentally checking off the boxes.
“And in the morning?” she asked.
“In the morning, I’ll be Max’s brother and you can help me find that drive. Once we hand it over, I’ll go to North Carolina and you won’t have to see me again.”
“I loved him,” she said, like she had to make sure I knew.
“I loved him, too.”
I knew the exact moment when she gave in, when she decided to let me have the rest of the night. Something in my chest lightened. I felt as if a one hundred-pound weight had been removed from my shoulders.
“One night.” She agreed.
I wasn’t about to waste a single second. Surging forward, I wrapped my arms around her and spun, letting the spray cascade over my back and shoulders. The hot water slid between us, making our skin slide together. I took her mouth in a hungry kiss. I felt like a starved man, a man who had been without food for far too long.
Our tongues mingled together; our breath mixed. I tugged her lower lip into my mouth and sucked while her arms came up to grip my biceps. My hand found the heavy, wet mass of her hair and I grabbed a handful of it, tugging her head back to expose her throat.
I licked at the water running down the sensitive flesh of her neck, enjoying the way her body trembled. Reaching between us, I pinched her nipple and she arched toward me.
I brought our lips together once more, kissing her as deeply as I could.
Charlotte grew bold, her hand dipping low as she took my full hardness in her palm. Using the water from the shower, she began to stroke me, sliding up and down along the shaft and making the breath hiss between my teeth. My body jerked when she hit that sweet spot on my head, the most sensitive spot on my entire body.