how there was no time for me to register my nakedness because I was too preoccupied with getting caught reading his book.
Now, I indulge the memory, twisting it into a create-your-own-adventure story in my mind. I imagine that in another world, Ethan strolls in and loses himself at the sight of me, lounging there, breasts barely visible over the top of the water. Maybe in this world, we’re friends, more than friends. Maybe in this world, he strolls over and uses his hands—the hands I’ve only seen doing busy important boss things—to pick up my soap and washcloth and start to bathe me. I tuck my knees up against my chest, rest my cheek on my knee, and sit patiently while he starts on my lower back. The towel drags up my spine and I groan with pleasure in the simple act of him touching me with reverence and awe. No one’s touched me like that before. Gently, beautifully.
Even in this other world, though, Ethan isn’t the perfect gentleman, and what starts out as an innocent bath tips toward something more playful when he tugs on my shoulders and forces me to recline, legs stretched in front of me.
He kneels down behind me, outside of the tub, and uses his hands to soap and lather my chest, creating a wake of bubbles between my breasts and down across my stomach. My head tips back against the lip of the tub, my eyes flutter closed, and he continues south. His mouth slants over my neck and his lips press against my pulse point just as his hand slides between my thighs.
Oh, Ethan.
OH, ETHAN!
I snap back to reality and fling the book away from me like it’s a hot potato, realizing what I’m doing: fantasizing about him! A man I loathe! A man who brings out the worst, most childish side of me. Even this line of thought seems like another mark added against him, though rationally I know he had nothing to do with it. But didn’t he? He’s the one who sleeps in our cabin without a shirt on. He’s the one who purposefully walks out of the bathroom with a low-slung towel around his hips.
Of course, it would be best to handle this as an adult and tell him I’m not comfortable with the lengths he’s resorting to in an effort to get a reaction out of me.
Instead, I wonder if two can play his game.
Chapter 19
Taylor
Sunday evening, I kill two birds with one stone. I carry all of my clothes to the mess hall and hide out in there doing my laundry, that way when Ethan arrives back at the cabin it’ll look like I’m still gone for the weekend.
My plan works flawlessly until he strolls by the window and sees me sitting up on the washing machine, finishing my book.
I hear his voice before I see him.
“When did you get back?”
I jerk out of my reading haze and slam the book closed, glancing up in time to see him lean his tall frame against the doorjamb. He’s wearing jeans and a white cotton t-shirt. Somehow, it’s the best he’s ever looked.
“Not long ago,” I say with a casual shrug.
“Huh.”
His eyes are narrowed, but his mouth is edging toward an amused smirk.
“What?” I snap, my good mood wiped clean in five seconds flat.
He tips his head toward the dryer. “It just seems odd. I watched you pack all your stuff on Friday before you left.”
I glance down at the machine currently filled with my clothes, tumbling them dry.
“So?”
“So…you lugged everything home only to repack it and bring it all back here to wash?”
I won’t admit defeat so easily.
I arch a sardonic brow. “Are you always this obsessed with other people’s laundry habits?”
His smile stretches. His dimple pops. He seems to be enjoying this far too much. And well, of course he is. He’s caught me. “Did I not make myself perfectly clear when I told you no one is allowed to stay here on the weekends unless you get prior approval?”
“From who?”
“Me.”
My laugh is short and sarcastic. “You’d never give me approval for anything. In fact, I think you go out of your way to make my life difficult.”
His brow arches. “So then we both agree that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Making each other miserable, he means.
I bite down on my bottom lip and shrug. “Let’s just say I never had any interest in learning how to play guitar before last week.”
He grins then and my stomach clenches tight.