If We Dare - J.H. Croix Page 0,19
it would go away. Standing, I rounded the foot of the bed. “Mind if I use the shower first?”
“Nah, go right ahead.”
I made the mistake of glancing in his direction. It was then I noticed the distinct outline of his arousal under the sheets. I also remembered him climbing into bed in his fitted boxer briefs, black of course. My slightly tipsy brain had admired the sight of his tight ass.
Heat blasted through me, and I looked away abruptly, practically running into the bathroom. I started my shower cold, in an effort to douse the arousal burning me up inside. Once I had effectively cooled off, I turned the hot water on and finished my shower. It was only after I stepped out that I realized I didn’t bring any clothes in here. Flustered, I pulled back on what I’d slept in and stepped out to find Walker gone.
I was unaccountably relieved. Glancing at the clock on the nightstand beside the bed, I mentally noted we had an hour and a half before we needed to be downstairs for a breakfast for the wedding party and their respective dates.
That meant I needed to be in my wedding finery a few minutes before that time was up. Uncertain exactly when Walker would return, I scurried over to the closet and pulled out my dress. I was wearing a silk dress that had a soft fit. It was a lavender shade, so it matched my nails.
Snagging my clothes and what little I used as far as makeup and hair products went, I hurried back into the bathroom. Not much later, and I was almost ready. Except for one small detail. I needed help zipping up my dress.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself just as I heard the door to our room open and close.
“I’ve got coffee,” Walker’s voice called.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” I called in return.
I tried to fiddle my zipper up, but there was no way around it. I was going to need Walker’s help with it. Considering I’d woken up tangled like a vine around him, I figured him zipping my dress would be no big deal.
I added a dash of powder on my skin to be prepared for the humidity that was to come, and a hint of hair cream I used to keep my hair from getting frizzy in the heat. It was mostly straight, but it could frizz when it was too sticky out. Pink lip gloss and smoky eyeliner finished it off. I wasn’t much for makeup, but I did like to look good when the occasion called for it. This was a wedding, and I happened to be the date of the best man, so I needed to put on a good show. Not to mention that I did genuinely want to make Dee jealous. Not of me per se… Okay, I wanted her to be jealous of me. Which was crazy thinking. This inconvenient attraction was stirring up all kinds of irrational feelings.
Stepping out of the bathroom, I found Walker already dressed. His hair was damp, clearly from a shower. “Okay, how’d you pull that off?” I asked, resting a hand on my hip as I gave him a once-over.
Walker in a suit was downright dangerous. I was going to need a fan. Heat licked over my skin and my pulse took off. He wore a charcoal gray suit, which merely served to set off his silver smoke eyes. At the moment, his crisp white shirt was open at the collar. He glanced over, casting me a quick smile.
“I figured you might need some time to get ready. Dave had already told me they had a suite set aside for any of the men whose partners might be tying up the hotel bathrooms. I snagged a shower and a shave. It’s early enough that no one else was there yet.”
He shrugged out of his jacket, and my eyes landed on the flex of his shoulders as he moved. He draped his jacket over the back of a chair beside the dresser. Rolling up his shirt sleeves, I was then treated to the sight of one of his muscular forearms flexing as he lifted a cup of coffee and took a swallow. “Got one for you,” he said, nodding to the desk where he’d set another cup of coffee.
This was what I’d been reduced to—a woman in thrall of a forearm flex and the almost drool-worthy temptation of the V of skin showing at