took off running toward Harley’s room, her heart racing. “Harley?” She ran through the open door, her eyes sweeping over a pile of folded clothes on the bed, to the open bathroom door.
“Piper?”
Harley’s pained voice sent her bolting through that door into a ridiculously small bathroom, and she froze. Water rained down on Harley, sitting cockeyed and naked on the tiny shower floor, one knee bent, his right leg sticking straight out of the shower, and part of the curtain bunched in his fist. The curtain rod lay on the bathroom floor.
She needed to move, to help Harley, but Lord help her. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him, and she had no idea why he suddenly looked exceptionally beautiful, but he did, with a thick, muscular chest covered in a dusting of hair, which led south to the monster between his legs.
And he was groaning in pain.
Pain? Oh shit! Shit, shit, shit. “Harley! Are you okay?” she asked frantically.
“No,” he ground out between gritted teeth. “I think I broke my ass.”
The sound of the girls ascending the steps sent panic through Piper. She grabbed a towel and threw it at Harley, then ran out of the bathroom, pulling the door closed just as the girls and Jiggs raced into the room.
“Is Uncle Harley okay?” Jolie asked, fear written all over her face.
Jiggs jumped onto the bed, sniffed the folded clothes that were piled there, then jumped off and scratched at the bathroom door.
Piper put an arm around Jolie, trying to act calm despite her whirling thoughts, and said, “Yes. The shower curtain fell. But he’s fine, I promise.” At least she hoped he was, because she sure as hell wasn’t.
“Are you sure?” Sophie asked.
“Yes. Why don’t you girls get dressed and brush your teeth so you’re ready for school, and run Jiggsy out back so he can pee before we go. I’ll help Uncle Harley get himself together, okay?”
“I’ll walk Jiggs!” Sophie said as she ran out of the room with Jiggs on her heels.
Jolie was staring absently at the bathroom door. Piper moved in front of her, looking directly into her worried eyes, and said, “I promise he’s okay. The shower curtain fell, that’s all.” She gave herself a pat on the back for being patient, considering it a win, but that win was quickly overshadowed by worry about Harley.
Jolie nodded and left the room.
Piper’s hand flew over her panicked heart. God, I suck at this. Jolie’s freaking out, and I have no idea how to help her, and Harley was sprawled out on the floor and I stood there staring like I’ve never seen a naked man before.
Not that she’d ever seen a man as magnificent as Harley Dutch. She looked at the bathroom door, wondering how she would be able to look into his eyes after everything she’d just seen.
“Harley?” she called through the closed door. “You okay? Do you need any help?” Please say no.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
The pain in his voice cut her to her core.
What kind of advice would Willow and Bridgette give her now? Patient and nurturing had been booted out the door by Holy fuck, look at that!
She was definitely failing this test.
Piper opened the door and peered around it, her hand over her eyes, cheeks flaming red, and said, “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
He didn’t know it was possible for Piper to blush, and he liked that look on her so much, it distracted him from the pain in his ankle and his ass. “I’m covered. You can look. Although I’m not sure why you are trying not to. You already got an eyeful.”
“That’s not my fault!” she said angrily, her eyes moving to the holes in the wall where the curtain rod hardware should be. “What were you doing? Acrobatics? Usually it takes two people in precarious positions to rip a curtain rod out of the wall.”
“Have you ever tried to shower standing on one leg?” His mind immediately placed her in a very precarious, erotic position. “Don’t answer that,” he said sharply.
It was a good thing he’d fallen when he had because he’d been planning on relieving the sexual tension that had been building inside him, heightened from the fantasies he’d had about Piper last night. If he’d started, this would be playing out very differently.
He held the towel around him with one hand and reached up with the other. “Give me a hand, will you?”
She averted her eyes as she helped him up. “What