The Treble With Men (Scorned Women's Society #2) - Piper Sheldon Page 0,39
fighting a smile. “I mean, not at first. But you know. Penis. In your face. How are you not going to look?” She laughed again.
“Are you laughing?”
“Yes. Sorry.” As second later she gasped, “No. Oh, God—no. Not at your penis. You have a lovely penis. You should know. I’ve not seen too many penises … penii? But anyway, it was a very nice penis.”
“Please stop saying penis.”
“Should I say cock? Or dick?”
I was wrong before. Now I was rock hard. I bit my lip to keep my hand from lowering to stroke. This was torture. We were maintaining boundaries. We weren’t supposed to be thinking about physical attraction. I roused some anger to help find a balance. It was either get angry or pull open that door and kiss her.
“You can go now. I’ll be upstairs in a minute,” I growled.
“Okay.”
The shadow of her feet remained, and her internal debate was audible.
“What, Kim?”
“It’s just … I think it’s important to talk about these things. Clear the air before it gets awkward.” Her tone was cautious, almost clinical.
“I don’t see how you constantly mentioning my dick makes it less awkward.”
“Heh. Yeah, true. Well, just so you know. I’m fine. And this was one hundred percent my fault. I don’t want you thinking anything … um, weird. It’s just a body. A nice body, a very nice body. You should know that. You probably do know that. You have eyes …”
“Kim.”
“Okay. Sorry. Again. Leaving now.”
I let out a long breath. My hands braced the door. I was fighting a lot of different feelings. I could rip the door open to let her look her fill. Or punch the mirror to distract myself with pain, an easily identifiable sensation.
I groaned. “Kim. I can see you’re still there.”
“Right. I know. Just one more thing …” Her voice went up an active higher.
“Yes?”
“I saw your face.” She said it so quickly that the words ran together.
Anything else I’d felt was instantly drenched with ice cold dread. My throat closed so tight I couldn’t take a breath in.
“And, um. I understand now. I mean, not that you need me to understand. But I get it. And I want you to know. I would never tell anybody your business, okay? I’m not like that. I know how it feels to have everybody know the worst about you … ugh, not that your face is the worst. I’m going to stop. Okay, in summation—you have a lovely body, and I won’t ever mention this again. So there’s no reason to feel uncomfortable.”
“Right.” Not uncomfortable at all.
She sounded genuinely concerned, but I couldn’t think of anything past my own fear in that moment. Dread made me sick. What did this mean for us working together? Her voice was peppy and light, but what were her real thoughts about seeing me fully? If I could see her face, maybe it would be clearer. I wished so many fucking things had gone differently in the last five minutes. Any vain sense of pride I’d found in her words were instantly squashed.
“Okay. Well, I’m going to go home. I’ll see ya in the morning.” She kept her tone light, but I sensed her wounded feelings in the clipped words.
Finally, her shadow moved from beneath the door. I couldn’t hear her retreat, but it felt like a warm blanket being tugged off in winter. I took a deep, steadying breath. She had talked to me when she could have cowered and pretended it never happened. She was trying to be mature about a ridiculous situation. I was in a position where I should follow her example.
I scrambled to wrap a very large towel around my torso and pulled open the door. “Wait.”
She stopped halfway down the hall and spun towards me. The backs of her fingers had been pressed to her cheeks and she dropped them like she had been caught doing something bad.
“You’re right. This doesn’t have to be weird,” I called out to her.
Her eyes were wide. I couldn’t tell if she was trying not to move her eyes over my body, still half exposed, or if she was trying not to react to my face.
“Good,” her voice went higher. She wasn’t blinking. Her hands were fisted. She was trying so very hard.
I couldn’t help but smile.
Her eyes widened.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. I just … I was thinking you looked like your brother just then.”
The smiled fell back off my face. “Makes sense.”
We both took three mirrored steps toward each other.