Chapter Thirteen
Clint
Iheld my breath while I waited for her answer. We’d been spending a lot of time together since I’d broken my ankle and I’d learned we have more in common than work. Most importantly, as we’d laid under my kitchen table, I’d learned that my crush wasn’t one sided.
“Alright.” Her voice was low and a jolt of excitement went through my spine. We found a few plastic bags and wrapped my cast before getting out of the truck and headed for my building.
“This rain is crazy,” Jessie said over the sound of the downpour.
“Yeah, I am soaked.”
Jessie crowded against my back as I fumbled my key into the lock and pushed into the building lobby.
“You know the drill,” she said, sliding my arm around her shoulder.
Her skin was wet but warm, her body fitting perfectly against mine.
She snaked one arm around my waist, her fingers gripping my hip as we worked our way to my apartment.
With each step, her hand slid, pushing my shirt out of the way until her fingers were brushing my bare side. Goose bumps broke out over my skin that had nothing to do with the rain.
We finally clattered into my kitchen, and I leaned on the table as I turned to face her. Her auburn hair plastered to her head, her sweatshirt dripping on the floor.
“You’re soaked,” she said with a laugh.
I looked down at myself, my t-shirt clinging to my chest, my jeans twenty pounds heavier than when I’d put them on. I couldn’t help but laugh back. “You aren’t doing much better, let me lend you some clothes.”
She looked down at herself. “Thanks, no salvaging these tonight.” She followed me into my bedroom and I was overly aware of her presence at my back.
I dug through my dresser with her behind me, my brain flipping back to the week before, when she’d looked at my naked skin with such heat that I’d had to hide the tent in the front of my towel.
“These should fit.” I passed her a t-shirt and pair of sweat pants, fighting to keep my eyes from where her tank had gone see through. “You can have the first shower if you want.”
I wasn’t just being a gentlemen in suggesting it, I needed a minute where she wasn’t so close to me that I could see the individual goosebumps on her skin. I needed her to be dressed in something that didn’t cling to her like a second skin.
She bit her lip, hesitating. Her body was close to mine, the bed right there almost mocking me for not making a move.
Her cheeks were tinted red, from proximity or the cold rain, I had no idea.
A chill ran through me that was part cold and part Jessie.
Nothing was going to happen before we both got warm.
I took a step back and she moved past me into the bathroom.
I sank down onto the side of my bed, the knowledge that Jessie was getting naked just a door away pushing blood to my dick. I pressed a hand against the wet front of my jeans to ease the pressure.
It didn’t help.
When I heard the sound of her clothes hitting the floor, I headed to the kitchen to wait.
My ankle throbbed lightly from the run through the rain, but it was the throbbing elsewhere that was a problem.
I hadn’t been in a relationship in a long time.
Most men in my field tended to marry later in life to a much younger woman.
It was cringey and gross to pick a wife the same way you picked a watch or a new Mercedes.
Relationship or not, it hadn’t been hard to get laid. There was always an event. Happy Hour, conferences, company retreats and parties where it was accepted that some networking happened behind closed doors.
I hadn’t gotten laid since I’d lost my job and I was starting to feel the dry spell.
More than that, I was craving some sort of connection in a way I hadn’t before.
With the shitty year I’d had, it would be nice to have someone who had my back.
Family support was transactional at best and my friends had disappeared.
Since I had broken my ankle, I’d had most of the crew come into the office to ask how I was. Not to mention Jessie, driving me around, bringing me groceries and hovering over me like a mother hen.
Greg’s wife had made me a loaf of banana bread. Larry had brought me two bags of vegetables from his garden. Jessie silently sliding a sandwich across the table when we sat down for lunch.
I heard the bathroom door creak open and turned to watch Jessie coming down the hall. The shirt I’d lent her was way too long, and she had the pants rolled at the waist. Her hair was piled on top of her head and her toes were bare. A pang of longing went through my chest that went far beyond sex.
This whole thing felt so domestic. I could picture wrapping my arms around her, resting my chin on her shoulder while she brushed her teeth.
I could see fighting over the remote and her sleeping in one of my shirts just because it smelled like me.
It was everything I had never made time for.
It was a soft comforter and a warm cup of tea when my life had been cold leather and brandy on the rocks.