Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-eight
Cormac
This time, when I pulled up in front of the guesthouse, I got out with Zara and followed her to her door, taking her keys from her hand, and she pressed close to me while I twisted the lock. Once we were inside, she kicked the door closed and threw her arms around my shoulders.
“Come shower with me,” she said against my lips.
“All right. I’m gonna turn on a light first. I still have a bruise on my knee from the other night.”
She laughed and leaned around me, flipping a switch, bathing the living room in a warm glow.
“Poor baby. You should have told me. I would have kissed it better.” She threaded her fingers through mine. “Come on. As much as I love the hot spring, I’d rather not smell like sulfur.”
“You’ll get no argument from me.”
The bathroom was tiny. A pedestal sink, toilet, and cubicle shower. Zara reached past me to turn on the water then started shedding her clothes.
It took me a minute to catch up. I wasn’t used to seeing this woman naked. My brain went offline the second she revealed her perfect teardrop breasts in the bright bathroom light.
She tilted her head when she found me staring. “What?”
“I—” I swallowed hard, dragging my gaze up to hers. “You’re beautiful. I’m looking.”
She cupped her hands under her breasts, teasing her peaked nipples with her thumbs. “You like these?”
“Are you kidding?” I sputtered. “I like everything.”
With a snicker, she stepped forward, gripped the hem of my shirt, and yanked it over my head. Then her hands were on my abdomen, dragging up to my chest and down my sides.
“You’re beautiful too. I love looking at you and getting to touch you.”
“Touch all you want.”
“I will. You gave me permission to be greedy, remember?”
“You think I’d forget that?”
The shower was a tight fit, but I didn’t mind being crammed against her. I barely even noticed my elbow slamming into the tile, not with my cock trapped between our wet stomachs.
I pulled her in front of me, giving her most of the hot water. Her hair darkened instantly, flattening against her neck. She turned in my arms, water dripping from her lashes. Her gaze drifted to my collarbone, and I felt it this time—the pause, her quiet thoughts—before she touched.
“I can’t believe you did this,” she murmured, tracing the edge of the ink with careful fingers.
My hand drifted down her side, settling on her hip. “I couldn’t believe it when you got the same one. Can’t believe we match.”
“We always have.” She pushed up on her toes, touching her lips to my ink. “Why didn’t you tell me at Jett’s?”
“I don’t know.” I squeezed my eyes shut, pulling her closer. “I didn’t know what to think. Truthfully, I still haven’t wrapped my head around any of this.”
“What—us being here like this?”
“I guess, yeah. Never thought this summer would happen.”
That was such an understatement, but it was enough for now. Maybe for always. I was raw enough without baring the entirety of my soul.
I picked up her shampoo and poured some into my hand. “Turn around. Let’s get you clean.”
She pivoted, nearly slipping when her foot bumped mine.
“Easy,” I muttered, catching her waist.
She smiled back at me. “I knew you’d catch me.”
“Always. If you let me…”
I worked the shampoo into her hair, massaging slow circles at her scalp. She sighed, tipping her head against my chest.
“That’s so nice,” she murmured.
“Yeah?”
“Really good.”
It was good for me too. Feeling her melt against me, trusting me to take care of her…
it was our dynamic. Even when we were young, I’d always wanted to be the one to look out for her, and when that had been stripped from me, I’d been lost. This, though…
I understood. This, I could do without thinking.
I rinsed her hair then repeated with conditioner, combing it through with my fingers and rinsing until the water ran clear.
When I reached for the shampoo to wash my hair, she grabbed it first.
“My turn.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to.” Her eyes lifted to mine. “Let me?”
With a heavy boulder lodged in my throat, all I could do was nod.
She poured shampoo into her palm and pressed up on her toes to reach the top of my head. Even with me bending forward, it was an awkward fit, making us both laugh.
“You’re too tall,” she claimed.
“I’m so sorry.” I smirked against her temple.
“You should be. This was supposed to be sexy. You ruined it.”
I rocked my hips, my erection sliding along her stomach. “Still so damn sexy. There’s nothing you could do naked that wouldn’t be.”
Nothing clothed either.
She huffed in exaggerated frustration, then looked at my chest. A slow grin spread across her face as she planted her soapy hands there and scrubbed, deliberately working through the damp curls.
“Zara.”
“I like this.” She gave the hair a tug before returning to rubbing in the soap. “You didn’t have this the last time I saw you shirtless.”
“I was a scrawny teenager.”
“You were cute then.” She looked up at me through wet lashes. “You’re gorgeous now.”
“You like that I’m a hairy beast?”
She laughed. “I like you in any form, but yeah, hairy beast really works for me.”
I couldn’t argue. If she wanted to spend the next ten minutes scrubbing my chest, I’d let her. I reached up to wash my own hair while she was busy cleaning the rest of me.
By the time we were actually clean, we were grinning like idiots, foreheads pressed together under the spray.
In all the times I’d fantasized what it would be like to turn our friendship into more, it hadn’t looked like this.
Now, I wondered why. We made each other laugh and weren’t afraid to be goofy. This was us, but more.
Her fingers drifted to my tattoo one more time. Soft. Thoughtful.
“You really did this.”
“Yeah.” I touched the ink on her hip. “You really did this.”
“I really did.”
We stood there longer than necessary, water falling around us, bumping shoulders in the steam. Then we dried off side by side, neither of us hiding that we were looking at one another in the bright light.
Zara tossed her towel in the hamper and held out her hand. “Come to bed with me?”
And I took it, letting her lead.
Where she went, I followed.
That was how it had always been.