Page 24 of Corrupted Lies

Anything else would be totally inappropriate.

Putting in a call for their dinner, he hurried upstairs to his room. While neither of them were smoky this time around, the little firebomb had quickly fizzled out when it had nothing else to catch alight, he still couldn’t seem to get the smell of smoke out of his nostrils.

The phantom scent seemed to linger in the air everywhere he went, and he knew it was a psychological response to what had happened and not a physiological one.

Still, when he stripped off and stepped into the shower in his bathroom, letting the hot water pound down on his stiff muscles, he scrubbed every inch of his body as vigorously as he had after the fire at Alannah’s gym.

Thoughts of his best friend had another part of his anatomy going stiff. Jake glanced down at his hardening length. Wrong as it was to be lusting after a woman who had been through what Alannah just had, not even counting the fact that she was his friend, he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

Images of her naked in the other shower, water running in rivulets along her petal soft skin, her head tilted back to get thefull impact of the spray, a loofah running over every inch of her body, filled his head.

Would she think of him when the loofah brushed between her legs?

Jake groaned and leaned forward to rest his forehead against the warming tiles. What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he all of a sudden lusting after Alannah? It was crazy, and stupid, and oh so very wrong.

Yet his hand grasped his length anyway.

Began to stroke it.

Alannah’s voice echoed in his ears, calling out his name, begging him for more, pleading with him to make her come so hard she forgot her own name.

His hand moved faster, pumping up and down with an urgency he hadn't felt in a long time.

Pleasure built quickly. With everything he’d had going on with his family these last few months, sex and orgasms hadn't even registered on the periphery of his mind. This orgasm came blasting through him with a rush. Squirting all over the tiles as white dots danced behind his closed lids, Jake was hit with a powerful desire to mark Alannah just like that. Cover her with cum and make her … his?

That was crazy.

This couldn’t happen again.

Ashamed of himself for his inappropriate thoughts about his best friend, Jake quickly shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. Alannah didn't see him like that, and honestly, before the fire he hadn't seen her that way either. He’d never gotten himself off to thoughts of her body writhing beneath him, and he’d never come so hard imagining her orgasm setting off his own.

Just as he was wrapping a towel around his waist, he thought he heard someone knocking on the front door. The pizza couldn’t be here already, could it?

Walking into his bedroom, a quick glance at the clock on his nightstand told him he’d been in the shower for almost fifteen minutes. Alannah had him so messed up he couldn’t even think straight, and she wasn't even trying to mess with his head. She was just being herself, strong but vulnerable, tough yet fragile, and for some reason these last couple of days, that was hitting him differently.

Heading out into the hall, he almost walked straight into the woman herself.

“Jake, sorry,” she blurted out, but all he could do was stare at her.

Like himself, she was wrapped in a towel, only hers was tied around her chest, just above her breasts. It hung to just below her backside, and she was using another towel to dry off her long blonde locks. A few drops of water clung to her delicate shoulders, and he had to clamp his teeth together so he didn't reach out and capture them with the tip of his tongue.

It wasn't until he forced himself to tear his gaze away from her lithe, perfectly toned body and fix it back on her face where it should have been all along that he realized she wasn't looking at his face either.

Nope.

Her gaze was roaming his ripped chest, dipping lower and then latching onto where his length was hidden beneath the towel. Something bright danced in her golden eyes, and a faint blush on her cheeks let him know that she was aroused looking at his body.

Relief washed over him.

At least this craziness was affecting them both.

Another knock on his door had her gaze darting up to meet his, guilt in her eyes now, dampening a little of her desire.

“Umm, someone’s at the door,” she said somewhat lamely.

“Dinner.”

“Right. Dinner. I should … I should get dressed.” She said the words but didn't move, and it almost seemed like she didn't want to. Like cheesy pizza and gooey brownies were no longer on her mind.

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