Page 56 of Chasing After You
“Exactly,” she says, awfully pleased with herself, and I shake my head in disbelief.
“I can’t believe you.”
“Go get the man of your dreams while I help myself to the closet of my dreams. Do you think your insurance will notice if you purchase some clothes in my size?” Emily asks, making her way back to my closet. She studied business at Duke to help her run her online boutique that she wants to eventually bring to a physical space.
“You have fun with that. My goal is to not pass out while confessing my feelings,” I grumble, exhaling a shaky breath. The short walk to Henry’s room feels like a death march. My stomach actually hurts right now.This is a terrible idea.
I knock softly on the door, forcing myself not to run back to my room for shelter.What is taking him so long? Should I have taken off the sweatshirt? Actually, no—that’s an awful idea. I absolutely need to keep my clothes on. Why would Emily even suggest that? That is some truly horrible advice.I tap my foot anxiously as I wait for it to open so I can ruin my entire life, and I’ll never be able to show my face again. At least there’s a pool in the backyard I can drown myself in after he rejects me. I go to knock again so I can tell Emily I did try to talk to him, he just didn’t answer, but right before I can, the door opens, and my knuckles make contact with Henry’s dripping, tattooed muscular chest.
“Fuck me,” I whisper as my jaw hits the fucking floor. This actually is from one of my dreams.
Henry’s standing in the doorway with a towel wrapped around his waist, rivulets of water still making their way down his body. My brain nearly explodes at the sight of his ink in all its glory, twisting up his arm onto his shoulder and left pec where my knuckles are currently resting happily.
“What?” he asks, tilting his head, causing droplets of water to fall from his wet hair in the process.
I snatch my hand back quickly, forcing an awkward laugh. “What?”
“I didn’t hear what you said?” Henry questions, and I’m having a very hard time looking him in the eye. “Mira?”
I clear my throat, tearing my eyes away from all his spectacular muscles to look at the fan rotating in the background above Henry’s shoulder. It’s like right by his face, so there’s no way he’ll know I’m not actually looking at him. “Hi,” I try to say, but my voice squeaks instead.
Yeah, my next move is to go in the pool.
“Hi,” he says, adjusting his grip on the towel around his waist.
Don’t look down. Remember your words. Fuck, what were my words? I blink and do my best to maintain my focus on the fan, but I definitely should have picked something over the other shoulder because that damn tattoo . . .I want to touch it.Henry told me last night I didn’t have to ask if I could touch him, but I still feel like I need to hear explicit consent before touching him again. Yes. That seems more important than why I came here—oh fuck! I’m here for a reason.
“Hi,” I say quickly, sounding at least a little more like a human than a mouse this time.
Henry’s eyebrow is raised. “You already said that.”
“Did I? I don’t think I did,” I ramble, and this is absolutely when I should be making my retreat. I’ve fucked this up enough, and it’s all because he answered the door shirtless.
“Is everything okay?” Henry asks, and I nod.
“Yep, totally perfect,” I say, shifting my weight.
“So did you need something?” he asks, and I blink in surprise.
“Yes.”
Henry looks at me expectantly, and I’m not sure what to say.
“Yes, what?” he prods, and it dawns on me that maybe Emily and I should have role-played this scenario before I showed up here without a damn clue about what I’m supposed to say. The only thing coming to mind is,Can I have your babies please and thank you?
I’m setting back the feminist movement decades right now.
“Um . . . I just came to thank you for last night. Yep, that’s why I’m here. I came to thank you for last night, the kissing, and yeah. It made me feel pretty good about myself, and I’m sorry if I wasn’t any good—”
“You don’t need to thank me. I should be thanking you.” Henry steps closer, and his amused expression fades into one of suspicion as he narrows his hazel eyes. “Why would you think you weren’t any good?”
Reid.
“No reason,” I say quickly, taking a step back, but Henry anticipates this, caging me against the wall with both arms on either side of me. I can smell his body wash, and I think he should have his team look into making some kind of deal with them, because if people knew this is what he smelled like, I’m sure it would fly off the shelves.
“Mirabelle, tell me.”
I open my mouth to tell him to back up, but instead my eyes drift down to his impressive abdomen and the goddamn white towel that’s slipped a little to show the V lines on his pelvis.
