I want to see him.
I want to touch him.
I want to kiss him.
Something about Matty acts as a beacon for me—my body seeks him out even when it’s warring with my mind. Half of me wants to twist the bathroom handle, test it and see if any part of him is open to what I’m thinking of doing now, but I have enough control of myself to hold back.
I knock and listen to the water fall. Nerves and something more sensual have turned my insides into a playground, and it crosses my mind belatedly that Matty might not actuallyhearme at the door without his hearing aids in.
Biting down on my lip, I contemplate backing out. The thought makes me nauseous.
I slip my phone out of my hoodie pocket and navigate tomine and Matty’s text thread. My fingers hover over the keys, contemplating, before I take a breath and send off a quick message.
Me
Open the door, please?
His phone’s vibration is so loud even I hear it buzz from outside the door. The shower curtain rustles, and I’m stuck in a limbo that feels like it lasts an eternity, but in reality is cut short by the sound of the water shutting off.
Heat climbs up my neck until I start to sweat. My breathing grows heavy. My skin feels like it’s being teased by razorblades.
I yank the hoodie off and throw it toward my open bedroom door, and my shirt is soon to follow. The prickling sensation eases away, the heat is less overbearing, but each breath still feels like it’s being forcibly dragged from my lungs.
My phone shows the message read but no reply. I tap it on my thigh and—Oh, right. I took my pants off in the room.
I’m standing here in nothing but a pair of boxers—awetpair of boxers—with half a hard-on that doesn’t seem likely to go away.
I could run back to the room and grab my pants so I don’t look like I’m trying to proposition him, but I mean … WhatamI doing?
Before I get a chance to ponder, the bathroom door swings open, and every single thought in my head turns into a blank canvas. Worries, fears, questions—all obliterated by the sight of Matty with his long, damp hair pulled over to one shoulder, still dripping slightly down his very naked torso.
Not just that, but the only thing—the only thing—covering any part of him is the towel knotted just above his hips.
I said something about self control earlier, right?
Wrong.
So wrong.
I swallow around the dryness in my throat, too busy willing my dick not to react to the blatant display of hotness right in front of me to remember to coordinate my mouth and my vocal chords.
“Lee?” Matty’s voice is a whisper, one that brings my wandering gaze to his mouth. I watch it part on a shaky exhale, and then I flick my attention to the wide eyes he watches me with.
“I didn’t think this far ahead,” tumbles from my lips, but Matty’s rise into an amused smile, and I’m not sure I can last another day without tasting it. “You’re gorgeous, you know that?”
His shoulders tense, but his cheeks turn a deep shade of red. He huffs out a laugh, and when he catches me following a bead of water down to his waistline, he clears his throat.
“You’re one to talk.” My body feels like it’s on fire from how his eyes trail all of my exposed skin. I wonder if he feels the same. “Did you need the shower?”
“No,” I’m quick to reply, wetting my lips. “I need you.”
There’s no confusion, no apprehension, nothing in his expression or demeanor that says he needs clarity. Like most matters of our attraction, we’re on the same page.
My name falls from his lips again.Lee. Lee.No one has ever called me that before, not without a Mr. in front of it. That’s not how Matty means it.
For him, it’s something intimate.
The same as when “Princess,” comes from my own like it does now. He shudders, but when I step forward, he reaches forme. His hands dig straight into the soft handles at my waist with his head tipped back so our eyes can easily find one another.