Needing Her (From Ashes #1.5)(7)
“This isn’t funny. I have a job . . . a real job, something you would know nothing about, but I can’t go to work with a green f*cking face, Maci!”
“Okay, it was—”
“I don’t care what it was,” I said, cutting her off. “You better hope like hell that this comes off and that you have replacements for everything that was in my shower. And when I say “have” . . . I mean now.”
She licked her full lips and her eyes darted away before coming back to me. “Yeah, all right, I’ll go get them,” she said, her voice breathy as her eyes held mine.
When she didn’t make an attempt to get up, I leaned even closer and curled my lip. “Now.”
“I need you to move first.”
Shoving off the back of the sofa, I crossed my arms over my bare, stained chest and kept my glare on her as she hurried to the back of her apartment. She came back with a bag of all the extras that had been in my cupboards and I snatched it quickly away from her.
“You’re such a damn child, Maci. Grow the hell up.”
She visibly started and floundered for something to say as I walked to the door. “I’m the child? Are you kidding me? Like you had no part in this?”
“I scared you, that’s completely different than what you just did. If I get suspension for showing up tomorrow like this, you can be sure your brothers will be informed about your boyfriend.”
“You know what? Screw you, Connor! At least this morning you showed a part of the Connor I knew growing up . . . and at least you’re showing some kind of emotion right now. Even if you are being an *! Whoever you’ve been the last however many months is not you. You’ve been a f*cking zombie. No feelings, nothing. So at least there’s something tonight. Glad to know you’re still human.”
What she said was hitting me hard. The fact that she noticed that much. The fact that she was right and this was the first time I could remember feeling anything, even if it was annoyance and anger.
Clearing my throat, I brushed away the realization that Maci could make me feel anything at all, and looked right into her gray eyes. “I’m the one with green skin, and you’re pissed off? Real classy.” With another deep breath, I left her apartment and went back to my shower for take two.
Maci
MY LEGS GAVE out and I collapsed onto the couch as soon as I heard his door shut. Jesus, was it ridiculous that I was still completely turned on from what had just happened? What am I saying; of course it was ridiculous . . . it was ridiculous to get turned on in the first place.
The way he’d more or less charged into my apartment and leaned into me so much that I’d had to lean into the couch had been what set it off. His throwing the nail polish that I’d used on his bar of soap across the room hadn’t even stopped me from noticing the way he looked in those loose, plaid-flannel pajama pants that were hanging so low that I’d had a view to die for of his muscled V. Even in his anger, and the way he’d bitten out each word, I’d been completely lost in everything that was Connor Green. His intensity had filled my entire apartment . . . and it had been so. Incredibly. Hot.
But I hated the way he’d belittled me. I didn’t know if it was part of this new Connor, or if he’d just been trying to hurt me because he was upset; but he’d never treated me like that before. That had been the one thing to snap me out of my hormone-driven haze that had my mind on a one-way path that led to us in my bed.
If it hadn’t been for the way his face had fallen right before he’d left—if it hadn’t been for the smallest glimpse of the old Connor . . . I wouldn’t be playing back every second of those few minutes again and again. His blue eyes spearing mine, the way the muscles in his arms contracted when he was using them to keep himself up on the sofa, and his demanding air that’d had my entire body heating.
God I needed a cold shower. And judging from the length of his first one, and the fact that his water had just shut off again, I knew that was exactly what I would get if I tried to shower now. But I knew just how bad Kool-Aid stained skin, and I was positive he’d still have faded green streaks all over his skin. So instead of cooling down and trying to forget about the way he’d just made me feel . . . I did something worse.
I grabbed a box of baking soda and walked next door.
He glowered at me when he opened the door, and though his breathing was rough from trying to control his anger, he spoke in a deceivingly calm tone. “I’m still green, Maci.”
Trying to force my eyes off the towel he was clutching to his hips, and the drops of water that were racing down his skin, I dropped my head to stare at the floor and held up the box of baking soda. “I came to help.”
He huffed softly, his voice now holding a hint of a teasing tone. “I think you’ve done enough.”
“It will come off, you just need—” I cut off when his fingers grasped my chin and forced my head back to look at him.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you.” His blue eyes searched my face, an unreadable emotion crossing his own. “You have no idea how much I hate that I scared you enough that you can’t even look at me now.”
I wasn’t looking at him because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from touching him. “You didn’t scare me, Connor.”
A sad smirk tugged at his lips, and he took the box from me with his free hand. “I know what to do with this. Go to sleep. I’ll come by tomorrow morning to clean up the polish.”