The Bet (The Bet #1)(53)

“Why?” her eyes widened.

“Um, just take my word for it, ‘kay?”

He lightly pushed her away, reached for the pill bottle, and tossed her a pink pill. The very same one that had sent him into dreamland for at least a half-hour.

She took the pill and grimaced as the water touched her lips.

“Shower.” He looked at his arms then at her lips.

She blushed.

“What? Suddenly turning into a prude on me?”

“No.” Kacey bit her lip and forced a piece of hair behind her ear. “It’s just that, well, the stuff I used, it has clove and some other things in it, and water just makes it worse. You have to use oil to get it off of your skin.

“Oil.” He repeated, mouth slightly ajar. “What type of oil?”

“Coconut oil.”

“Right.” He gulped and turned away, lifting his arm above his head to scratch his neck. “So we have to rub down with oil.”

She nodded.

“But I can’t actually…” He nodded in her direction, and she gave him a blank stare. He looked up at the ceiling. “I can’t actually touch you because then the oil and the numbing cream will get on you.”

She bit her lip and winked.

“So I can look but I can’t touch?” Why did he need to keep torturing himself? No matter how many ways he said it. No still meant no. He would have to watch her lather herself with oil while he stood there like an idiot, keeping his hands to himself.

“Maybe it would be best if we did this separately. You know… you go into one room and I go into the other.” His body jerked in opposition.

“Travis.” Kacey put her hands on her hips. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“I lost it along with my manhood the minute I fell asleep and began drooling.”

“C’mon, you can do it.”

“Oh, I know very well I can do it, thank you very much. I’m just unable to perform at this given moment in time. Believe me, my body has no problem understanding what I can and cannot do.”

Kacey’s eyes scanned him from head to toe, her eyes stopping exactly where a lady’s eyes should never linger. “I see.”

Yeah, anyone could see. She’d have to be blind not to see.

Blood began to pulse through his system into all the wrong places. Could a man die with want?

“We’ll go fast.” She placed her hand in his.

“Yes, because every man dreams of going fast when he’s in the presence of a beautiful woman as she slathers oil across her naked breasts and moans and…”

“Travis?”

“Yeah?” he said hoarsely.

“We aren’t making a porno, so there won’t be any moaning.”

“Hey, it’s my torture, and I’m imagining moaning. Let me dream.”

She lifted her hands up into the air as if giving up and marched ahead of him up the stairs.

He counted each stair as his foot hit, hoping and praying that somehow he would get through this without exploding or doing anything remotely embarrassing. His track record proved that the odds were not in his favor. Damn Hunger Games’ reference. He cursed and stomped up the last two stairs to the master suite shower. It was the biggest one in the house and had two shower heads and the rain effect that made you feel like you were, well, getting rained on.

He stepped into the bathroom and watched as Kacey grabbed a tub of coconut oil and rubbed it between her hands.

His fantasy was immediately crushed. “It’s all hard.”

“That’s what coconut oil is,” she said and winked. “It warms up when you rub it in your hands and turns into liquid.” She quickly demonstrated and then gave him a chunk of it. “I only have the numbing cream on part of my face, thanks to you, and on my arms — again thanks to you.”

“No problem,” he said through gritted teeth as he watched her apply the oil to her hands.

“Strip,” she commanded when he stood immobile, gawking like a teenager.

“Sorry, what?”

“Strip.” She nodded to his shirt. “Now.”

“But, it’s only on my arms and—”

“Travis, don’t be a baby. Just take off your clothes like a man so this woman can rub you down.”

Sweating. He was actually beginning to sweat at the thought of Kacey’s hands anywhere near his body. Nothing could be more embarrassing than being painfully aroused and unable to do anything about it, with the woman of his dreams patting him down with oil. Especially when knowing that she was the reason he was so turned on.

Cursing, he lifted his shirt and threw it to the ground. His pants quickly followed, and then he reached for his boxers…

“I-I…” Kacey’s mouth dropped open and she covered her eyes. “I just meant your shirt.”

Hell.

What was he supposed to say? Sorry, I was too distracted by your lush mouth to understand what you were saying? Sorry, other parts of my anatomy are clouding my decision-making skills?

So he said nothing; instead he grinned and held out his arms, knowing full well she had to get extremely close to put the oil on.

Her face flamed red as she stepped into his space and began very slowly rubbing oil up and down his arms. He closed his eyes as her hands took on a seductive rhythm. He had to fight to keep from leaning forward and taking her on his parents’ bathroom floor.