Vain (The Seven Deadly, #1)(48)

“I suppose that seems a bit lucky.”

“Thank you,” I told him quietly.

“At first I did it because I didn’t want to hear you complain.”

I approached him and blocked him into the stall. “And now?”

He swallowed but looked me dead in the eye. “Because I want to.” The intimacy of his stare shocked me silent, my mouth gaped. “I’ll be right back,” he told me.

I stepped aside, against the edge of the wood stall, to make room for him but his massive body still slowly grazed mine, stealing my breath away. I locked myself in and undressed, tossing my clothing over the side and setting my bucket on the stone beneath my feet.

I turned on the water and immediately began rinsing off my face. The water was cool but not cold. I welcomed it as I could feel the dirt leaving my body. It trailed down my legs and pooled near the drain in an orange haze. I closed my eyes and let the water rinse away the night. I turned my face from the stream and began to wet my hair. When I opened my eyes, Ian was in the stall across from mine astonishing me yet again for the umpteenth time that evening.

He was staring at me, the water slicing down his head and down his shoulders. The stalls were too high to expose anything more. He could only see my face and top of my head but just knowing we were both naked and within ten feet of one another was enough to make me flush from head to toe. He was breathtaking. Breathtakingly sexy. Breathtakingly beautiful. Breathtakingly real. Just breathtaking.

“Hi,” I choked out.

“Hi,” he said, flirtatiously smiling.

I couldn’t look at him anymore, so I bent to grab my shampoo. After pouring a handful, I stood and purposely avoided his eyes, though the heat of his gaze was enough to make the water boil. I worked the soap through my hair from root to tip twice before almost losing it or worse, giggling uncontrollably. I ducked under the running water to rinse and caught his stare again.

I smiled the largest smile I owned because I just couldn’t help it anymore.

“I’d give anything to wash your hair for you,” he said suddenly, rocking me to my core and wiping that silly grin right off my face.

“I’d give anything for you to do just that,” I told him candidly. This time he smiled and grabbed his own shampoo bottle.

He shampooed his hair and I bit my bottom lip to keep from saying something stupid like, “Let me help you” or “Let’s conserve some of this water we’re wasting.” I blushed once more and he noticed.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said, turning to my bucket and grabbing my face soap.

I scrubbed my face much more thoroughly than I suppose was necessary, but I just couldn’t look at him anymore. He was torturing me just by existing. I rinsed the soap from my face and grabbed my conditioner, applying a generous amount and letting it set in my hair while I used the loofah on the rest of my body. My smile just kept getting bigger and bigger and embarrassingly bigger. I tried to avoid looking at him but his laughing did nothing to help matters much.

Finally, when I’d rinsed every last drop of soap from my body, I stood underneath the shower and began to rinse the conditioner. I looked his direction and it was obvious he was done but he was sticking around for the free show.

“Still here?” I asked.

“If the situation were reversed?” he countered.

I closed my eyes. “I’d still be here,” I told him, smiling again.

When I opened my eyes again, he’d rested his forearms on the top of the edge of the stall, the water still cascading down his incredible skin. We kept up eye contact until the conditioner was long gone, no trace of it whatsoever anymore, but I continued longer than I should because it was Ian Aberdeen and his royal hotness was just as enthralled with me as I was with him. Eventually, I turned the water off and he followed my lead. I began to towel dry my hair and he wrapped his around his waist. I slipped on my robe and flip-flops.

We both stood there waiting for the other to get out. Neither of us wanting the incredibly frustrating but totally exhilarating past few minutes to end. Finally, Ian made a move, unlocking his stall door. I followed his lead and met him in the center of the stone walkway between our stalls.

“Hi,” he said, peering down at me.

“We’ve done that.”

“We have?” he asked, distracted.

“Yes,” I said, my eyes riveted by his lips.

He breathed heavily out his nose. “I’ll walk you to your side of the hut now.”

“’Kay.”

“I’m going to escort you.” He paused, staring at my face. “Any second now.” Another pregnant pause as his eyes guided down my neck. “Just as soon as I can uproot my feet from this stone, I’m going to walk with you.” He smiled taking in my face again.

I fought a smile of my own when he grabbed the lantern hanging on the hook above us, his broad chest expanding right in front of my face. We stood still for a minute.

“Come on,” I told him, walking away first.

He quickly caught up with me and held the lantern ahead of us. We didn’t say a word on the short hike to our hut. We didn’t even glance each other’s direction. I walked right to my side and went inside, turning to say goodnight but he’d already gone into his side, leaving me disappointed and just a teeny bit pissed.