“That’s not fair.”
“Too bad. Happy bathing.”
She walked out and shut the door behind her. She leaned against the wall, her heart pounding in her chest, imagining the slick warm water flowing over his beautiful body. Panting, she left the room.
Ten minutes later, she ran back in, terrified that he might pass out and drown. What had she been thinking, leaving him alone? He was nearly incapacitated.
“Thank God,” she said, when she saw him lounging in the tub, unharmed. But his hair wasn’t wet. Now she was pissed. “You were supposed to wash your hair.”
“I want you to do it.”
“Sorry. No dice.”
“Please? I’ll stop asking for kisses if you wash my hair.”
“You will?”
“No.” He chuckled. “But it was worth a try.”
“Get cracking. Now.”
His lazy smile spread across his face. “No shampoo.”
“What? Oh crap.” Annie grabbed a bottle of shampoo out of the shower stall and returned to the tub and handed it to him.
Within seconds, he had grabbed her wrist and into the tub she tumbled, fully clothed. She sputtered as water sloshed over the sides of the tub. “Damn you! Now look what you did.”
“Now you have to wash my hair.”
“I don’t have to do anything but stay Italian and die, Cowboy.” She struggled against his hold. “Let me go!”
“Kiss me.”
“No, damn it, let me go!”
For a drunk, his grip on her was like a vise. The more she struggled, the wetter she became, until he eventually turned and pinned her against the side of the tub. She opened her mouth to protest and he clamped onto her, thrusting his tongue between her lips.
The kiss was exquisite torture. She pushed at him at first, but his slick naked body slid under her touch. He, however, fisted his hands in the wet fabric of her blouse and held on for dear life. After several minutes of unsuccessful grappling, she surrendered and sighed into his mouth.
His groans fueled her passion, and she pressed her soggy clothed body to his. When they broke to breathe, he nibbled across her lower lip.
“I want you so much,” he said.
“Mmm,” was her reply.
“Take off your clothes. Please. Make love with me.” His smoky whisper was threaded with desire.
“You’re killing me, Dallas. This isn’t fair.”
“You want me. I can feel it.”
“I want you. I won’t deny it. I can’t. But as soon as you sober up you’ll ditch me again. So the answer is no.” She pushed him away, successful this time, and scrambled out of the tub. She threw him the bottle of shampoo. “When I come back in here, I expect that hair to be clean, along with the rest of you.”
Sopping, she left the bathroom, making a mental note to wipe up the floor before he got out of the tub. In his condition, he’d likely slip and harm himself. She rolled her eyes, berating herself for giving a damn. She’d dry the freaking floor for him. Despite everything, she couldn’t bear the thought of him hurting himself.
Back in the bedroom, she stripped off her drenched clothes and pawed through his dresser for something to wear. She found a pair of striped cotton pajamas that looked brand new. She dried herself off and put the garments on. They hung on her, but the pants had a drawstring that she tightened around her waist. She cuffed them to her ankles and looked in the mirror. She laughed to herself, more at the sheer absurdity of her present situation, rather than out of humor. She certainly wouldn’t win any fashion contests, but it would do. She picked up her wet clothes and went in search of the dryer.
Traipsing through Dallas’s huge house, she finally found the laundry room hidden in a corner of the first floor. Like everything else in the sprawling ranch house, it was oversized, about the size of Annie’s living room in her tiny apartment above the clinic. She started her clothes on the gentle cycle, and then went to the kitchen and poured a large mug of coffee for Dallas. She padded barefoot back up the stairs to the bedroom and placed the coffee on Dallas’s night table. Sighing, she went into the bathroom to check on him. His hair was wet, though whether it was from a shampoo or their earlier grappling session, she wasn’t sure. At any rate, she was done fighting with him, and the water was losing its heat, so she decided it was time to get him to bed.