“Actually, I prefer not to think about your balls. Thanks. I’m going to go start on that cake.”
“I’ll get my anti-venom ready.”
“What are you going to brew it out of? Bathtub and toilet water?”
“Sounds as good as anything.”
Alix rolled her eyes. She indicated a fuzzy pink towel on the rack that she’d probably set there just for him. “There’s your towel. Have a good bath. Try not to drown again.”
“My head still remembers how bad it felt last time. Head and lungs. Thank you very much.”
Alix retreated out of the bathroom and slammed the door just a little harder than she needed to. Good. Her attitude was back. He’d missed it. He’d missed teasing her. He’d missed everything about the old cute bear, if he was honest. He just didn’t realize that he had until he came up for air after his mom’s appointment. The old Alix was a pain in the ass, big time, but she was also vivacious and funny, a bright light shining in a dark sky and no one could hold a candle to her. The new Alix was all of that and more, but she was too serious. Too hard. He didn’t want her to be that way all the time. It felt like finally, finally, they could all just take a breath.
Ross shed his clothes into a heap on the floor. He didn’t bother setting them aside neatly for later. He’d go to Chance’s room. The guy was just about his size and pillage his messy dresser and closet for something clean to wear. Those clothes reeked of the hospital and he didn’t want a reminder at the moment, of anything clinical, stark, bleached, or medicated.
He jumped into the tub without thinking. All at once. Plunged himself right in.
And came up screaming.
He’d forgotten that Alix was like the ninety-nine percent of women out there and was cold blooded. She was always cold, even on a warm day. Wearing sweaters, complaining about the pool’s temperature, asking for an extra blanket for her bed at night when it was sweltering in the middle of June.
The door banged open and Alix rushed in, horror and alarm twisting her beautiful face. She scanned the area like there was a group of ninjas hiding behind the door waiting to fuck them up.
“What?” she gasped. “What is it? I heard a scream. It sounded like you’d done just what you said you wouldn’t and cracked your stupid thick head open again.”
“You made it so fucking hot you’d boil a person to death! What do you think I am? A lobster?”
Her eyes widened when she took in his naked form. She did a full sweep, from head to toe. “That’s ridiculous,” she muttered, clearly flustered. She dropped her eyes back down to the marble floor tile. “It wasn’t hot at all. I tested it.”
She was standing only a few feet away. Close enough to grab. He didn’t know what he was thinking, except that he wanted her to test that water alright, with more than just the tip of her little finger. He grabbed for her and she wasn’t fast enough to get away. A second piercing scream rent the air as he tugged her, fully clothed, into the tub with him.
Water splashed everywhere. Over the edge. Over the floor. Onto the damn vanity a good fifteen feet away. Alix’s shrieks would have brought the cops, if they were anywhere near a station. He was half amazed that the neighbors weren’t bursting into the bathroom, pitchforks and axes at the ready to defend her.
She came up spluttering, punching and lashing out, swatting him away with one hand while she tried to wipe the water out of her eyes with the other.
“What is wrong with you?!” The high-pitched wail could have split his eardrums.
Fortunately for him, he’d grown up hearing a lot of it from her and he was pretty much immune. Her hand connected with his chest, shoving him back, but he didn’t budge, and her palm sat there, splayed out against his left pec.
She seemed to realize that at the same time he did. Her eyes widened even more, and those amber orbs were burning with a feral intensity he’d never seen before. He knew he pretty much had one shot at this. It might be his last shot. He wasn’t going to waste it, so he cupped her flushed, flawless, porcelain cheeks between his rougher palms and brought her close. Close enough that her heaving breaths blasted all over his face. Close enough that his breath danced all over hers.
She didn’t pull away.
So, he didn’t either.
He pulled her closer. So that they were chest to chest, kneeling together, legs to legs. His cock hadn’t quite recovered from the scalding yet, so it was behaving- for the moment. At least it wasn’t trying to dig a hole into her stomach or drill through her jeans.