Chapter 6 - Laurel
Ben was simply unbutterable. He was a brick wall, an immovable boulder. As I watched him storm upstairs, my anger turned to disappointment. In myself for pushing so hard, especially since I was having a nice time. I wanted him to kiss me, for God’s sake. It was all pretty confusing and the easiest emotion to handle at the moment was my pure, unbridled anger, so I got up and stomped out. I got down past the gate and was plunged into darkness about ten yards after I left the soft glow of the house light.
The clouds overhead blotted out the stars that normally would have been as bright as street lamps. Still, even without an injury, it would have been stupid to try to walk all the way down at night. Ben made me go stupid, and his stubborn inability to see reason kept me picking my way down the road. I hated getting caught out in a dumb mistake, but I knew I’d never make it down the mountain on foot and there was no way I was slinking back to ask Ben for a ride.
With the world’s sourest taste in my mouth, I called my friend Shakes, whose car I usually borrowed. It wasn’t an ideal situation at the best of times since he’d had a crush on me since high school and sometimes treated me a little too possessively, but he also did a lot to hype up my stunts on social media.
“What do you mean you had dinner with that guy?” I held the phone away from my ear as he hollered about my decision-making skills.
“I was trying to get him to change his mind about letting me do the jump,” I said. “Can you just come and get me, please?”
“I’m on my way, Laur.”
That meant he’d finish up whatever level he was on in his game and then leave, but I’d made myself a beggar so I couldn’t be choosy. I used my phone’s flashlight, thinking maybe I could have gotten down on my own, when the sky opened up on me. I was soaked through and shivering in seconds and ran to huddle under a tree, still getting lashed by the pouring rain. I’d had worse nights, but this one was up there.
Headlights came down the mountain and I groaned, my pride not quite wet and cold enough to want to face Ben. Maybe he wouldn’t see me. He stopped and honked and a second later his window rolled down.
“Get in the damn car before you drown, Laurel.”
I didn’t understand why he was so concerned with my health and safety, and despite it being kind of nice, it was also really inconvenient.
“Why are you so obsessed with keeping me alive?” I yelled over the crashing rain.
It was mostly a joke, but his face went from irritated to sad and he looked away from me. There were glimpses of a human behind that brick wall. I decided to cut him some slack because I didn’t want to get sick on top of having a sprained ankle, and I got in the car.
“Just don’t say anything,” I begged.
He rolled his eyes but kept quiet and when we got back in the house, he pointed upstairs. “Take a shower and toss your clothes out the door. I’ll put them in the dryer.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, wanting to resist with all the shivering fibers of my being. He ignored me while he stripped off his t-shirt, soaked from the few seconds it took to get from the car to the house. He looked great with his clothes on, but a full view of his muscular chest knocked me back a step. I didn’t know where to rest my eyes, on his well-defined pecs or the washboard stomach? I turned and fled up the stairs, chucking my clothes out like he’dsuggested, not demanded, and jumped in the shower to try and get my mind right.
Wow, he was hot. It was one thing to think he had a handsome face, but the chest was just unfair. I blasted myself with a quick jet of cold water, since that was supposed to help ease unwanted lust, then turned it up to full steaming hot and stood under the waterfall head until my shivering stopped. After a few minutes I felt like I could face him without reaching out and running my hands all over his amazing body. I got out, drying off and wrapping myself in the thick, luxurious robe hanging on one of the door hooks.
Three doors. What kind of bathroom had three doors? The love I had for this quirky old house waned a little. I’d hurried in here so fast and was so befuddled by that Adonis chest, I didn’t remember which door I’d entered. I knew one went into the hall, and the other two probably led to the bedrooms on either side. It probably wasn’t such an odd set up for such an old place. I tried the first door and found it locked from the other side and went to the next one, swinging it open.
“Oh, sorry!” I squeaked.
I should have slammed myself back in the bathroom, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Ben. He stood in the middle of his bedroom, stark naked and toweling himself dry. First, the chest again, as perfect as I remembered, then those shoulders, broad and rippling with muscle. Abs, yes, very, very nice, already seen those. My gaze kept traveling down.Don’t look, Laurel, have some dignity.But of course I looked.
Wow.Wow. Yes, I stared. My eyes shot upward when he cleared his throat and wrappedp his towel slowly around his waist, as if he was teasing me. He looked amused, not at all embarrassed, because why would he? Worst of all, he looked smug. No, worse than that, he deserved to look smug. Because, wow.
“Sorry,” I said again, fleeing back to the bathroom and out the last door which mercifully got me to the hallway.
I swallowed giggles the whole way downstairs. I wasn’t really sorry to get such a nice view, and he clearly hadn’t cared. I looked at my phone, praying Shakes would hurry because if Ben came back down, things would be too awkward. I was supposed to be mad at him, but unfortunately I was incapable of holding onto anger for long. My only hope was that he did something to piss me off again soon and not be nice to me when he came back down.Or, just please don’t come back down, I silently prayed.
Of course he did, wearing a pair of low slung black sweatpants that didn’t leave anything to the imagination, not that I needed to imagine. A gray t-shirt clung to his chest, a little damp at the back of his neck from his hair. He merely raised an eyebrow at me then looked at my feet dangling off the kitchen barstool.
“I’m sure there’s a first aid kit around somewhere. I’ll rewrap your ankle.”
I was stunned. Were we back in a truce? “It’s fine,” I said. The soggy bandage I’d left on during my quick shower felt cold and gross and he knew it based on the skeptical look he gave me. “It’s really okay.”
He shrugged and wandered to the living room. “Your clothes will be dry soon and I’ll take you back into town.”
Damn it, of all the times for him not to be bossy. I didn’t know why I was so disappointed that he wasn’t kneeling down by my feet again when I’d told him I was fine. That was an unreasonable way to feel. I needed to stop being unreasonable. More importantly, I needed to stop thinking about him naked. The best way to do that would be to keep him out of my sight.
So, what did I do instead of telling him I had a ride on the way and ignoring him? I followed him into the living room.
“Can we pretend we just met again?” I asked.