“Here, look, I can’t get the thing up.” She said, bending over to fiddle with the knob that switched it from shower to tub.
Once again, giving me a clear view of smooth, silky looking skin that tempted my gaze to wander, and making my fingers and hands itch to touch and caress . . .
“Jesus, April. Just move.” I pushed past her, trying my best to not make contact or look at anything else.
I squeezed through, and reached into the shower. With one easy push the knob pulled up, and the water came pouring out.
“Seriously?” I shot her an incredulous look. “That wasn’t even stuck.”
“Oh, sorry, I couldn’t get it,” she said, not sounding contrite at all. “Thanks for your help, though.” She started to drop the towel and I hightailed it out of there, slamming the door behind my hasty exit.
What in the hell had gotten into her?
Rubbing a hand along the tension gathering at the back of my neck, I returned to my room, trying desperately to erase those sexy images of April from my head. When reading didn’t work, I did pushups until my arms shook, and then tried to recite random car stats in my head. I went through the specs on at least eight of our models before I felt like myself again.
If we were going to survive this week without crossing some major lines, she couldn’t pull that shit again.
I successfully hid away for almost two hours, and everything was mercifully quiet. But eventually I got thirsty. I put it off for a while, but then I got annoyed. We were already trapped in the cabin; I wasn’t going to let April trap me in this room too.
Hoping that she was done with whatever she had been trying to do earlier, I opened my door and silently headed to the kitchen.
Automatically, I glanced into to the living room, and did a double take. April was sprawled across the couch, wearing the tiniest excuse for pajamas that I’d ever seen. I wasn’t even sure that the bottoms weren’t just underwear, they were that short. And the top was practically made of gauze. And see through. I’d seen Victoria’s Secrets models wear more clothing. It was just ridiculous. Especially since, even with the furnace back on, it certainly wasn’t hot enough for her to be dressed like that—and the hard nipples poking against the fabric proved my case.
With that one look in her direction, all my previous work to keep my lust shoved into the far recesses of my mind had gone down the drain. I would have to take my own shower. An ice cold one.
I was starting to get a really bad feeling about what was going on. April was being overly nice, suddenly hanging around the shared living spaces, running around half dressed. Those weren’t accidents. Maybe one could have been, but not all of them. Her actions were intentional, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was trying to get me to crack under the pressure and cave to her attempts at seduction.
I was flattered that she was going to such lengths, but I wasn’t about to rise to the bait. Absolutely not. Her brother would kill me if I touched April, and it would make our already strained relationship even worse. Not to mention opening a door that I absolutely didn’t want to step through. I’d have to be the stronger person, and keep us from making a mistake that we couldn’t come back from.
I shook my head and kept walking into the kitchen, where I’d initially been going. I chugged two full glasses of water, wishing that we had something stronger, like whiskey or tequila. Then again, maybe not.
“Hey, I’m bored as hell. Want to do something? Maybe watch a movie?” April asked, as I walked by the second time.
“No thanks. I’m just going to read.” Alone, in my room, away from April and her many temptations.
“Oh, come on. We have three more days of this. Are you going to read the entire time?” she complained. “It’s called cabin fever for a reason. We should do our best to entertain each other.”
I made the foolish mistake of glancing back at her. Aside from her completely inappropriate and skimpy attire, she looked like the picture of innocence, and I wasn’t buying her act for one second.
I knew exactly what her version of entertainment would be. She was relentless. And I was getting the feeling that she wasn’t going to let this go anytime soon. I could be mature and direct with her, but I was getting flashbacks of that awful summer. I couldn’t do it again. Even if I let April down in the gentlest way possible, it would hurt her, and make these next few days together unbearable.
Plus, the tiny voice in my head that said that maybe I didn’t want to completely close that door wouldn’t shut the fuck up.
I debated. I could hang out with her, but keep things PG while doing so. Regardless of what she was doing right now, she wasn’t that kind of sexually aggressive woman. She’d always been the quintessential good girl. She would likely flirt, even suggest, but I was pretty sure she wouldn’t outright make a move. I would have to do that.
Which I wouldn’t.
I decided it was aboutmanagingthe situation. Controlling it. So nothing could or would happen between us.
But as far as hanging out, watching a movie sounded terrible. First of all, most of our options were twenty year old DVDs, and even if there was a good one in there, I wouldn’t be able to relax. She would probably turn off the lights and cuddle up next to me. We needed something more active and less sexy.
I scanned the room, looking for ideas, when I saw the stack of dusty board games on the shelf in the living room. Perfect.
“How about a game? Scrabble, maybe?” I offered amicably.
I could sit on the other side of the table, out of her reach, and hopefully the game would be so boring that she would give up and go to bed.
CHAPTER SEVEN