Her vocals halted as I stepped back inside the bathroom, even though I wished that it hadn’t. I reached around her to twist the knob on the sink, my arm brushed against hers, and I heard her sharp intake of air. My hand jerked against the knob and the noise of the air clearing out of the pipes startled us both. Addison’s hand reached up and grabbed my bicep at the same time I reached over to grab her leg.
Something passed between us as we touched and I couldn’t quite figure out what to call it. It was just. . .different. Something I hadn’t felt before.
I pulled my hand back at the same time as she removed her fingers. The spot her hand had been felt empty as she drew away.
“Sorry,” we said in unison, both of us chuckling at the awkwardness.
“Okay, where can I find the first aid kit?” I asked her after I finished washing my hands. Silently Addison kicked her heel against the lower cabinet and I bent down to find the white plastic container with the red cross on the front tucked inside.
I couldn’t make eye contact with her as I opened the container and started pulling out the things I needed. Hydrogen peroxide. Antibiotic ointment. Band-aids. Actually, I wasn’t sure how extensive her injuries were.
Turning my gaze toward her legs, I noticed that her fitted jeans were ripped to shreds and that her shins were covered in blood.
“Shit,” I murmured, reaching out to hold her right leg in my hand.
“It’s not that bad.”
“Not that bad? Addison, these are covered in dirt and will get infected if we don’t get these cleaned.”
She promptly rolled her eyes as I lifted mine to gaze at her. Damn, even though she had taken a tumble in the woods, she was still beautiful. She had the looks of her mother but the coloring of her father. Big brown eyes and dark brown hair.
Forcing my eyes back to her legs, I tried to figure out if it was possible to roll up her pants to treat her wounds and look at the ankle she had been limping on, but I could only come up with one option.
“Um. . .I. . .I need you to take off your pants.”
Addison jerked her leg free from my hands. “What?”
“The bottoms are too tight to roll up for me to access your lower legs.”
Our eyes locked and I could see that Addison was weighing her decision. She cautiously jumped down from the counter and I had to step back; my shoulder collided with the edge of the glass shower wall. Instinctively I glanced over my shoulder to glare at the corner I’d smacked into. By the time I turned back around, Addison had freed one of her legs from her pants and was quickly doing the same to the other. She had to rest her hip against the vanity as she gingerly put her weight on her hurt ankle.
“What are you doing?” I asked her in alarm, the sight of Addison in a cropped T-shirt and black and white polka-dot panties causing my skin to prickle in awareness.
“Taking off my pants, just like you asked,” she said casually as she hopped back on the counter.
I had to cough to clear my throat when I got choked up at the sight of her barely dressed. “Aren’t you going to put on some shorts or something?” To my own ears, I sounded like a teenage boy.
She huffed out a single laugh. “Asher, I’m wearing more right now than I do at the beach and you’ve seen me in a bikini.”
Oh, God. Images of her in a bikini came to mind. Addison had just turned twenty-one and her parents rented out a yacht for her and her college friend. Of course, all of us were there to celebrate because that’s what you did for your best friend’s daughter.
The thin strips of material had been a bright, fluorescent lime green and barely covered her body. The color set of the sun-kissed glow of her tan. I remember staring at her perched on the nose of the boat as I sat in the captain’s chair. She had been beautiful then and I recalled it being the first time I noticed Addison as a woman. She had entranced me on that trip and I made sure to stay as far away from her as possible until this very moment.
“Yes, but. . .uh. . .this is different. You’re in your. . .” The word escaped me as I gulped. “Panties.”
“My God, Asher. You’re no saint. I’m sure you’ve seen a naked woman before.” Addison reached over and grabbed a small hand towel beside the sink and draped it over her lap. I immediately regretted my argument. “I don’t know what the big deal is.”
Something powerful came over me. It festered deep in my gut and spread out through every nerve in my body like a virus.
I leaned in toward her, Addison’s floral scent from earlier now mixed with something headier, and it filled my senses.
My nose brushed against the lobe of her ear as I whispered, “Because no one should be seeing you like this.”
I pulled back just enough to watch her pink tongue peek out and lick her plump lips.
“Does that include you?”
“Especially me,” I replied as I returned to my full height, my eyes dropping down to her legs. She had a small smattering of freckles on her upper right thigh that formed an almost perfect heart. I had to control my desire to bend over and lick those little brown dots.