He didn’t say it out loud, but the phrase ‘oh shit’ streamed across his expression. His eyes went wide with surprise, followed by panic, before finally landing on embarrassment.
His hand dropped from his crotch as he turned to face me, and his shoulders straightened awkwardly. When he’d caught me, I’d run away, but there was nowhere to escape for him. Instead, he lifted his chin, puffed out his chest, and set his hands on his waist.
He filled his voice with suspicion. “How long have you been standing there?”
There was no way I could answer. I had to lick my parched lips to keep from dying.
And it was unstoppable the way my gaze drifted slowly across his body, taking in the bead of sweat that coasted down his neck and disappeared beneath his shirt. My focus slipped all the way down until it traced the thick line of his cock trying to jut away from his body, trapped beneath fabric.
I swallowed hard as my gaze worked back up to meet his and found him guarded. He was trying so hard to appear unaffected. To contain whatever it was he was thinking.
He said it like it wasn’t his fault. “You were topless.”
I blinked, and as his meaning hit me, I jolted so hard it was a miracle I didn’t crack the screen of the phone in my hand. I whispered it with disbelief. “You’re saying,” I glanced at his erection, “I caused that?”
His guilty gaze darted away to stare at the hooks once more, and his lips mashed together.
I hated that I’d accidentally caused him shame, especially when the truth was his words had set me on fucking fire. I hadn’t been able to arouse a man in years, so to do that now, and one as young and hot as this guy? It stole my breath.
My voice was uneven. “You liked what you saw?”
His focus shifted back, and he stared at me like I’d just announced I loved the musical stylings of Smashmouth.
“Yeah.” Troy blinked, considering his words. He shrugged, giving into what he really wanted to say. “I always thought you were hot, but you’re a smoke show now, Ms. Graham.”
My heart stumbled over itself as my brain tried to process the words.
He drew in a breath and lifted a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “I’m sorry about walking in on you and what you just saw. Can we, like, forget that happened?”
There was desperation in his eyes, but I wasn’t in control anymore. Someone else took charge and spoke in my voice. “Show me,” I pleaded. “I want to see it.”
He went utterly still. “What?”
Blood rushed loudly in my ears, drowning out the panic at what I was suggesting. “You saw me,” I offered. “I . . . want to see you.”
As soon as the words were spoken, the sauna-like room became a furnace.
Oh, my God. What had I just asked for? Anxiety was a drug weaving through my system, making me vibrate, and it worsened as Troy stared at me with doubt clouding his eyes. The air around us was so still, yet tension crackled in it like invisible lightning. We were closed off in this small, oppressive room, which smelled faintly of sawdust and chlorine, and I was so far outside of myself we could have been on a distant planet.
His voice was rich, but unsure. Like I’d made an offer too good to be believed. “You want to see me?”
I bit down on my lip and nodded slowly.
The corner of his mouth lifted in a hesitant smile, and he delivered a look that said we shouldn’t but also let’s do it anyway. It was playful and reckless. A deadly combination.
He pulled the sunglasses off his head and set them on the unfinished stairs before grasping the hem of his t-shirt and stretching it up over his head.
Because it was a million degrees in here.
And maybe because he wanted to show off.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered.
His impish smile spread to a full grin as he dropped the t-shirt to the floor. The shorts were slung low on his hips, flaunting the sexy V shape flanking his abs, and above there was his flat, beautifully toned chest. He had a body like Zac Efron’s during the height of his man-candy roles, and his golden tanned skin made my knees go weak.
I wasn’t thinking about how he was Jenna’s son, or that when I’d met him for the first time, it was during his high school graduation party. All those thoughts were wiped clean by the muscles rippling across his torso, and the way his hands went to the ties knotted at the top of his shorts.
My heart threatened to beat out of my chest with nervous excitement, and I suspected it was the same for him. Troy seemed to struggle to catch his breath as his fingers worked the strings loose.