Crap. I looked.
He was grinning at me as he brushed his teeth, my face crimson thanks to what I’d glanced at.
“See anything you like?”
My body was still buzzing from what I’d seen that I liked. I kind of hated him for calling me out on it though. I kind of even hated him for having so much to like.
“I know what you’re doing.” My eyebrow rounded as I got to work brushing my teeth too.
He spit in the sink, somehow winding up closer to me when he leaned back up. “Air drying?”
My eyes narrowed in the mirror at him. “Trying to change my mind.”
He stared back, brushing his teeth in all of his naked glory, a cocky tenor to his expression. Once he finished brushing, he rinsed his toothbrush and turned toward the door.
“I don’t need to change your mind,” he said, pausing when he was directly behind me.
When he turned, I swore I could feel his arms coming around me, pulling me into the shelter of his strong body. An involuntary shudder spilled down my back. He didn’t miss that either.
“I just need you to speak it instead of lying about it.” His eyes dropped to the back of my neck, where I knew he could see the raised flesh. I knew, because one side of his mouth lifted.
Bracing my hands on the sink, I didn’t blink as I locked eyes with him in the mirror. “It takes a lot more than washboard abs and a giant . . .” Crap. Something else. “Ego to get my attention.”
Soren leaned forward, his hands framing around the outsides of mine, his arms running the length of mine. His chest didn’t touch my back, but I could feel its expanse hovering above it. “I’ve already gotten your attention.” His eyes dropped from mine to my chest. Where it was rising and falling noticeably hard, my nipples pushing through my camisole. “I’m looking for something else.”
Another shudder, this one spilling down my legs. “What?”
His crooked smile changed into a cryptic one before he leaned back and opened the door. “You’ll see.”
“Soren—”
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell you when you give it to me.”
My fist curled around my toothbrush as I turned toward him. “I’m not giving you anything.”
“You’re giving me something right now.” He didn’t glance back before leaving the bathroom. Did he really need to have that nice of an ass when he already had a glorious package? I was screwed. “This point goes to Decker.”
Push-ups in his underwear the next morning. Practically right outside of my divider, so I had to lunge over him to head to the bathroom. Later that night, I came home to find him shirtless in those low-slung sweats, going between studying and knocking out pull-ups on the bar he’d screwed into the wall.
Later that week, there were a couple more instances of him emerging from the shower naked and walking around the apartment like we were in some nudist colony, and there was no end to the countless episodes of him brushing by me closer than necessary or reaching over me to grab the ketchup or reaching around me to get a spoon. He wasn’t easing up, no matter how many days went by. In fact, he only seemed to be getting more persistent.
“Hayden?” A knock came outside the bathroom door. “I need to shower before work real quick.”
I accidently squeezed too much shampoo from the bottle when I heard him. It was early evening, and Soren always went straight from practice to the pub when he had a shift. I hadn’t been expecting him back until later tonight, when I’d conveniently be asleep. “Why didn’t you shower after practice like you always do?”
I’d just climbed into the shower and was sudsing shampoo into my hair. I wasn’t just going to hop out because he was in a hurry and had totally changed his schedule on me.
“I didn’t have enough time,” he answered.
“You didn’t have enough time? Soren, that makes no sense at all. You had time to come back here to take a shower instead?”
“I had to grab a change of clothes.”
“What happened to the ones you were wearing before practice?”
“They got dirty.” His voice wasn’t coming through the filter of the door anymore.
“Soren, what are you doing? Get out.” I stuck my head out from behind the curtain to find him sliding past the door. “Why are you wearing swim trunks?”
He held out something familiar. “Here. Put this on.”
“Why do I want to put my swimsuit on when I’m in the shower?” Shampoo suds were starting to run down my forehead. I needed to rinse it out before it got in my eyes.
“Because I didn’t think you’d want to be naked with me in the shower. That’s why I put on my swimwear too.” He pinched at his swim trunks, moving closer.
My eyes rounded when I realized what he was proposing. “You are not hopping in the shower with me.”
“Yeah, actually, I am. If I’m not out of here in ten minutes, I’m going to be late, and being late at the pub is like asking to be fired. I need the money, so put on the suit or don’t.” He waved the bikini my direction. “Thirty seconds before I’m climbing in.”
“Soren, I was here first. This is insane. This isn’t a community shower.”
“Actually, it is. The bathroom is a community space, a shared one.” He started counting seconds off on his fingers. “If you ever need to shower when I’m in there, go for it. I won’t mind.”
Ripping my suit from his hands, I ducked back into the curtain. “I’m sure you wouldn’t,” I grumbled, sliding into the bottoms first.
“And five . . . four . . .”
“So help me, god, Soren . . .” My arms twisted behind my back, madly working to tie the top together.
“Three, two, one,” he said in one breath, shoving into the shower right after.
I was still working on getting my top tied and adjusted.
“Need a hand?”
“A compacted one aimed at your face would be a good start,” I said, glowering at him.
His eyes lifted as he reached for the ties I’d been working to secure. “May I? I’m going to have to actually touch you to complete the task though.”
“Fine. Like I care if you touch me.”
“You’ve been going out of your way this week to avoid it, haven’t you?” As his fingers tied the back of my top, they only brushed my skin a few times, but each instance made my lungs malfunction.
I’d been hoping that I’d become immune to his touch if I went long enough without feeling it. Of course, the total opposite was true.
Once he’d finished tying, I made sure everything up front was covered before turning around so I could rinse the shampoo from my hair. I didn’t close my eyes as I did though, knowing this shared shower wasn’t thanks to happenstance.
He swallowed as he watched me rinse my hair, but his gaze stayed north of my neck. He had better willpower than I did, I realized with chagrin. As much as I hated it, every time he’d swagger by shirtless or something-less, I couldn’t not gawk at what was on display.