Exposed to You by Beth Kery Read Free Book Online

he assured her, wringing his soaked hat out in the sink. He took one of the towels and started to wipe off. “I’ll be fine. You get into something dry. Get in the shower. You’re shivering,” he said, gesturing toward the tub while he rubbed the towel over his wet head. “I’ll go to the kitchen and drip on the tile there.”
    She laughed, and he paused in his toweling motions. She really did shine brightly in his eyes.
    “No, I’ll find something for you. That was some downpour. We’re both soaked. Hold on.”
    She disappeared down the hallway. He continued to dry himself off, feeling the cotton chafe against his oversensitive skin. He glanced around her tidy bathroom. The fragrance from Joy’s earlier shower still hovered in the air, teasing his nose.
    “What about this? I think it’s the best I can do,” she said apologetically from behind him a moment later. She held up a dark blue bathrobe. “It was large on me, so I never wore it. It’ll be small on you, but it’ll . . . cover you up.”
    “Sure. It’s great, thanks.”
    She seemed relieved that he hadn’t turned down her offering. “Feel free to jump in the shower, if you need to.”
    “You should get in the shower. You’re freezing,” he said quietly, noticing the pebbled skin on her upper arms.
    She shook her head and took a step back, but lingered in the doorway. “I’m fine. I’ll just go dry off and change.”
    He supposed you would call her eyes hazel. He didn’t know what else to call them. They were singular. A cobalt blue ring enclosed brown, blue-green and amber shards of color. Similar to when he’d looked down at her while she gave him the tattoo, he saw a mixture of desire and wariness in her eyes.
    “Sorry to be such a pain. All because I couldn’t be a little more patient at the idea of finally being able to talk to you.”
    “Talk about a buildup. I haven’t got much interesting to say, Everett. I’m bound to disappoint you,” she said, donning a rueful smile.
    He chuckled. “I’m very easy to please.”
    She gave him a half-incredulous, half-amused glance. “Everett Hughes—easy to please?”
    “When it comes to you, it’ll be easy as breathing.”
    A delicate pink color spread in her cheeks. He watched the puffy flesh of her lips part. A vivid image popped into his mind’s eye—unwanted, but uncontrollable—of arrowing his cock between her lips while she was restrained and her cheeks were flushed with desire. A tingling sensation flickered across his cock and segued into an ache. He blinked and glanced away.
    “The washer and dryer are in there,” she said, pointing to a double folded door a few feet down the hallway. “Go ahead and put your clothes in to dry them off. I’ll meet you out there in a minute,” she said, waving vaguely to the living area.
    He nodded and closed the door. He accepted her offer and took a minute-long shower, waiting for his unwanted erection to dissipate. How was it that Joy Hightower managed to remind him of a living, sacred poem and raw, elemental sex all at once?
    So much for the existential not being sexy.

Three
    She changed into a cotton, floral print summer dress that was pretty without being overtly sexy. Joy didn’t want to send the wrong impression, although she was so confused about Everett being in her apartment, she wasn’t precisely sure what impression she
wanted
to give.
    She passed the hall bathroom quickly. The sound of the shower curtain being whipped back struck her pitched ears. She came to an abrupt halt.
    She couldn’t believe Everett Hughes was standing in her bathtub at this very moment, stark naked. The graphic memory of holding his heavy, shapely penis in her hand exploded into her mind’s eye.
    Had it really happened? It seemed so unlikely and strange . . . so compelling.
    She entered her kitchen and filled the tea kettle. A moment later she heard the bathroom door open over the sound of her heart beating loudly in her ears.
    “Would you