Page 71 of Fundamentals of Chemistry

“With you.”

“Yep.”

“You think this is a good idea?”

“Probably not,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow, and I soldiered on. “But we’re both adults, and I think we’re capable of keeping our personal and professional lives separate for a little longer. I mean, we already survived one night. And one morning. What’s one little shower?”

He turned back to his door, studying his hand on the knob as if it held the answers. “One little shower,” he repeated under his breath, before pulling his door closed and pocketing his key.

I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. I backed up against my door as he stepped across the hall, closing the distance between us.

He looked at me with intensity, his eyes darkening. Then he leaned forward and whispered into my ear. “You smell terrible.”

I laughed and threw my head back. It banged into my door. Hard.

“Shit! Mel, are you okay?” He grabbed either side of my face in both hands and looked into my eyes again, this time ostensibly to determine if I’d managed to give myself a concussion.

“I’m fine,” I insisted, still laughing. “Come in. You smell too.” Then I twisted the door handle and stepped back into my apartment, pulling him with me by a fistful of his tee shirt.

Chapter 22

Basic Math

Once we were inside and the door was closed, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to meet mine. His hands found my hips and pulled our bodies together, and I sighed, melting into the contact.

This man had butterflies going wild in my stomach. I only have one day to get him out of my system, I thought as I kissed him hungrily.

“You said something about a shower?” he asked.

“Yeah. Shoes off first,” I said.

He chuckled. “Bossy.”

“Don’t forget it.” I tapped a finger on his chest, and his grin spread into that crooked smile. He could end wars with that smile.

We toed our shoes off by the door, then Jack stepped into my space and kissed me again. He tasted salty and hot with a hint of coffee, and I hummed as he deepened the kiss. We broke apart so he could peel off my pullover, leaving me in my sports bra and compression shorts.

The sweat was starting to cool on my body, and I shivered as the air hit my bare skin.

“Let’s get you into the shower.” His breath was hot against my neck, and I shivered again for a totally different reason.

Drawing him by the hand, I led him to my bathroom. He watched as I turned on the water, setting it to a scalding temperature, and the little room began to fill with steam.

When I turned back to him, he had taken off his shirt. I bit my lip as I regarded the defined muscles of his chest and abs glistening with sweat. It was truly unfair for a single human to be that beautiful.

“I told you not to do that.”

“Do what?” I teased.

He stepped forward and grabbed my chin, tilting my head back so he could look directly at me. He brushed his thumb across my lip, freeing it from my teeth. “This does things to me,” he said, brushing his lips across the corner of my mouth.

“You do things to me,” I countered as his lips slid across the other corner of my mouth.

I peeled off the rest of my clothes and stepped back into the shower. His eyes became molten when the hot spray hit me, wetting my long hair and streaming down my naked curves.

A moment later he was naked too, and standing next to me under the water. He reached around me for a bottle of shampoo, and after squirting a generous dollop in his palm, began working it into my hair.