She checks her phone. “Paul’s still in Spokane. Whew.”
“Still in the hotel?”
“For now.”
“You said the quilts were supposed to be hung today.”
“That was the original plan. The show starts Thursday. I have a little grace period, but not much.”
If we overtake Paul immediately, we’ll be fine. If he leads us on a longer chase…
I don’t let my mind go there. “I’m going to search for alternate rental options,” I say.
She nods. “I’ll shower.”
I find a car pretty quickly on my phone—it looks like it would be about a twenty-minute ride to the rental car place, and it’s in the right direction. Worst case we might be able to pay Joe or one of his buddies to drop us off.
But when I try to book the car, the site freezes.
I grab my laptop out of my messenger bag, which is leaning against the wall not far from the bathroom. There’s a gap under the bathroom door, and the steam from Eden’s shower, scented with strawberry from the shampoo and conditioner Joe’s aunt provided, wafts to my nose.
Funny, it didn’t smell nearly this good when I was the one washing in it. Something about the fact that I know Eden is running her fingers through her hair as fragrant lather spills over her naked body?—
Rhys Hott, get your mind out of her shower.
It doesn’t help that last night, when I went to shower, I accidentally dislodged a hand towel, which fell to the bathroom floor, revealing Eden’s lacy pale blue thong. I quickly picked up the towel and replaced it, but the sight of those flimsy panties would not leave my mind. Plus, the presence of them in the bathroom meant that they weren’t on her body. Which meant that she had nothing on under her sweatpants.
Fuck. Me.
Thankfully, the shower shuts off right then.
I open my laptop and try once more to book the local car, but the site freezes again.
I call the rental car company and get told I have a one-hour-and-twenty-seven-minute wait for customer service.
“Any luck?” Eden asks.
I turn and see her, standing in the door of the bathroom. She’s wrapped in one of the room towels, another one twisted around her hair. Her skin glows a soft pink from the heat of the shower, dewy and fresh, and my eyes linger on the upper slope of her pretty tits. The towel touches her thighs, barely long enough to make her fit for public viewing, and it still feels indecent in a way that stirs my cock under the thin cloth of my boxers. If she shrugged, I’d see everything.
“Rhys?” she prompts. “Any luck with the rental car?”
I tear my eyes from her soft, pale thigh and meet hers. She raises her eyebrows, and I know I’ve been caught. But she doesn’t look mad. She looks—amused. Her gaze tangles with mine, and it’s teasing, until I look away. Heat swims through my veins and settles, heavy, in my cock.
Shit.
This. This is why it was easier when she hated me. When she thought I was the enemy. The last thing I need is an invitation to do what can only be disastrous for all of us—her, me, Hanna.
“Rhys?” Eden repeats, and the tease is gone. Maybe I imagined it. Maybe I wanted to hear it enough that I hallucinated it.
“Uh,” I attempt. “Um. Not so far. I think we need to show up at the desk. I can’t book it online and I can’t get customer service on the phone.”
She nods at that. “I’ll get dressed and see what I can do to get us a ride. Where are we going?”
“I’ll text you the address.”
And then I grab the pile of my clothes and lock myself in the bathroom, shutting the door behind me like there’s a zombie outside instead of the most desirable almost-naked woman I’ve ever seen.
14
