“Simmer down, tiger,” I say, halting the words that come out of her mouth. “Lie still, okay. I’m just gonna wash my hands with some sanitizer and then rub some lotion on you.”
She winces again, and I can see her knuckles turningwhite as she grips the mattress. “How cold is it? Will it hurt?” she asks.
This time, I hold back a laugh. Okay, I hold back most of my laugh. “Are you seriously scared? You’ve got balls of steel, Fowler. How does refrigerated lotion make you panic?”
“I don’t like cold things. Just do it, okay?”
“I promise, I’ve got gentle hands,” I tell her, squirting a dollop of lotion into one of my palms and then rubbing my palms together. Her bed is narrow, but there’s enough room for me to wedge my knee onto the mattress for a little more leverage.
“You don’t have hands,” she says. “You have paws. Like a polar bear. Or a grizzly.”
I have nothing to say to that, so I prove her wrong with my actions, not my words. My touch is light, but not timid. At first, I focus all my attention on covering her angry red skin with a layer of soothing cream. But that only takes about thirty seconds. The heat radiating off her back, shoulders, and arms practically melts the lotion as I apply it.
“That actually feels really good. Thank you.” Her words are soft, but sincere. They should be gratifying, and in a way, they are. But now that I’ve had my hands on Claire, I can’t think about anything else. And that’s bad. So bad.
“Can you put some more on?” she asks, turning her head so that her eyes meet mine. “My skin is so hot, and that lotion is clearly magic in a bottle.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” I say, willing my voice to sound as neutral as possible. I squeeze more lotion into my hand and begin gently massaging it in. To keep myself from thinking about how soft and smooth her skin is, I begin counting backward from five hundred. It works like acharm for about thirty seconds. Right when I hit four-hundred-and-sixty-nine, she lets out a soft moan. It’s all I can do not to answer back in kind. Or cover my body with hers. Or stare at the way the thin white sheet pools just above her ass cheeks.
Instead, I just rub in another layer of lotion while her body relaxes under my touch. Then I practically leap off the bed and head for the door, my hands still sticky. “You can, uh, hang onto that,” I say in a rush. “I’ve got more in my room, and I never really burn, so…yeah. Hang onto it. Good night.”
And then, like the coward I apparently am, I haul my big ass back to my dorm.
6
Claire
Claire:The man is everywhere. Every. Fucking. Where.
Holland:Is that a bad thing? I mean, if you’re in bed together, that could be a very, very good thing.
Claire:Stahhhhhp. Pete and I will never be anywhere near a bed again. Besides, all he did the other night was put lotion on my back. He was in my room and on my bed, but it wasn’t sexual in nature. It was…medical. He barely touched me. He was a total gentleman.
Holland:Well, that’s disappointing.
Claire:The second he was done, he practically ran out of my room. Which, fine. Whatever. But now he is literally everywhere I go. One of Dr. Navarro’s assistants came down with the flu, so guess who’s filling in. And it’s not like I can ditch class. Navarro is the only professor here who takes attendance. No joke.
Holland: You wouldn’t ditch class anyway, but that sucks.
Claire: It does. All I want is to stay far away from Pete. It’s my Christmas wish.
Holland:It’s January.
Claire: I’m planning ahead. Those little elves should be fucking grateful they can grant my wish and check me off the list.
Holland: Not sure about this, but I think if you curse at them, they’re less likely to give you what you want.
Claire: That’s bullshit.
Claire: And it’s bullshit that I have class in ten minutes. This whole program is super sketch. Mandi had some friends over last night and they got bored, so they went for a walk by the water. I guess there are some caves down there and who doesn’t love a good cave fuck?
Holland: You can’t see it, but I’m raising my hand.
Claire: Yeah, well, Mandi was all in. I declined, of course, because of my personal policy never to screw in places bats hang out. But anyway…the one guy kept talking about how he discovered the caves when he took this class last year.
Claire:This is not a class you can retake, Holly Berry. It’s a one and done with a waitlist and a damn lottery just to get in.
Holland: Maybe he’s an assistant, like Pete?
