Chapter Twelve
Heather’s stomach twisted. Seth was late. Seven minutes late. Maybe he got caught up on the set. Or lost track of time. Or wanted to give her a few extra minutes to finish her meal.
Or maybe he wasn’t coming.
Since she’d barely been able to get food down, anxious as she was for her shower with Seth, she’d thrown away her half-eaten salad ten whole minutes before she expected him to arrive. Then she’d brushed her teeth and removed her eye make-up. And washed under her arms. Yeah, she was taking a shower, but she’d been sweaty after a day under hot set lights and she preferred not to subject Seth to her less than ladylike smell.
Then she waited. And waited. And waited.
At five minutes past the time Seth was supposed to arrive, she considered curling up on the bed to mope. But she had to shower before her next scene, even if it was alone. She’d already stripped from her costume before she’d eaten. Now she untied her robe, letting it fall in a heap on the linoleum floor and leaned into the shower to turn on the water.
The temperature had just begun to warm up when she heard the bathroom door open behind her.
“Now that’s a beautiful sight. Would be even more beautiful if your backside was red from my hand, but beautiful nonetheless.”
She bit back her smile, hiding the relief she felt. He’d come. Thank goodness she’d already removed her tampon. Taking it out now would have been awkward.
“You’re late,” she said, shaking the water off her hand. She meant to scold him further, but when she turned to face him the sight of him took her breath away. He’d already stripped out of his clothing—presumably at lightning speed since she hadn’t been in the bathroom that long—and damn did he look fine. The hard planes of his pecs and trim waist were smattered with a fine mist of hair. His arms were pure muscle. His abs, which she’d always suspected would be well-defined, were absolutely killer. They looked professionally sculpted. As if the reason he’d been late was because he’d stopped in the make-up trailer and had shadows and ripples applied. Generally the men she knew that looked like that only looked that way because of lighting and cosmetics. Or Photoshop. Men didn’t look like that in real life. Yet there was Seth, na**d in her bathroom, looking exactly like that in real life.
A hefty shiver ran through her body. “I had no idea,” she whispered. She couldn’t stop staring at him, his arms spread across the doorframe in an open posture that showcased everything. Including his thick, hard shaft. She could barely believe that amazing organ was connected to an even more amazing body. His thighs and hips—all of him—strong and defined.
“No idea about what?” Even with his brows furrowed, he was hot as hell.
“How built you were.” She was amazed she even had a voice. “You’re incredible.”
His face broke into a wickedly sexy smile. “I’m glad you approve.” His eyes blackened with desire. “But what’s incredible is what I’m looking at.”
Her body flushed red, and not only because the room had heated from the running shower. “I can’t imagine how what you see compares to what I’m seeing.”
“You know, instead of just looking we could be touching.”
Her heart thumped in her chest. “Now that sounds incredible.”
He crossed the small bathroom in one stride. His hands wrapped around her face, tilting it toward him. Then he was kissing her, kissing her, kissing her. He kissed all down the sides of her face and neck and when he returned to her mouth, he tasted of make-up and sweat and roast beef and plain old yummy male goodness. She could kiss him like that, be kissed like that for a very long time.
Before she could get her thoughts together and remember she needed to get clean, Seth was pulling back the shower door for them to step in. He guided her backward until she was pressed up against the stall wall. Then he shut the door behind him and crushed her body with his.
Just as she had reveled in this first time that she’d gotten to see him in all his glory, she reveled in this first feel of their na**d bodies touching, the warm pressure, the tingling sensation everywhere their skin touched.
And their skin touched everywhere.
It was a small space, which made it easy to maintain contact, but not so tight that they didn’t both fit with ample room to touch and massage and explore. Their hands wandered and caressed as their lips kissed and tasted, their tongues licking water droplets off each other’s skin.
Again, it was Seth who had enough sense to think about the necessities. He untangled himself from her, and reached for her body wash on the built-in shower shelf. He poured a dollop on his palm and then applied it generously to her skin, massaging and kneading her muscles as he traveled his hands up and down her limbs.
He spent extra time on her br**sts, squeezing the mounds as he washed her. He teased her ni**les, whispering past the points with his finger, never giving them quite what she desired.
He made up for his taunting when he reached her ass. His strong hands rubbed into her fleshy skin and down past the curve of her bu**ocks with such deliberation, she found her throat choking back an unexpected sob. The release of tension from her knotted muscles combined with the care he demonstrated toward her—it was overwhelming, yet welcomed. Each second he spent worshipping her skin, her core grew needier, desperate for contact.
When he’d soaped every inch of her body, she expected him to move there, to the place she most ached for his touch. But he surprised her, setting down the body wash and reaching for her shampoo.
A thrill of anticipation ran down her spine. She absolutely loved having her hair washed and even though she had it done frequently, she never grew tired of it. And the idea of Seth washing it? Even better.
On the other hand, he’d skipped washing her pu**y and it throbbed from the lack of attention. She was conflicted between trusting him and addressing her need. Her need won out. “Aren’t you missing a spot?”
Seth turned her back toward his front, but she could hear the smile in his voice. “I don’t see the point of washing down south. You’re just going to get dirty again.”
“I am?” She looked over her shoulder, blinking her eyelashes in feigned innocence.
The smell of her strawberry shampoo filled the air as he began working it through her tresses. “You are and you know it. Now hush. We don’t have enough time together to waste any.”
She melted at his words and the feel of his hands massaging into her scalp. Her head was alight, tingling with the electricity that passed through Seth’s fingers to the nerve endings buried at the roots of her hair. The sensation was so intense that she barely had any thought function left. Yet curiosity—or rather—a need for an explanation tugged at her. “We’d have had more time if you hadn’t been late.”