Page 24 of Out of Sight

I rolled my eyes, ignoring the tingle I felt at the thought of him touching me. “What makes you think I want your hands anywhere near my body?” I noticed in that moment that I hadunconsciously been moving closer to him. We were now only a couple inches apart on the couch, his arm bent at the elbow around my shoulder but still not quite close enough to feel my skin against his.

He turned a full ninety degrees so he was facing me, his eyes raking up and down my body in a slow, thorough assessment. “You’re telling me you don’t?”

I was very aware of the heat on my skin, the tightening of my nipples through the thin gray shirt. I remembered that he still had my bra in his pocket and glanced down to it, my eyes pausing at his own chest, just the smallest bit of hair emerging from the top of his stolen coat, just enough to make me very aware that he was a man, through and through.

“Don’t worry, Claire,” he said softly, the smile on his lips sweet and gentle rather than taunting. “I hear you. You don’t want anything to do with me because you think I’m a terrible person.”

Terriblemight have been stretching it, but he was right. I was surprised that he was self-aware enough to recognize it.

“But I’m not blind, either,” he continued. “You don’t have to lie to me—or yourself—about finding me attractive. I can’t stand lying. That’s why I’ve been 100% honest with you about how completely you have me wrapped around your finger, even if you don’t want to do anything about it.”

He was right again. I’d never in my life been so irresistibly drawn to someone as I was the second he walked into the Morelli law offices. I’d been rationalizing it away, but the truth still stood: I’d never been more attracted to a man than I was to William Bracco. But that didn’t mean I wanted to act on it.

He nodded in satisfaction as my obvious acceptance. “There. See, isn’t it so much better to just admit it to yourself?” He was practically whispering. The hand resting just above my shoulder twitched, but didn’t move to touch me. “The ball’s in your court, honey. I won’t touch you, won’t make a single move on you unless you tell me to. But I’m not going to lie to either of us, so I’m just going to keep saying what’s on my mind, okay?”

I licked my lips. I couldn’t help it.

“Dick move, girlie,” he pouted, breaking the spell. I burst out laughing. Okay, maybe I didn’t have to hate him all the time. Maybe we could just have fun and be friendly acquaintances.

“Children,” Jim warned. “Behave. To get back on topic, I’m on couch duty so I can respond quickly if someone tries to come through that door. And it’s a fold-out anyway so I’ll be okay.”

“As you wish,” Will said, standing up and stretching. I thought of Westley and Buttercup again until that damn coat rose up a couple inches, showing off a very fit torso, abs hard and firm even without flexing. I had trouble thinking about much of anything for a moment after seeing all that. “I’m going to go lay down and pass the hell out for the next twelve hours. I think you both should do the same.”

“Well,” I began to Jim, reluctantly letting Will lead me back to my room, “I guess Iamexhausted. He had to be right about something at some point through this catastrophe. Might as well be bedtime.”

Will grinned at me, taking the taunt in stride. He put an arm loosely around my back, but kept his word and his hand was nowhere close to my skin. Once we got to my room, he all but pushed me inside, closing the door in my face.

“Now lock this door and don’t open it again until morning! You gotta keep those bad, horny boogeymen from sleepwalking right into your bed.” I could practically hear the wink in his tease. I rolled my eyes, but let the smile come out. He’d never see it through the closed door.

“Don’t tell me what to do! And what the heck am I supposed to wear to sleep?” Why did it take so long to occur to me that we still didn’t have any supplies or clothes to wear?

“Sleep naked for all I care,” Will said, that smirk now clearly heard as a gleeful grin. “Actually. Yes. Please. Sleep naked.”

“Don’t worry about it, Claire,” I heard Jim mumble from further away. “We’ll get the clothing sorted out tomorrow. Just make do for the night, okay?”

I sighed, but there wasn’t much else I could do about it. I relented and locked the door.

“Thank you!” Will shouted through the door, and I heard his footsteps fade away.

Maybe it was a little sweet that he waited to hear the click. It was how I imagined an older brother would act, waiting until his little sister made it inside her friend’s house before driving away.

Because we totally felt like siblings. Totally.

I stayed in bed for a couple hours, restless, but couldn’t fall asleep. My leg kept jiggling. My fingers tapped silently against the duvet. I counted ceiling tiles. But then I just couldn’t take it any longer.

I had to pee. Like,reallybadly.

I wrapped the hotel robe around myself since I’d taken Will’s advice to sleep in the nude. There was something undeniably freeing and provocative about being naked with someone who you knew wanted desperately to see you that way just on the other side of the wall.

Tying the belt tightly around my waist, I unlocked the door. Peeking through the darkness, I saw Will’s closed door to one side and Jim’s form laying on the couch bed on the other. The only sound was Jim’s soft snoring.

I hurried to the bathroom and let myself in as quietly as I could, closing the door with a gentle click before flipping the light switch.

Then I screamed because there was a man in the bathroom, completely naked, holding his dick.

“Shit, Claire, knock on a closed bathroom door, would ya?”

My panic receded as I recognized Will, but my heart rate didn’t slow. I held my hand to my heaving chest as I tried to recover my wits when Jim busted his way inside.

---