Page 69 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
“Oh no. No. You need to leave right now.”
“It’s fine. I won’t see anything. We’ve done this at least ten times already.”
Ten. Times? Earth, please swallow me whole right now.
“Thane, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and I probably owe you more apologies than I can remember right now, but I am not going to pee until you get the hell out of my bathroom.”
His shoulders scrunch up around his ears, and he grunts. “You do seem more ornery this time. Are you sure you won’t fall off the toilet?”
“Fall off. Did that happen?”
He tilts his head back toward me. “Do you really want to know the answer to that?”
“Yes.” I gulp.
“You swayed and said ‘oopsies,’ so I rushed to your side before you hit the floor.”
Oopsies. I said oopsies.
This cannot get any worse.
“Then you asked me if I wanted to keep yoursexyunderwear.”
His shoulders shake. Is he…? “Are you laughing at me?”
“Sweetheart, I’ve been through your underwear drawer searching for replacements. What you were wearing were not your sexiest pair.”
Indignation fires in my belly.
“My sweet little liar.” He says it with such affection, such reverence, it stuns me into silence.
He faces the door with his arms crossed over his broad chest. His black joggers cling to the tight muscles of his ass, showing me what my hands so eagerly squeezed a few days ago. Or was it closer to a week ago now?
“Charlotte.”
I swallow hard, but I’m unable to draw my attention away from the way the muscles in his back and powerful thighs strain and move together in a symphony of male perfection.
Slowly, he turns his head to the left. “I’m going to turn around.”
I’m frozen as he does.
“Do you need help?” There it is again. That tenderness I didn’t know he was capable of.
“No.” My voice doesn’t sound like my own. I’ve spent most of my life creating and crafting a tough exterior. Turning myself into a strong woman who doesn’t need anyone and wants for nothing.
So why is it, in a matter of weeks, this man has chipped away at that façade, and instead of making me vulnerable, I feel reinforced and stronger than I’ve ever been because he expects perfection in every aspect of his life and looks at me as if I personify it?
My mind is a wreckage of past and present. What I thought I knew and the storms he kicked up when he barged into my universe as though he’s the sun that my world orbits around are all colliding before me.
I don’t believe in destiny or fate. But I do believe in my research, and maybe it’s time I started to trust what my test has been telling me all along—Thane is my person, my other half, my perfect match.
He takes a step closer, and I quickly stand. “I’m okay. Honest. But I’d like some privacy to shower and pull myself together.”
His jaw tenses, and once again, he takes inventory of everything around us. “There’s nothing to hang onto in your shower. What if you fall?”
My heart splutters and creates a little corner with his name tattooed on it. “I won’t fall, and I’ll be quick.”
His lips press together tightly enough to cause a tiny dimple in his chin. “The door stays open an inch, and I’ll be sitting right outside in case of an emergency.”
