Page 36 of Wallflower in Bloom

He tugged her toward the staircase as the squeak squeak squeak of her wet feet on the kitchen floor taunted her at how ridiculous she looked.

“It’s hardly an imposition to rummage around a woman’s drawers. And I’m sorry for everything I dragged you into today. I thought Shay would be satisfied once she saw you.”

They walked into her bedroom hand-in-hand. Her other arm was still covering her boobs, given they were now in the light of her house, and her PJs were most definitely see-through. “Can we talk after I de-pond? I think my contacts might be somewhere on my dresser.”

“Of course,” he replied.

She grabbed clean pajamas and headed to her en suite bathroom. “And stay out of my underwear drawer!” she teased over her shoulder.

“No promises,” he joked back with a laugh.

“Um, Jack.” She turned around in the bathroom doorway.

She thought her cheeks might permanently blush from the last 20 minutes of her life. The blob turned toward her. I really should think about getting LASIK. “I have a big favor to ask.”

“Bigger than the temptation of looking everywhere but your underwear drawer?”

“Could you put the contacts by the sink? So I can find them?”

“It would truly be my pleasure, Violet Parker, to walk in on you in the shower,” he said, chuckling.

Violet smacked herself on the forehead. “You know what I mean. Lean in and put them on the counter. My shower curtain’s completely opaque anyway, so you won’t have to see anything.”

“Get to,” he said quickly.

“What?” Confused, she peered at him.

“I won’t get to see anything,” he murmured, cleaning off papers from her dresser and looking underneath them.

Violet sucked in a breath as she closed the bathroom door. She leaned back against it and blew out a long sigh.

He won’t get to.

JACK

The click on Violet’s bathroom door echoed like a gunshot.

Jack leaned over on the dresser and tried to catch his breath, rubbing his face. He’d had to look everywhere other than exactly where he’d wanted to when Violet was dripping wet in see-through white pajamas.

The woman who emerged from the pond was more surprising than he could have ever imagined. The bright moonlight had highlighted her picture-perfect body as her soaked clothes clung to her curves. Where the hell had Violet been hiding all of the dips and valleys of her shape? She had a tiny waist and a mouthwateringly thick hourglass figure with full breasts and curvy wide hips he’d love to hold as he sank into her. She had a strong back, luscious thick thighs, and carved calves.

He’d had to rip his eyes away from her dusky nipples, hard against the chill of the water.

Was this her all along? What atrocity of clothing could commit the crime of portraying her as anything less than a Grecian goddess?

Her lashes were sinfully long. He considered himself a great student of humans, but he’d missed the longest eyelashes he’d ever seen behind those damned enormous glasses. He was grateful to the disgusting pond for swallowing the hideous things. They’d been hiding Violet’s most stunning feature.

Her spunk and determination had struck him as she grappled her way out of the algae-covered pond. Some women would have had a complete meltdown at that moment, but not his Violet.

His Violet? God, where did that come from? He’d barely been here a week and had already been sucked in under her spell.

A low musical hum interrupted his thoughts as it drifted from the shower. She sang an old jazz standard in the shower, and his heart wrenched.

She had the soul of someone who could be a perfect fit for him. If he ever decided to ignore his mother’s warnings about becoming obsolete in a fickle industry and settle down.

But he couldn’t risk hurting someone as sweet as Violet by getting her tangled up in a real relationship with him. His career was too unpredictable, and he’d vowed never to abandon a family like his mother had done.

Back to the matter at hand. He scanned her room; she had a tidy, if fussy, bedroom.

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