“My underwear is wet, it’s stuck, as I’m sure you cansee, since my ass is hanging out in front of you. Can you just pull them off for me?”
His shoulders were tense, eyes stormy, jaw rigid. There was no sexual intent on his face, and he looked too ticked off to try anything funny.
“Oh, okay, of course. I’d love to help you,” she said like he’d asked for help filling in a crossword, not prying off his black briefs.
He didn’t say anything. He just waited. And she took a small step forward. Then another. She reached out her hands, which shook, and cringed as they landed on his skin at the small of his back.
Gritting her teeth, she slid fingers down his cool flesh, left damp by the briefs, and tried not to think about the fact that she was touching Houston Hayes’s right butt cheek. Per Anatomy and Physiology it was really the gluteus maximus, and just another striated muscle.
Which didn’t explain her sudden urge to squeeze.
Reaching the waistband of his briefs she tugged hard, then panicked when nothing happened. “They’re stuck.”
“That’s the point, Josie.”
Of course it was. “So ...”
“I think you have to roll them back up, then take them down without rolling them because they’re sticking.”
If she looked up at him, she would die, so she kept her eyes glued to his back. She wasn’t really mechanically inclined, but she thought about his directions and decided they made sense, if she wanted to stick her hands in his pants to get them down. Which she didn’t.
She gave another tug. Nothing. Retreating, she unrolled them until they were back in place at his waist covering him snugly. Tapping a finger on her lip, she mulled over the problem, ignoring the hot ache pulling between her thighs and the traitorous tightening of her nipples.
“You giving up?”
“No, I’m just thinking.” Still in her damp shirt, she shivered, feeling the warmth radiate off his back inches in front of her. She wanted to just lean forward, to close her eyes and fall against him, to tuck her hands inside his briefs and stroke them both to a place where nothing mattered but the pleasure they could share.
That’s not what she did, of course. Because she was reasonable and rational and clearly stupid. Who cared about tomorrow when there was tonight?
Well, she did, which was why she was going to remain professional about this. There was only one way to get the briefs off and if she were at work with a patient, she wouldn’t even hesitate. So this shouldn’t be any different. Taking a deep breath, she jammed her eyes shut and gripped the sides of his briefs, lifted them out a little, and pulled down towards his hips.
Her breast brushed his back as she yanked, bending at the knees, expecting to get them down to his thighs where she could drop her hold and run and let him deal with the rest.
Unfortunately, they were hooked on something and wouldn’t go down. She tugged a little harder and the resistance came from the front.
Oh, hell. They were caughtthere.
“Um ...” she whispered behind his shoulder. “We have a different problem this time.”
“Your fault.”
Here she was trying to help and he blamed her. “What did I do?”
“You exist. You move your little finger and I get hard.”
“Well.” Josie let go of him and moved around to face the problem head-on, holding really tight on to her fortitude, coaching herself to stay distant.
Like that was going to work.
Breathing hard, she lifted the front of the briefs and the tip of his erection sprang free, tapping her on the wrist.
“I’m so glad we’re becoming friends,” shesaid, mortified into speech, and terrified of attacking him. “I want to help you out like this, whenever you need me to, because that’s what friends are for.”
Houston was damn certain that he would never ask Christian or Dennis to pull down his wet underwear. That was not what friends do. What he and Josie were doing was reserved for sexual partners and why the hell she couldn’t see that was anybody’s guess.
It was his own damn fault for getting frustrated with both her and his Jockeys and asking for her help. Now he had a record-breaking boner and was losing his determination to respect her hands-off wishes.
She went down on her knees and any hope he had of speaking was shattered as he struggled not to swallow his own tongue. Josie’s quick short gasps hit his cool skin as she peeled his pants down inch by painful inch, mouth hovering in front of his cock.