Water Under the Bridge (Hooked Book 2) by Holley Trent

Author:Holley Trent [Trent, Holley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Aliah wouldn’t have stated with certainty that she was actually awake. She felt like her eyes were open. She could feel the slight sting on their surfaces as though her saltwater dunking had pushed layers of mascara and lash glue beneath her lids. Her vision was gauzy. Lo-fi, like a semi-realized dream fading around the edges the moment she realized she was in it.

She didn’t know what the odds were that she’d dream of following River into the ocean and succumbing to passions she couldn’t see but could certainly feel and then have him in her room to rescue her when she choked on her brain’s confusion of place.

She was on dry land, and she wasn’t on him.

“Forget what I said.” She ground her fists against her eyes. Her face was clean. There shouldn’t have been any reason for her vision to be so clouded. “I’m just going to go back to bed if that’s all right with you.”

Slowly, she lifted one eyelid, then the other. Some of the greasy feeling had dissipated, but she wasn’t completely back at her typical 20/20.

Her vision didn’t need to be perfect for her to see the long rise and fall of his chest and the spasming of his Adam’s apple. He was close enough for her to see the beginnings of the next day’s five o’clock shadow and for him to guess how long it’d been since she’d waxed.

“Your prerogative,” he said quietly.

“Are you…sure?”

“Am I sure I’m not going to throw a tantrum? Yes, Aliah, I’m relatively sure I can handle the circumstances. But just so you know, you don’t smell tired to me.”

“What?”

He breathed out a little huff through his nose, and, shifting his gaze toward the left wall, he shook his head. “Never mind. Look tired, I mean. Your breathing is too rapid. Your whole body is tense. Some parts of you more than others.”

“You don’t actually have to make those sorts of observations. I would appreciate it if you didn’t.”

He made that noise again and found her stare. “Feel free to make a few of your own. Be as scientific and clinical as you need to. Tell me that it appears that my penis has reached a pre-coital erectile state, but your findings are speculative due to the layers of clothing.”

“River.” She had no business concerning herself with his erectile state. She’d had enough of that trouble in the worrisome dream.

“We’re just making observations, Aliah. And you know I’m a hands-on learner. If I couldn’t control my curiosity as well as I do, I’d make a hypothesis about what kinds of sounds you’d make if I put my fingers into your various holes, and then I’d seek approval to conduct my experiment.”

“Why are you like this?” Flagrant and…impossible to ignore.

He shrugged and shifted between her legs.

She hated the angle. She hated looking up at his sharp-planed, high-cheekboned perfection and wondering at the back of her mind if she were having one of her dough-faced evenings.

Of course, I am. I washed off all the bronzer.

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