And then...

After a much-needed shower, I made my way back to the dorms where I hoped to get some reading done for an English class I now regretted taking. I liked to learn but the professor had managed to make the class so dry it put my mom's wine to shame. The classics sat high on my list of preferred reads and the fact that my professor made them seem subpar was a huge turn-off.

Just one year and you never have to read another English textbook again.

Coming to the dorm door I glanced up to double-check the room number before I stepped into the space. It seemed like a harmless, routine, action, but as soon as I did I second-guessed myself and for good reason too.

There, in front of her bed stood Nick, a black towel loosely wrapped around her body as fresh droplets of water glistened on the exposed skin of her back. Every fiber in my being told me to look away but the soft fabric of her towel only reached a tantalizing section of her thigh, enticing and sensual. My chest tightened painfully. She looked like the definition of seductive without even realizing it, her teal tips dripping sex appeal rather than water as she whipped her head around to where I stood.

"What the fuck?!" She shrieked as she dropped to the floor in an effort to conceal herself, her green orbs connecting with mine in an angry yet vulnerable way.

Immediately I shifted to shut the door and rested my forehead on the cool wood. Guilt raked me immediately for being so careless. I should have known, or at least put thought into a showering rule. We had a no mother talk rule after all. However, there was a part of me that knew the guilt wasn't one hundred percent authentic. After a sight like her, my body now unfortunately suffered from undeniable arousal. The kind that left my mind reeling and my physical being stranded on the chivalrous side of the door.

"Why are you still here!?" She demanded in a high pitched voice I had never heard her use before.

Obviously, her panic was as great as mine, I probably just brought her worst fear to life. How was it that I perpetually found myself in situations where I held an immense amount of guilt with her? I squeezed my eyes shut, a gust of frustrated air leaving my lips. Yeah bro, why didn't you leave? Sure I had acted on impulse but a new feeling slowly crept over me and had now made itself known. A feeling I wasn't accustomed to.

"Is that what you wore to the showers?" I found myself asking in a low, thick voice. Why did I appear mad, almost disturbed by what I saw? Neither wasn't the prominent feeling currently vibrating through me. My body ached for her, almost craved her, and yet my mind wanted to know just how many guys in our building saw her like this.

"I had to shower. What did you expect me to wear, a hazmat suit?"

I scoffed quietly to myself as I shook my head. The feeling was strange, I'd never felt this burning pressure in my chest I now experienced. Did the idea of her being out in the hall with nothing but a towel bother me that much? It did, quite a bit actually. I wasn't keen on the idea of Nick walking down a populated dorm hallway with a single piece of fabric between her and some creep. She might as well pin a neon sign to her back that stated 'next roofie victim'.

"Probably would have been better," I grumbled under my breath, powerless to stop the words or thoughts from the sinister detour they were now on.

Nick seemed to growl in irritation from behind me. "Are you going to just stand there or are you going to leave so I can get dressed?"

"I'm not going to look if that's what you're worried about." Not without your permission. And it was the truth. I wasn't going to look if she didn't want me to and clearly she didn't. Reopening the door risked someone else getting an eye full, which also wasn't going to happen. Maybe I was being protective or maybe just a decent guy, I didn't really know. My mind was having one hell of a time formulating any coherent thought when behind me she stood damn near naked.

"Perve..." she grumbled under her breath before there was a soft thud.

She must have let go of the towel. I bit my lip as I willed my mind not to go there, even though it labored to with savagery with an image of Nick flickering behind my eyelids every few moments. Her in that towel, a reverie of her without the towel... I squeezed my eyes shut tightly in objection even though I craved to see more.

Nick wasn't the type of girl to get involved with for multiple reasons, the leading one being she definitely wasn't my type. It didn't matter that she was attractive or that she had me hanging on damn near everything. I didn't intend to be here long and my plans weren't meant for a party of two, they never had been. Getting involved with her would only cause unneeded drama. It didn't matter what my body screamed for.

No, the right thing to do was bite my tongue and come up with a survival plan. Even though all I craved to do was express my feelings with my lips.

I know, I KNOW! I want them together already too!!

It will DEFINITELY be like fireworks <3