Encrypted Souls

Chapter Eighteen.

Chapter Eighteen.

            “I told you not to come.”

I blankly stare at a soaked Ethan on my doorstep.

“Right.” He arches a brow in a child-like manner. “And I told you that I was coming. So here I am.” He shrugs, water flinging off of him, making a puddle around his feet.

“Ah!” I stomp my feet. “You men are so stubborn!”

Ethan gives me a questioning look, like he is the most innocent being on this planet – but I ignore it and grab him by his shirt over the threshold.

“That’s how you invite me in?” He teases, trying to stay footed on the inside mat, but it is no use.

The mat is tiny, and the water is dropping from him like he is a raincloud.

“Oh, shut up.” I turn around to fetch him a towel from the bathroom. Walking away I say, “Don’t you dare move from that spot.”

I hear him laugh.

I come back with two towels in hand, only to see his bare, wet chest. I can’t help but to stare at his toned chest and the way the water droplets glaze his abdomen. The last time he was shirtless ended in fiasco.

Ethan clears his throat, and I hear his hearty laugh.

“Eyes are up here, sweetheart.”

I snap my head up to his eyes, and see the satisfaction that lies within them, my cheeks flush. I cautiously walk up to him, careful not to step in his puddles and hand him the towels.

“Here, get dried off.” He gratefully takes the towels.

“What would you like me to do with my clothing?” He asks.

“Uh…” You should probably take it all off. I shake my head. “Give me your shirt, and dry off your feet. Then you can go to my bathroom and undress. I can put your clothing in the dryer, and you can use the towels?”

He nods, “Alright, thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem.” I say, grabbing his shirt and heading for the small laundry room.

What am I going to do with this man? I throw his drenched shirt into the drying machine, and faintly hear the bathroom door close. I just have to wait for his other clothes and then I can start the machine.  I have to be careful around him. I hear shuffling and the bathroom door open.

“Ev?” He calls out.

“In here!” I poke my head out of the room, right beside my bedroom.

He can’t know about Ross and I.

“Ah, there you are.” He walks up behind me, and before I get a chance to turn around, his arms are around my waist.

He presses his chest against my back – which presses my hips against the drying machine. His hands reach the machine and he releases his clothes into it, and then wraps them around me again.

I squirm a little.

“Ethan…”

“Just let me have this moment, okay?” He whispers into my hair.

I nod as he continues to hug me from behind, and I feel his heartbeat against my back. It is an amazing feeling. Mere minutes ago he was cold and soaked, now he is warm and cozy – wrapped around me. I feel like if we stayed this way for too long, though – we would become one. I imagine his heart in line with mine, and his veins and arteries breaking through his chest to reach me. The veins slithering to my back, where they would corrupt my flesh and sink into me until they have reached my own heart. And there, my veins would intertwine with his, and they would pull our bodies closer and our hearts would mold together – forever one.