Against All Odds

Chapter 17

STELLA

Emerging from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, with a towel wrapped around me and tucked securely in place between my breasts, I had expected Killian to have left for his own room.

I hardly expected the man to be still in the confines of mine.

A towel wrapped around his waist, revealing all those glorious muscles, flexing and shifting over his abdomen and sides as he bent over my luggage.

Wait, what?

"Killian, what the hell are you doing?"

I was ignored, my suitcase strewn open where it sat atop a stool near the dressing table against a wall. My clothes were littered around the floor, tossed negligently atop my unmade bed- the table and chair were also covered.

Did it matter that the mess had been created by me? Nope.

He tossed out some socks, a pair of jeans following next, and then he caught something between his fingers that made him pause, consider, and bundle to one side where he had accumulated a small pile of other items. When I realised what they were, my brows snapped together.

"What are you doing with my panties!?"

"Banning you from wearing any," he grunted, sifting through yet more clothing and finding a few more lacy numbers that he stuffed into the little pile.

"Are you insane?" I stormed over to him, pushing his shoulder indignantly. Post-orgasm bliss was thoroughly diminished now and I was going to voice my incredulity with this ridiculousness the only way I knew how. But Killian seemed to have finished his mission and gathered the pile of underwear into his arms, turning to me with an unforgivably boyish grin.

Annoyingly, some of my irritation dissipated at the sight of it.

"Nobody will know," he teased. Then his eyes gleamed with sensual promise. "Except me."

I squeezed my thighs together, unerringly turned on at the thought of Killian knowing something so intimate while we hung out with our friends. "They will if I fall on my ass," I told him. It was a fair point- I was quite clumsy at the best of times. If alcohol was involved, I wouldn't stand a chance in hell. "And I am supposed to be wearing this ridiculous tiny skirt-thing for Sadie's bachelorette."

His grin deepened. "Even better."

I rolled my eyes at him. "What's gotten into you?"

At that, his expression softened and he stepped close to me until I had to tilt my head back to look up at him. Water dripped from his hair that was still plastered to his forehead, one droplet suspended on the tip of his nose that he didn't bother to shake off. His face was so heartbreakingly familiar and handsome I felt my chest constrict, like it normally did, whenever I dwelled on him for long.

He dipped towards me, resting his forehead against mine until our breaths mingled, until my vision blurred- more than it normally did since my glasses were... somewhere. "You, Huxley," he said quietly. "You have very much gotten into me." With that, he dropped a kiss to my lips, slapped my ass so hard I yelped in surprise, and then he pivoted, making for the door.

"Wait!" I called after him a bit desperately. "Are you seriously going out there in a towel? What happens if they see you?"

His room was down a flight of stairs, after all, and Braylee would no doubt be getting settled. I had no idea where anybody was at the moment other than Killian, so he was likely to run into somebody as he exited my chamber and headed down to his.

He hesitated, his hand on the handle, the other cradling my panties to his corrugated abdomen. Casting me a look over his shoulder that spoke volumes about what sinful thoughts were running through his mind right then, Killian said- pointedly- "Quite frankly, I don't give a rat's arse who sees me leaving your room like this. They are our friends, and if they have two brain cells between them they'll probably figure it out sooner or later- but more likely that they'll definitely know something is up when I fail to keep my hands off you this evening. Because, Stels, I have no intention of keeping my distance anymore."