Her breath quickened as she slid her fingers down lower. Even in the water she could feel how slick she was, how ready she’d been since practically the first moment Chase had touched her.

She didn’t have the first clue how she could have reacted like that to a complete stranger. Given what had just happened to her, the bruise still throbbing on her cheek, shouldn’t she have been flinching and hating the feel of his hands on her?

But she hadn’t been anywhere near hating Chase’s touch. Far from it, considering she’d been far more tempted to rub herself against him than shove him away.

As her fingers swirled against the hard nub, her mind flitted back to that moment when she’d looked down at the thick bulge in his pants. Sex had been good once, good enough that she could still imagine the kind of pleasure a man like Chase could give a woman.

Sinking so deep into the water that her nose and mouth and eyes were barely above the surface, her feet slid out further when she accidentally kicked something in the tub and the jets kicked into overdrive.

Chloe’s eyes flew open as the bubbling streams assaulted her sensitive skin. At first it was too much, too many sensations coming at her at once, but then, as she got more used to the water moving across her sore muscles, she found herself growing even more relaxed.

Quickly, she realized that if she lifted her legs up so that her knees were bent and her feet were flat on the bottom, two of the jets on either side of the tub shot straight between her legs.

Lifting her hips into the jet streams felt decadent. Sinful.

And just plain good.

Moving her hand from between her legs back to her br**sts, she cupped one in each hand as the water worked between her legs in the nicest possible way.

She rocked her hips up and down as she got closer and closer to the sweetest orgasm she’d had in a long, long time. Chase’s face appeared again and she didn’t even bother to stop herself from fantasizing about his kiss, about his large hands on her instead of her own.

A strange sound tried to work its way into her subconscious, but she was too far gone to pay it any attention. And then Chase’s name was on her lips as her entire body tightened down and then exploded in a thousand delicious pieces, her hips bucking closer to the wonderfully strong jets, her fingers tightening on her own br**sts. Oh God, she loved this feeling and suddenly couldn’t think why she’d gone so long without it.

She was about to relax deeper into the tub when her brain rewound back to that moment when she’d been coming. To the sounds she’d heard, but dismissed as her body flew over the edge.

Opening her eyes, she was still disoriented enough from her orgasm for a few seconds that she was sure she couldn’t be seeing what she was seeing: Chase, standing in the doorway of the bathroom, one hand on the doorknob.

Surprise—and dangerously strong lust—were written all over his face.

Chapter Four

Chloe closed her eyes again, held her breath, and went completely under the water as the jets turned off on their own. She held her breath as long as she could, all the while praying that when she came back up the door would still be closed and locked…and that Chase seeing her not just naked, but masturbating in his brother’s bathtub would be nothing more than a bad dream.

Alas, when she came back up for air and opened her eyes, there he was, standing right where he’d been a minute ago.

Despite the fact that she was already in warm water, she could feel an extra hot flush of mortification quickly covering her skin, head to toe.

At least, that’s what she told herself it was.

With a snap of water and skin, she shoved her thighs together and lifted her knees to try and hide her naked bottom half, while simultaneously crossing her arms over her chest to cover her br**sts.

Forcing herself to meet his gaze—green eyes that blazed with enough heat to set off a fire extinguisher—she said, “The door was locked!”

Good thing she already knew better than to expect an apology. Because Chase didn’t look the least bit repentant. “It must not have locked all the way.”

Her lips shouldn’t be on the verge of tilting up into a grin. None of this was funny. Rather, it would have been funny if it were happening to anyone else, like, say, in a movie she was watching.

But this wasn’t a romantic comedy.

This was her screwed-up life.

“Do you always break into the bathroom when you have guests?”

At long last, he looked a teensy bit chagrined. “I didn’t see your things in the bedroom. I thought you might have decided to leave again.” He paused, his gaze softening behind the desire that still radiated from him. “I was worried about you.”

The sweetness of that final sentence hit her right in the solar plexus, right where she was still stupidly vulnerable, making her eyes close at the force of it.

She knew she should just keep her eyes closed. Because when she made the mistake of opening them again to be brave and look him in the eye, what she saw on his face made it impossible for her to tell the difference between his desire and his sweetness.

How could she when they were both wrapped up in one far-too-gorgeous package?

Oh God.

She’d been so stunned by seeing him standing in the doorway that she’d completely forgotten the name that had passed her lips as she was coming.

She gulped. Hard.

Knowing there was only one way to play it, she said with far more bravado than she actually possessed, “I know a lot of Chases, by the way.”

He raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth twitching with an obvious urge to grin. “Really?”

He held her there in that half-smile for longer than was fair. Especially when both of them knew she’d likely never met a Chase before in her life.

“People usually tell me it’s a pretty uncommon name.”

Well, what was she going to say to that? But now that the initial stab of mortification and surprise had passed, Chloe became even more aware of the position she was in.

Whatever Chase’s mother had taught him, she’d clearly forgotten the lesson on leaving a naked girl alone to regain her composure. Because instead of letting her get out of the tub and get dressed in peace, he let his appreciative gaze flicker up and down her bare skin.

Her hands itched to cover herself up more, but even though the naked girl on his bed had been a good thirty pounds thinner than Chloe, why did she have to be ashamed of her curves?

She’d been told one too many times by one certain person that she needed to lose weight. She was never going to diet again. Not for anyone. She was keeping her muscles and curves, thank you very much.