Needing Her

“Maci!” I yelled and shut off the water.

Not bothering with a towel, I stalked into my bedroom, slipped on a pair of drawstring sweats, and made my way to her place. I didn’t even knock, I just let myself in.

“You know . . .” Her calm voice reached me, and I stopped walking when I saw her on the couch. Leg up on the cushion as she sat there steadily painting her toenails. “Clear nail polish on bars of soap works wonders. Well, for my purposes, anyway.”

“Maci, look at me,” I bit out. When she didn’t look up, I snapped. Stalking over to her, I grabbed the bottle of clear polish and threw it across the room.

“Co

“I said fucking look at me!”

Her eyes widened and she leaned back into the couch as I crowded over her.

“This isn’t fu

“Okay, it was—­”

“I don’t care what it was,” I said, cutting her off. “You better hope like hell that this comes off and that you have replacements for everything that was in my shower. And when I say “have” . . . I mean now.”

She licked her full lips and her eyes darted away before coming back to me. “Yeah, all right, I’ll go get them,” she said, her voice breathy as her eyes held mine.

When she didn’t make an attempt to get up, I leaned even closer and curled my lip. “Now.”

“I need you to move first.”

Shoving off the back of the sofa, I crossed my arms over my bare, stained chest and kept my glare on her as she hurried to the back of her apartment. She came back with a bag of all the extras that had been in my cupboards and I snatched it quickly away from her.

“You’re such a damn child, Maci. Grow the hell up.”

She visibly started and floundered for something to say as I walked to the door. “I’m the child? Are you kidding me? Like you had no part in this?”

“I scared you, that’s completely different than what you just did. If I get suspension for showing up tomorrow like this, you can be sure your brothers will be informed about your boyfriend.”

“You know what? Screw you, Co

What she said was hitting me hard. The fact that she noticed that much. The fact that she was right and this was the first time I could remember feeling anything, even if it was a

Clearing my throat, I brushed away the realization that Maci could make me feel anything at all, and looked right into her gray eyes. “I’m the one with green skin, and you’re pissed off? Real classy.” With another deep breath, I left her apartment and went back to my shower for take two.

Maci

MY LEGS GAVE out and I collapsed onto the couch as soon as I heard his door shut. Jesus, was it ridiculous that I was still completely turned on from what had just happened? What am I saying; of course it was ridiculous . . . it was ridiculous to get turned on in the first place.

The way he’d more or less charged into my apartment and leaned into me so much that I’d had to lean into the couch had been what set it off. His throwing the nail polish that I’d used on his bar of soap across the room hadn’t even stopped me from noticing the way he looked in those loose, plaid-­fla

But I hated the way he’d belittled me. I didn’t know if it was part of this new Co

If it hadn’t been for the way his face had fallen right before he’d left—­if it hadn’t been for the smallest glimpse of the old Co

God I needed a cold shower. And judging from the length of his first one, and the fact that his water had just shut off again, I knew that was exactly what I would get if I tried to shower now. But I knew just how bad Kool-­Aid stained skin, and I was positive he’d still have faded green streaks all over his skin. So instead of cooling down and trying to forget about the way he’d just made me feel . . . I did something worse.

I grabbed a box of baking soda and walked next door.

He glowered at me when he opened the door, and though his breathing was rough from trying to control his anger, he spoke in a deceivingly calm tone. “I’m still green, Maci.”

Trying to force my eyes off the towel he was clutching to his hips, and the drops of water that were racing down his skin, I dropped my head to stare at the floor and held up the box of baking soda. “I came to help.”

He huffed softly, his voice now holding a hint of a teasing tone. “I think you’ve done enough.”

“It will come off, you just need—­” I cut off when his fingers grasped my chin and forced my head back to look at him.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you.” His blue eyes searched my face, an unreadable emotion crossing his own. “You have no idea how much I hate that I scared you enough that you can’t even look at me now.”

I wasn’t looking at him because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from touching him. “You didn’t scare me, Co

A sad smirk tugged at his lips, and he took the box from me with his free hand. “I know what to do with this. Go to sleep. I’ll come by tomorrow morning to clean up the polish.”

“But you—­”

“Please, Maci,” he said, cutting me off. “Go back to your apartment.”

I stood there staring at the door long after he’d shut it in my face. That had gone completely different from the way I’d thought it would. I’d pictured Co

Jesus, my sex life was pathetic. I needed to stop reading so many romance novels.

“Don’t even try it, sweetie. He’s taken tonight.”

My head whipped to the right when I heard the sultry voice fill the hall, and my eyebrows shot up when I saw her. For fuck’s sake, she looked like a whore. I’d put on my skimpy pajamas in preparation for Co

“W-­what?”

She pulled her phone up to her ear and eyed me with a satisfied smirk on her face. “It’s cute that you’re trying to get his attention, but he needs a real woman to please him.”

I eyed her fake breasts that were one more bounce from falling out of her shirt and had the urge to cover my small ones.

“I’m here,” she said into the phone before dropping it in her purse. Watching the door expectantly next to me, she finally looked over to me again, one eyebrow raised. “You can leave now.”

I shook my head to clear the confused, and self-­doubted haze I’d just been in, and started backing away when the door opened.