Chapter 18: Locked in

Wade's POV

I leaned my head against the wall and tried to think straight.

Why did she have to look so good? Standing there soaking wet and wrapped in a towel and somehow still managing to completely dismantle my ability to think clearly. My eyes were obviously broken. My heart had clearly developed some kind of disease because there was no other explanation for what it did every time Lily Johnson entered a room.

I could not believe I was stuck being nannied by my sworn enemy and could not stop thinking about her. This party had to make her quit. It had to. Because I needed to come back to my senses before I did something I could not take back.

I pulled off my wet shorts to dry off, completely lost in my thoughts, and did not hear the door open.

When I turned around Lily was standing in the doorway staring at me with her mouth open.

"Close the door!" I grabbed my towel and wrapped it around my waist quickly.

She closed it immediately.

"I mean with you on the other side of it!" I said.

She looked at me, closed her mouth, then opened it again. Then shook her head.

"I can't go out," she said.

"Why, because you're stalking me?" I asked.

"I came in here to get my shirt," she said, still shivering, arms crossed tightly over the towel at her chest. "I can't leave without it."

"You're testing my patience," I said, walking toward her. "Fine. You can get your shirt once I'm done dressing." I leaned past her toward the door handle.

"What are you doing?" she asked, pressing back.

"The door," I said.

"Oh," she said and stepped aside.

I tried it. Then tried it again.

"It's locked from the outside," I said.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"It means you're trapped in here with me," I said.

She turned and looked at me and the shock on her face was completely genuine. We stood looking at each other for a long moment and then she pulled her gaze away.

"We need to get out of here," she said.

"The door is bolted from outside and there are no windows. So—"

"You're right," she cut me off. Then immediately she winced. "God, I hate saying that out loud."

"Never thought I'd live to see the day," I said.

"Don't get used to it," she said.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Nanny," I said.

She hissed and brushed past me and stood in the middle of the small room, arms wrapped around herself, shivering visibly. The cold from the pool was still on her skin and she had nothing on except that towel and her transparent bra.

I picked up my singlet from the floor where I had dropped it before diving in and held it out to her.

She looked at it. "Is this supposed to keep me warm?"

"It keeps you covered so you can feel comfortable," I said. "Body heat is how I'm going to keep you warm."

"You're joking," she said in disbelief.

"What? Is it that bad being close to me?" I took the towel gently from her hands and wrapped it around both of us, drawing her in against my chest.

She rested her head against me and I wrapped my arms around her and for a moment neither of us said anything.

"Do you think anyone is going to get us out?" she asked quietly.

"Probably not for a long time," I said, patting her back.

Her skin was so soft and I was losing the battle with myself rapidly and at some point my hands moved lower without my full cooperation and she was holding onto me with her eyes closed and I could feel myself getting hard and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

Then she pushed back and looked up at me with wide eyes.

"Wade, do you have a hard on?" she asked.

I pressed my forehead in shame. "Yeah," I managed. "I've got a hot half-naked girl pressed against my chest!"

"Wow." She stared at me. "Suddenly you think I'm hot? I thought you hated me so much you wanted to get me fired?"

"I don't hate you," I said quietly, looking down.

"What?"

"I don't hate you okay," I said, still not looking up.

"Really? Because I think you have hurled every insult in the English language at me," she said, still clearly shocked.

"Have you ever considered that maybe I'm intimidated by you?" I lifted my head and looked at her directly.

The shock on her face was something I was going to keep somewhere private.

"Lily, you are the smartest girl in school. You don't care what people say about you. You stand up even when they try to break you and that quality, that quality genuinely amazes me. You are bold, strong and so fucking pretty. You just act like you don't know it," I said, holding her gaze.

Her eyes softened immediately and she lowered her head for a moment.

"You mean that?" she said, her voice just above a whisper. "Do you think I'm pretty?"

I walked toward her and held her face up gently.

"I mean every word. Isn't it obvious?" I said. "I'm hard already."

She laughed softly and the sound of it did something to my chest.

"Seriously Lily," I said, taking her hands. "I know we've had our differences. But after spending time with you, I realised that I don't hate you. Not even close."

She looked at me for a long moment with those honest eyes.

"Maybe," she said quietly, "I don't totally hate you either."

Her lips were right there and I wanted them more than I had wanted anything in a long time.

But I was not going to do that. Not here, not like this, not with a locked door and a party full of people outside and everything between us still unresolved. If something was going to happen between us it was not going to be because she was cold and vulnerable and had nowhere else to go.

I looked at her and made myself be still.

I needed to get rid of my friends first. I needed to clean up the mess I had made of this house and this situation. I needed to be someone who deserved to look at her the way I was currently looking at her.

But standing in that small warm space with her hands in mine and her eyes on my face, I knew one thing with complete certainty.

I did not want her to leave this house.

Not anymore.