Crash Landing on You - Edelweiss Diaries

Part 16 - New beginnings

Her limp worsened overnight with the onset of soreness and muscle ache in her good leg. She took her time to get to the bathroom and shoved the door aside to find him slightly bent over the counter in his white linen pants.

"Sorry, I didn't know—"

"I left the door open," he said still facing the mirror. "Not your fault."

His pale skin, littered with scars at places, brought back the memories of her short expedition through the taut muscles of his back.

But seeing him shirtless was different. At once, the imposing visual of him negated the familiarity she'd gained in the darkness.

The faculty of sight was far superior to the others. The first-grade science lesson finally registered. One had to physically smell, hear, taste or touch to be stirred with desire, after all. But to see, even if only from a distance, was enough.

She sidled to the left of the doorway and he caught her reflection in the mirror. Smiling, he lathered the shaving cream and went on to spread them over his chin and along the jaw.

"So the thermostat is really broken?" she managed, her voice still thick with sleep.

"What did you think?" He lifted a curious brow at her.

"I thought you were making up reasons. That..." She forced herself to look away when he dragged the shaver down his chin. "You were trying to avoid being close to me."

"Let's just say..." he was working the shaver over his chin now, his head tipped back, "it's a bit of both."

Damn, could it get any hotter here? She had never seen a man shave before and something about bearing witness to that casual but intimate act of grooming, felt like an invitation. Like she was one step closer to him. Or was it about getting one step closer to unapologetically embrace the wanting in her?

His gaze trained on her fidgeting hands and she braced them against the wall behind her. "I suppose I don't make it easy for you," she frowned.

He shrugged. "As much as I'm civilized enough to give you space, I'm not a monk either, Yoon Se Ri."

She was far from an apology.

His tapered torso, shoulders like that of an island to go on a vacation and his towering form... The visual details were an incursion on her mind and she closed her eyes briefly.

"You are nervous?" he asked tilting his head and toweling off his face.

Her eyes flickered open. Just then he turned around and her mouth went dry.

Then there was the arresting slab of his chest muscles and slight indentations on the long stretch his abdomen. Not hard-cut, but a soldier's body nevertheless. And the scars too added to his seasoned maleness.

She sucked in a sharp breath. Ok! just keep your eyes on his face.

"It's really bright in here," she looked up and it was a moment too late to notice that the fixture lights were off. The room was merely lit with natural light from the window at the top.

"Are you sure?" He said and the taunt was unmistakable.

"You forget that you are talking to a fashionista," she said with a practiced challenge in her voice. "I have seen more naked men than you have in a lifetime."