Chapter 20 - Wet, Warm, and Too Close

Vera's POV

"What do you mean? I have been waiting for you for hours now."

"I thought your mum would have picked you up." He said it simply as his eyes moved away from my face.

I stared at the side of his face.

The rain had already soaked through my uniform. Cold water had pressed through the fabric and hugged my body like a second skin. My hair was stuck in wet strips against my cheeks. The mud at the edge of the field had already started turning the toes of my shoes dark.

And he was standing here talking about my mum picking me up.

"Because she dropped me at school this morning?" My voice caught a little at the end. "You should know she will be busy at this time."

I stepped forward and reached for his hand. His fingers were cold and wet under mine. His body turned stiff like he didn't want to be touched right now.

"Leave the rain. Let's go."

He didn't move.

"Go wait for me." He said in a flat tone. Just those four words sitting there like they were supposed to be enough.

I looked up at him slowly. The tiredness had been sitting heavy in my body since the moment I realised he wasn't leaving as early as others. Standing in front of the school's building, watching every face that walked past, watching cars leave the school. Waiting and waiting until the rain started and I was still here.

"Why?" My voice dropped lower than I meant it to. "Why are you pushing yourself so hard?"

Something moved across his face. Just for a second, I thought he was going to say something until his face hardened

"I said go wait for me." He turned and stepped closer to where I stood. I had to tilt my head back to keep his eyes as his brows pressed tight together.

"I am not leaving here unless you come with me."

"Be my guest." He turned his back to me and began to walk.

I grabbed his wrist before he could take another step. He pulled and I held tighter. He pulled again, this time harder, much harder than he probably meant to, and my foot slipped on the wet grass.

My whole body fell forward with nothing to catch me.

Splash.

I hit my face flat on the ground. The cold mud pressed flat against my cheek and I just lay there for a moment.

The rain still falling on my body, and my palms were flat against the wet earth. Grass and mud soaked through the front of my uniform in seconds.

"Ahh!!"

Pain hit hard from my knee. It shot up through my side and settled into a slight throb that sat there and wouldn't let go. I pressed my palms into the wet ground and tried to pull myself together.

All my body was soaked, dirty, and ached a little. I didn't even know which part felt worse anymore, the pain in my body or the fact that I had been standing in the rain asking him to leave.

"I told you to go back inside." Liam's voice came sharp from above me. Then his hands were on my arms as he crouched down beside me.

I pushed myself up slowly. My palms had stained green and mud stain across the front of my uniform.

I got to my feet and stood straigt with my eyes looking right at him.

His eyes moved quickly, checking all over me, not wanting to show that he was worried.

"Are you happy now?" I started wiping at my clothes with both hands. My eyes stayed fixed hard on his face.

He opened his mouth and then closed it again. He just kept quiet, with his eyes still moving around my body.

I turned and walked away.

"Vera!! Chill."

His hand caught mine before I could take three steps.

My feet went still on the wet ground. I stood there for a moment with my back to him, feeling the warmth of his grip wrapped around my wrist in the middle of all that cold rain.

I turned my head slowly and looked at him over my shoulder.

His face was different now. The hardness that had been sitting there since I walked onto the field was completely gone. He had the expression I haven't seen on his face, something he mosr likely didn't show people very often.

"I didn't mean for you to fall." The sincerity in his eyes was the kind that made it hard to keep arguing. He held my gaze for a moment longer and then said quietly, "You win. Let's go home."

He turned and led the way. His hand stayed wrapped around mine as we walked.

I followed him across the field with my knee throbbing slightly. The rain began softening slowly into a light drizzle the closer we got to the building.

Something warm was moving quietly in my chest and I didn't try to give it a name. I just let it sit there. The corner of my mouth pulled up into a small, faint smile that I didn't even try to stop.

We reached the exit door and I pulled my bag from where I had left it. He waited without rushing me.

Then we walked out of the field together and kept going until we reached the locker room.

He pushed the door open and stepped aside.

I walked in first and the smell hit me straight away. Sweat and damp towels made the whole place reek. I wrinkled my nose. This room needed a serious cleaning.

Liam moved past me and walked straight to one of the lockers. He pulled it open, reached inside and grabbed a towel, then turned and threw it across the room toward me without saying a word.

"Clean yourself."

I caught it. I kept my eyes on him for a moment before I looked down and started working through the mud on my arms.

Then I heard the sound of fabric moving and I looked up.

He had grabbed the hem of his soaked jersey and was pulling it up over his head. My gaze dragged slowly across his back as the jersey came off. The way the pale light caught his wet skin. The lines of muscle shifting across his shoulders as he dropped the jersey onto the bench beside him.

Then his hands moved to the waistband of his shorts.

I should have looked away.

I didn't.

He pushed the shorts down and stepped out of them cleanly. His wet briefs were clinging tight to every single line of his body, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. I could see the shape of him clearly through the thin, wet fabric. Every single bit of it.

I took a slow gulp. My throat had gone dry in the middle of all this wetness around me.

My eyes snapped upward fast the second I heard his voice.

"I want to take a quick bath." He was already walking toward a door at the far end of the room. He stopped at the frame, one hand resting against it, and glanced back at me over his shoulder. "Sit there."

He nodded toward a chair sitting beside the locker opposite his.

He walked through the door. It clicked shut behind him.

I stood in the same spot. The towel was half-used and still hanging in my hand and my brain was not fully working. The image of him was still sitting clearly in my head, the wet fabric, the shape of his dick underneath it, the slow and unbothered way he had moved like he had no idea at all what he was doing to me.

Then I felt my legs moved on their own. I walked till I got to the door, I held the handle and twisted it but… it was locked.

He locked it?

I hit my foot against the bottom of the door out of frustration. Pain shot up instantly from my leg, the exact same spot that had been bruised by the fall.

I winced and sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth.

"Ohww."

I turned and limped back to the chair and lowered myself into it carefully. I let out a slow breath and went back to cleaning myself with the towel. Dragging it along my arms, across the grass stain on my uniform, down the back of my neck.

Once I was done I reached into my bag for my phone. Anita's name was sitting right at the top of my chats. I opened it and scrolled to her last message.

[You must be kidding me. Same class? How do you feel, Vera?]

I stared at the message for a moment before I started typing.

[I really don't know. Probably still kind of hurt but not angry anymore.]

I pressed send and dropped my phone onto my lap.

Click.

My head shot up.

The door at the far end of the room swung open and Liam stepped out. A white towel was wrapped low around his waist and there was nothing else on him. Small drops of water still sat along his collarbone, making slow trails down the centre of his chest. His hair was damp and pushed slightly off his forehead.

My breath caught in my throat for a second.

He walked across the room like he wasn't aware of my stare till he stopped in front of his locker. He reached up and pulled it open.

Then he turned his head and caught me staring.

His gaze moved slowly across my face.

"Haven't seen a man after a shower?" His voice was low, almost lazy about it. "Quit staring at me."

A smile came to my lips before I could stop it.

I stood up from the chair and took slow steps with my eyes on his the entire time. Then, I stood in front of him, closing the distance between us…

Not touching but, close enough to feel the warmth from his body

"What if I don't?”