Ethan Waters is the most annoying man on the planet. One more night like this, and I will be out of a job and homeless. Then, I’ll be the one crashing at his place instead of him freeloading at my ghetto paradise. As if it wasn’t bad enough that I had to put Will to bed and listen to Ethan snore until I fell asleep, now I have Ethan hogging up the bathroom.

How could Will do this to me?

“Get out of the bathroom!” I make a fist and bang on the door, screaming at Ethan. “I have to brush my teeth and get ready for work.”

Ethan laughs on the other side. Bastard.

A few seconds later, the door cracks open, just enough for me to push my way inside. Standing in front of the mirror, with a towel wrapped around his waist, Ethan is perfection. I hate myself for allowing the thought to creep into my mind. But it’s hard to deny his sex appeal.

Steam from the shower clouds around him, reminding me of a commercial for body wash. Ethan could model for an ad no problem. Water drips from Ethan’s shaggy brown hair and trickles down his handsome face. A mist dots his thick chest and muscular arms, drawing my attention to every curve of his defined stomach. I bite my bottom lip once I get to the well-defined V that traces down to his package.

“See something you like, Princess?” His deep voice pulls me from my sex-induced haze.

I look up at Ethan with my jaw clenched in anger. “Nope, not anymore.”

He reaches behind me, pushing my face into his wet chest to shut the bathroom door. “Don’t let Will hear you say that.”

I step back and roll my eyes at him, wiping the water from my face. “Like he would ever believe that we were friends.”

“You didn’t come outside to talk to me every night because you wanted me to be your friend.”

“Don’t act like you know what I wanted from you,” I spit back, annoyed. “You bailed on me without a second thought and still won’t admit why you left. It’s not like you would have been interested in a kid. You were on your way to college, and now look at you.” I hold my hand out to admire his body. “You have plenty of women falling all over you, and why wouldn’t they?”

Ethan flashes one of his panty-dropper grins that even I am not immune to after all these years. “If things were different, I would have waited until you were older.” He steps back from me and lifts a razor from the sink. “I didn’t move on. I had my reasons for going back to Boston.”

I lean my back against the wall and stare at him, folding my hands over my chest. “Whatever. You don’t owe me an explanation. We were just two kids who needed someone to talk to about our shitty lives.”

“And now you hate me, all because I left.” He says it more as a statement.

I nod in agreement.

Ethan lathers his face with shaving cream, staring at me out of the corner of his eye. “You hate me for the wrong reason.”

“I don’t care about the past anymore.” I remove my toothbrush from the holder and nudge Ethan with my hip to get him to share the sink with me. “I have to get to work before I don’t have a shithole apartment for you to crash.”

Ethan glides the razor along his jaw, still keeping his focus on me. I wish he would stop looking at me. His intense gaze pricks my skin with tiny bumps, a strange feeling stirring inside my chest. And between my legs.

I want to ask him so many questions. What’s the point? My brother still has no clue we used to meet in my parent's backyard. We have maintained the charade that we hate each other in front of Will for years.

Why stop now?

He shaves, and I brush my teeth, all while we stare each other down in the mirror. The electricity that pulses between us sets fire to my skin. I spit and rinse. He washes his face, peeking up at me from between his fingers.

Even though the hatred I have for Ethan is real, some part of me still finds him attractive. I wish I could shake the way my body responds to him when he places his hand on my hip. I should be able to control my breathing when he moves his palm over my ass. But I cannot move or think. Ethan has always thrown me off my game.

“What are you doing?” I choke out once Ethan moves behind me and grips both of my hips, pulling me back against his…erection.

“Testing your limits,” he says, dipping down to whisper in my ear.

He smells of shaving cream, and my Shea butter body wash, the two scents now burned into my nostrils. His breath on my earlobe causes me to still.

“Who said you could touch me?” I glance at him in the mirror. “And why are you hard?”

“I’m horny, and you look good in this shirt.” He slides his hand up my side and cups the side of my breast. “You’re not a girl anymore, little lamb.”

“Thanks for noticing, Captain Obvious.” I push his hands off me. “Will is in the living room, and I have to get to work. Just because you are staying here doesn’t mean I have to like you. When I get home tonight, we are going over the rules.”

He laughs. “What rules?”

“The ones you and my brother will follow if you plan to sleep here for the next…How long will you two be here?”

He shrugs. “Two weeks to a month. Our apartment is trashed, and the association doesn’t have any vacancies to move us.”

I let out an exaggerated sigh. “Wonderful. Then, we need to talk later, because this living arrangement will not last long if you think you are going to hog up the bathroom every morning and make me late for work.” I point at his cock that tents the towel and shake my head. “And that cannot happen ever again. I already told you to keep your dick away from me.”

“It’s not something I can help, Mia.” He grabs himself over his towel. “This is what you do to me. Don’t deny that you want me, too.” His gesture causes the fabric to loosen at his waist, and before I have time to prepare myself, I get a perfect view of Ethan’s very long and very hard cock.

I cough, spinning around to face the door, having no idea how to react. Wow! So, that is what I have been missing. My ovaries do a happy dance, all while my undersexed brain is screaming for me to get a fucking grip.

“You did that on purpose,” I say, unable to face him. “Ugh, I hate you.”

He comes up from behind me and breathes against the shell of my ear. His length digs into my ass cheek, making me wetter by the second. “Fight me, little lamb. It only makes me want you more.”

I don’t have to turn around to see the smirk on his lips. I already know it’s there. What a jerk.

Ethan always does things to piss me off, but this is a low blow. Inappropriate sexual advances are not out of the norm for him. A part of me wonders if he’s serious. But I don’t allow the thought to dwell for too long. A relationship between us is not a good idea. We have no future together.

Will knows I hate Ethan, but he was no idea why. I was Ethan’s dirty little secret, and the thought kicks up a gross feeling that makes me sick to my stomach. But I can’t ignore the way he made me feel when I was a kid. Or how he makes me feel right now.

After his father’s death, Ethan showed up on our doorstep, a completely different person in his place. Then, he moved to Philly with Will when he signed with the Flyers. My brother was thrilled since he had just been called up from the minors and was ready to play alongside his high school teammate again. Ethan was colder and more closed off than before, slowly slipping away from me as time had passed, until all we had between us was anger and unresolved sexual tension.

My parents were in Arizona, shopping for their retirement house when I had walked into Will’s room and found Ethan with a naked girl riding him. I was so in shock I hadn’t registered that he was having sex with this random chick on a chair in the corner of the room. He removed her nipple from his mouth long enough to peek out from behind the girl and smile.

“Either join in or shut the door,” he had said to me.

Ethan’s disgusting words had haunted me for a long time. So did the vision of him fucking that girl when I wanted so badly for it to be me. That incident ended my sympathy for him. Furious, I waltzed out of the room, grabbed my bags, and drove back to school. Ever since then, I have made it a point to avoid Ethan whenever possible. Until now.

I thought I’d left that baggage in the past until Ethan touched me last night. And then again this morning. I was never immune to him.

My stomach turns at the thought of the past repeating itself. I have to find a way to avoid him. As long as Will is around, that shouldn’t be a problem. But what about moments like this, when we have a few minutes alone?

After everything Will has done for me, I have to help him out, even if that means dealing with Ethan. Two weeks of Ethan sleeping on my couch shouldn’t be that hard, though I doubt he will make it easy for me. Or so I think.

Ethan slaps my ass, causing me to jump. Instead of a scream, he pulls a moan from my lips.

He laughs. “Have a good day, Princess.”

Fuck. Me.