“I don’t need you to take care of me,” I whisper-shouted, digging my heels into the marble floor. I’d come here to take care of her, for Christ’s sake.

“I’m not offering, I’m stating.” She practically bared her teeth.

When we got into the bathroom, the bathtub was full of hot water, steam curling out of it like it was a cup of tea or something.

“Shouldn’t people with fever get lukewarm baths?”

“It’s not that hot.”

I chanced another look at the tub. “I’m going to get third-degree burns from that shit.” I pointed at it, shaking my head. “Nuh-uh. I’m going to look like Two-Face if I dip half my body in.”

“You’re getting in,” she informed me.

“No, I’m n…”

She took off her nightgown. Just like that. The entire thing.

No bra. Just a pair of white cotton panties. Her nipples staring back at me. Dark and tiny and pebbled and fuck.

Dear Santa,

I always knew you were real. Thank you for giving me the gift I wanted, even if it’s three years and one week late.

Yours,

KJC

She lifted one ridiculously toned leg over the ceramic of the bathtub and got in, but she was still standing. I took in everything, inking it to memory. Luna had actual abs from surfing and riding her bike. Her tits were small but full—they’d look perfect in my palms. Slender arms. Sleek all over. She looked like a fantasy. A sweet torture.

She reached her hand out to me. “Together,” she whispered.

Cunning little thing, she knew I’d bathe in lava if it meant touching her. Growling, I yanked down my sweatpants, staying in my briefs. (I didn’t want to scare her away. I wasn’t being funny—my dick was so big, at this point I called it Knight Senior and myself Knight Junior.) I stepped in with her. She put her hands on my shoulders and lowered me so we both sat down, facing each other. My theory proved to be correct. Girls were cold-blooded. The water was boiling. I shook inside it, thawing slowly. I looked down. I could see the veins under my normally tan skin, like thick ropes. Everything looked fragile, pale, unfinished. I was as sexy as a lizard.

(Yet she was still nearly naked.)

“Your lips are purple.”

She took a loofa, dipped it in the water, and started rubbing my chest. It felt illegally soothing, and I couldn’t help but moan.

(By the way, she was still nearly naked.)

I was proud of myself for not coming in my briefs. Knight Senior hadn’t gotten the memo that the rest of me was dying and decided to sport a freaky hard-on that threatened to tear the fabric it was stretched against.

“Did you take anything for the cold?”

“Yeah. Two Advils.”

She was still mostly naked. Did I mention that? Her tits. Her cute belly button. Her endless legs. All in my face. Incredible.

“I’ll make you some tea,” she said.

“I hate tea.”

“You’ll drink tea.”

“Give me one good reason to.”

“I’m asking you nicely.”

I gave her a do-we-know-each-other? look.

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll let you touch my boob.”

“Nipple too. I don’t want any side-boob action. That doesn’t count.”

“Fine!” She threw her arms in the air, exasperated but smiling.

“Sold.” I smirked.

She leaned forward, advancing toward me.

I stopped breathing altogether. I wanted to ask what she was doing, but the smart part of my brain—a tiny, neglected corner I saved for family trivia nights—told me not to say anything in case she didn’t notice she was doing it. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and our chests pressed together.

Her.

Bare.

Tits.

On.

My.

Chest.

My dick throbbed between us in the water, and all I needed to do—all I wanted to do—was remove the thin fabric of our underwear and drive home, screwing FUCKING JOSH out of her. She nestled her head in the crook of my neck and sighed.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered.

“I’ve missed us,” I admitted brokenly, my heart crumbling inside my chest.

What the hell was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I be an asshole, like Vaughn? Why did I have to crumble at the first sign of her vulnerability?

I chugged the stupid tea and passed out, Luna by my side. For the first time since we’d known each other, she was the one holding me, and not vice versa. We were both mostly naked, in only our underwear, her body pouring heat into mine.

I tossed, turned, and sweated out my fever the entire night, my eyes closed, the rest of me awake. Thinking, wishing, willing myself to sweat Luna out of my system the way I did the fever, but knowing damn well that some syndromes were incurable, and she was one of them.

The next morning, I woke up groggy and disoriented. Luna brought me clear broth, tea, and two Advils. Then she sat at her desk and refused to look away until I’d consumed all of them. I still felt like shit, but better.

She stood up as soon as I was done with the tea, moving for the door. “I’m going to go grab a shirt for you from my dad’s closet. I don’t want you to walk around shirtless, even if it’s just to Vaughn’s house.”