Bachelor Untamed - Brenda Jackson [9]
As if the clicking sound had the ability to travel through the frame of the house, through the trees and toward the lake, Uriel glanced up toward her house, and before she could move out of the way, his gaze found hers as she stood staring at him through the window like a deer caught in headlights. He returned her stare.
She felt the flush of embarrassment flicker from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Uriel Lassiter had caught her watching him in his very impressive birthday suit.
Chapter 3
Uriel’s lips formed in a tight line when he recognized the woman who was standing at the window spying on him.
Ellie Weston.
Oddly, he felt not even an ounce of shame at having been caught naked. How was he to have known she was over at Ms. Mable’s house?
He grabbed his towel, deciding he had given her enough of a peep show. Since she was still standing there, he wondered if she had a fetish for naked men. Too bad the show was over.
Wrapping the towel around his waist, he broke eye contact with her and began walking back toward his house like he had all the time in the world, fighting the temptation to glance back at her. She was the last person he wanted to see, and in the past he would have asked his parents about her comings and goings at the lake to make sure their paths never crossed. But he hadn’t done so this time. Big mistake.
Uriel kept walking, and when he made it to the back door and went inside, he leaned against the kitchen counter and pulled in a deep breath. At a distance, from what he could see through the window, Ellie Weston had grown from a pretty-looking sixteen-year-old to an attractive twenty-six-year-old woman.
He frowned, thinking, so what? It had been expected. Her mother was a nice-looking lady, so Ellie had probably inherited some pretty good genes.
Moving away from the counter he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. He popped the top and took a huge swig, not caring that he was standing, dripping-wet, in the middle of his kitchen. His mind was filled with too many thoughts of the woman he hadn’t seen in ten years.
Woman.
It was safe to think of her as a woman now, and not a kid any longer; although, at sixteen, she hadn’t really looked like your average kid, not at the rate her body had been developing. Even now he could recall how she had looked that day she and her friend had pulled one over on him.
He wondered how long had she been standing by the window watching him? How much of him had she seen? He would be the last person to admit to being an exhibitionist, and would never have considered a skinny-dip if he’d known someone was next door—especially if that someone was her.
When he finished off the beer, he sat the empty bottle on the counter, wondering if he was being unreasonable for still holding a grudge after all this time. She had been sixteen, and teenagers had a tendency to act silly and do stupid things. Hell, at that age he could remember all the trouble he and his five god-brothers used to get into. They would spend at least a week together every year while growing up, and would get into and do all sorts of crazy stuff.
He then thought about Ms. Mable and all the kindness she had bestowed upon him as a kid, and even through his adulthood. Although he hadn’t made it to the funeral, he had sent a floral arrangement. But he hadn’t spoken to anyone in the family.
The decent thing to do would be to go over there and offer his condolences in person. That was the least he could do. Nothing less. Nothing more. In addition to that, the gentlemanly thing to do would be to apologize for going swimming in the nude.
And with that decision made, he moved up the stairs to get dressed.
Ellie paced her bedroom, feeling the heat of embarrassment enflame her body with every step she took. Why did she have to share her most humiliating moments with Uriel Lassiter? First it had been the kiss,