Free A Girl and Her Wolf (Howl, #7) by Jody Morse, Jayme Morse

want to see me naked?” he questioned with wide eyes as she stared back at him expectantly, waiting to hear his answer.
    “Duh.” She rolled her eyes at him.
    When she glanced over at him, her eyes sparkling, he knew that he couldn’t exactly tell her “no”. There was only one problem, though.
    Colby smelled.
    It sounded really gross, but he’d had gym earlier that day and the only empty shower stall had been out of order. By the time he got home from school, he was itching for a shower, but Emma had been really hungry so he cooked her dinner and then they’d started watching the movie together. So, he’d never actually gotten the chance to shower yet.
    “I have an idea,” he spoke up after a few moments—long enough to devise a plan. “Why don’t we play a game?”
    “A game?” Emma’s eyes lit up at the idea. “You mean, like Naked Twister? Or, no, wait. Let me guess. Strip poker!”
    “Well, no . . . I was thinking that we could just play Hide and Seek,” Colby replied hesitantly.
    “Hide and Seek?” Emma gawked at him. “ Really? ”
    He knew that she thought the idea was lame, and he was even willing to admit that it was. But it was the only thing that he could think of to let her see him naked without letting her know how much he stunk, too.
    He nodded. “Yeah, except . . . when you find me, I’ll be naked. Oh, and you should be naked, too. That’s part of the game.”
    Emma seemed to consider the idea for a moment before giving in. “Okay. Naked Hide and Seek sounds like it could maybe be a fun game, actually.”
    “Good.” He grinned. “Now, close your eyes and count to forty before you come looking for me.”
    “Okay,” Emma agreed. She squeezed her eyes shut and began counting aloud. “One . . . two . . .”
    Knowing that his time was limited, he darted down the hallway. He snuck into the bathroom and, keeping the light turned off, peeled off his clothes, hiding them in the hamper so they wouldn’t be a dead giveaway as to where he was. He climbed into the shower and closed the curtain behind him.
    He was tempted to run the water, but he knew that would be another giveaway as to where he was hiding, so instead, he settled on slathering some liquid body soap all over his body. He poured some shampoo on his hair, too—couldn’t forget the hair, since it smelled just as sweaty as the rest of him.
    Standing in the tub in the dark, he waited for Emma to find him. He noticed that the bathroom felt sort of cold, which was unusual. He was never cold. Of all times to be cold, why did it have to be right then and there? He wasn’t sure how far she wanted the two of them to go that night, but he didn’t want his manhood to crawl up like a turtle in its shell just because he was cold.
    “Okay, Colby! I’m coming to find you!” Emma called from the living room, and a sense of nervousness swept over him.
    He was afraid to know what Emma would think of his manhood (or should he have called it his were-hood, since he technically wasn’t a man?). He knew that she’d seen plenty of other guys naked before (a thought that provoked a low growl from him as he stood there in the bathtub), and he just hoped that he would be able to compare to them. How bad would it be if her mate couldn’t—um—satisfy her?
    He tried not to think about it too much as he waited for her to find him. After what felt like forever, the bathroom door was finally pushed open and Emma stepped inside. “Colby Jack. Are you in here?” she called in a singsong voice, her voice echoing throughout the room.
    He remained quiet, careful to try to control his breathing so that she wouldn’t hear him, but she flicked the light switch on. He inched forward, closer to the faucet, as she moved across the large bathroom. “Hmm, you’re not in the hamper, but your clothes are,” Emma announced loudly. “And you’re not behind the toilet, either. But are you in the shower?”
    Colby’s heart thumped a little, knowing that