Free Broken Souls by Beth Ashworth

best friend had been the worst bathroom hogger ever.
    “ Well, I might as well get up,” Ashley mumbled with a yawn.
    She didn't have anything to do today after Ben had made it pretty clear that she was to be on holiday this week. Despite that, she knew that she couldn't just mope about in bed all day. The only way that she was going to get through this grieving period was to keep busy.
    After stripping the sheets from her bed and replacing them with fresh ones, Ashley emptied her laundry basket and headed for the washing machine in the kitchen.
    “ Buongiorno ,” Marco called from the sofa as she entered the room. His eyes flicked to the sheets in her arms. “Do you need any help?”
    “ No thanks,” she blushed, suddenly conscious of the shorts and hoody that she was wearing. “Did you sleep okay?” She nodded towards the folded blanket on the corner of the sofa.
    “ As expected,” he shrugged. “How else am I supposed to feel today?” He slowly got to his feet and cocked his head in the direction of the hallway. “I'm going to go for a shower. I didn't feel like one last night.”
    Ashley waved a hand in the air as she piled the washing into the machine. “Go for it. There are towels on the back of the door, so just help yourself.” She didn't lift her head to address him as she replied; instead, she chose to keep her attention focused on the machine.
    When she heard Marco's footsteps in the hallway and the bathroom door close, she let out a long and drawn out breath. There was definitely something different in the air between them that she decided she was going to leave well alone. It most definitely wasn’t in her interest to raise the nightmare she had heard last night, or to tell him that she had kept watch from afar until his cries had stopped. It was friendly behaviour, but she wasn’t sure if it was overly friendly on her behalf.
    Switching on the washing machine and turning towards the fridge to get something to eat and drink, she pulled out a carton of orange juice as an almighty yelp echoed throughout the flat.
    “ Merda! ”
    She jumped at the sound of the bathroom door swinging open. Turning on the spot, she caught sight of Marco standing in the hallway, his hair soaking wet and a towel slung around his waist.
    “ Ashley, the water is stone cold,” he grumbled, placing his hands on his hips.
    Distractedly, s he looked over the length of his body, her eyes lingering longer than necessary at his bare torso and the smattering of dark, curly wisps that covered his chest. He wasn't as muscular as she had expected him to be, but nonetheless he was still a good looking man. If anything, she felt the absence of a rippling six-pack and deep cut pelvic muscles on his still lean and slightly tanned frame to be more attractive for his particular physique. He didn’t appear to be the sort of man that cared about conforming to any specific stereotype, which she liked.
    “ Ashley,” Marco pressed, fixing her with an unimpressed stare.
    “ Y-Yes?”
    “ There isn't any hot water...”
    Lifting her eyes to meet his gaze, she panicked. “I... Um... just put on the washing machine,” she tried to apologise as she fidgeted with the hem of her jumper. “Honestly, I didn't even think about the water.”
    Marco thrust a hand through his wet hair causing droplets of water to fall onto his skin. “Forget it... I'll have a cold shower,” he mumbled.
    Ashley watched as the drops fell from his rich, chocolate coloured hair and dripped tantalisingly over his torso, before running streams through the small patch of dark curls across his upper body.
    She was glued to him and she couldn't look away. Actually, she didn't want to look away.
    “ I'm going to...” Marco trailed off with a slight cough as he dropped his hand to the knot in his towel. He gripped it firmly with his hand as if her eyes were going to rip it from his body within seconds.
    Discovering that she had made an already tense atmosphere even