Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
AIDEN
She’d barely given me the green light before I turned the knob and opened the bathroom door to a sight that nearly had me stumbling straight to my knees.
Flickering candlelight illuminated Avery as she rested her head back against the tub, her hair piled on top in a careless bun.
And I’d been right about those perfect tits—bubbles skimmed the surface of the water, covering most of her skin, but every once in a while, a rosy nipple, tight with need, peeked through.
Her hands were nowhere to be seen, though the soft, rhythmic waves of the water gave away exactly what she was doing beneath its surface.
“Bunny,” I said, voice low with barely restrained need. “Are you in here playing with your pussy?”
Her movements stilled then, and she looked at me with pleading eyes. For me to touch her. Push her. Give her exactly what she needed. But she’d thought her hand was good enough, so we’d see how far that would take her.
“Don’t let me stop you.” I leaned against the doorframe, crossing my arms over my chest as I stared down at her. “Show me how you make yourself come.”
She scraped her teeth over her bottom lip, her eyes connected with mine as she swept her hands through the water. The movement broke apart the bubbles on the surface, enough so I could see exactly what she was doing. Or wasn’t doing, as it were.
I gave a low sound of disapproval and pushed off the doorframe to stride toward her. “Don’t be shy now. You sure as hell weren’t when you were fingering yourself, even knowing I was just on the other side of this door.”
After the briefest pause, she slipped her hands down the insides of her thighs, not stopping until they hovered just above her pussy.
She started slow…soft. Building herself up, though I had no idea why.
It was clear she was strung tight with need, desperate for release.
Before long, soft and slow turned into tight strokes across her clit as she sank her fingers inside in a quick rhythm designed to get herself off.
I squatted next to the tub, bracing my arm on the edge.
Close enough to see the flush of her cheeks had spread down her neck to her freckle-dotted chest. Past the trio of star signs she had tattooed below her collarbone and continuing even farther before it disappeared beneath the water.
And there was no hiding her widely blown pupils as she stared up at me, lips parted, tits rising and falling with each panting breath.
“What if I’d heard you?”
The ripples grew faster, the pink of her cheeks deepening even more. Finally, she admitted, “I was hoping you would.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know what I think?”
“What?” she whispered.
“I think this was payback,” I said, dipping my fingers into the nearly scalding water and swiping a path through the bubbles again.
It gave me an unencumbered view of her hands as they disappeared between her thighs, both working her toward release.
“You spent the past couple weeks mad at me, and instead of talking about it, you avoided it altogether. You wanted the space from me but then hated when I gave it to you.”
Her lips parted as she dipped her gaze away from mine for a brief moment, and that was all the confirmation I needed.
I hummed low in my throat. “And now? Tonight? You wanted to see how far you could push me before I snapped. Wanted to drive me out of my fucking mind, didn’t you? Make sure I could hear you in here, playing with that greedy little cunt, and knowing I couldn’t touch you.”
“I wanted you to,” she admitted, her eyes locked with mine. “I want you to.”
I didn’t know what she’d worked through in her mind or what conclusion she’d suddenly come to that made this all okay, but my control was already on a frayed leash, ready to snap. There was no fucking way I could resist her plea.
I lowered my hand into the water, uncaring as it soaked my shirtsleeve, just needing to feel her. She sighed, goose bumps erupting on her skin at the first brush of my fingers against her inner thigh.
“That was naughty of you, bunny.” I swiped my fingers through her slit, barely a brush of skin against skin.
And though it killed me, I ignored how she chased them, lifting her hips, desperate for more contact.
“Especially after you were a brat out there, pretending to be mad at me when it was just your needy pussy wanting some attention.”
She whimpered at the next brush of my thumb against her clit and then moaned, long and low, as I slipped one of my fingers inside next to her own.
“Take off your shirt,” she begged, her gaze darting to where it was plastered to my skin.
“You aren’t the one making demands here, pretty girl.”
“But I want to see you.”
“And I’ve wanted to make you come all day—hell, I’ve wanted to for weeks—but instead, you’ve been acting like a little brat, so it looks like neither of us is getting what we wanted.”
She rocked her hips in time to our thrusting fingers, lips parted as she worked her clit faster. Quietly, she said, “Are you mad at me?”
I studied her for a moment, trying to figure out where she needed this to go. I didn’t know her cues enough yet to be able to guess, and I hated that. Hated not instinctively knowing exactly what she needed so I could give it to her. “Do you want me to be?”
“I don’t know.”
If she wasn’t sure, then that told me she didn’t want soft and sweet from me tonight. Which was fine. I wasn’t feeling very soft or sweet at the moment. I was feeling fucking ravenous.
“I’m not mad,” I said, realizing it was the truth.
Even after weeks of cold shoulders. Even after her shutting me out and not entertaining any kind of conversation.
Even after her attitude out there… It seemed it’d take a hell of a lot for me to get mad at this girl.
“But I am frustrated. I don’t like knowing you wanted me and didn’t say anything.
Hate knowing this pussy was needy for me. And it is, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“And how long has it been needy for me?”
Guilt flashed over her face, and she bit her lower lip, slowing her fingers against her clit.
“Tell me.”
“The whole time,” she whispered.
I nearly groaned at that, thoughts of her in the next room over, her pussy aching and desperate for my touch, and her too stubborn to admit it. To ask for it.
“You want me to make you come?”
“Yes. Please, Aiden. I need it.”
“I know you do,” I murmured, watching her expression change as I toyed with her pussy, cataloging every reaction that flitted across her beautiful face. “But instead of telling me that…instead of telling me how desperate you were to come, you ran away.”
From the look she gave me, she knew I was talking about so much more than just earlier today.
I was talking about the entire time she’d been in Starlight Cove.
From the moment my sister had introduced us.
She’d assumed the worst and hadn’t listened to anything else—she’d done the equivalent of plugging her ears like a child and la-la-la-ing her way to ignoring me.
“I’m sorry. I—” Her words cut off on a low moan when I sped up my pumping finger and curled it to brush against that spot inside her, her breaths growing choppy as she rocked her hips to meet every thrust.
She dropped her head back on a whimper, eyes fluttering closed as she strummed frantically against her clit. Her pussy tightened around our pumping fingers, and it would be so easy. So fucking easy to guide her through this orgasm and straight into the next.
I’d thought of little else these past couple weeks but how beautiful she looked when she came, and I wanted to see it more than anything. But instead of doing just that and giving us what we both craved, I slipped my finger from inside her and removed my hand from the bath entirely.
She snapped her head up, eyes popping open as she stared at me openmouthed. “Aiden…”
Part of me wanted nothing more than to go right back to what I’d been doing and get her off like she needed. With how worked up she was, it’d barely take anything at all. I bet I could work her through three…maybe four while she lay there under the water. One after another after another.
But neither of us was going to get what we wanted tonight.
I’d be damned if she walked away from this thinking it was ever a good idea not to tell me exactly what she needed. That was how this had to work—she’d tell me, and I’d give it to her. Without question. Without hesitation. Without fail.
But that meant she had to be honest with me and couldn’t run away.
I stood, grabbing one of the oversize bath towels from the cabinet, and held it open for her. “C’mere.”
She blinked up at me, confusion written on her face. “What?”
“I said, c’mere. It’s time to get out.”
“But… But I didn’t…”
“I know.”
She was frozen for long moments, just staring up at me with wide eyes.
But when I didn’t offer any further explanation, she finally braced herself on the edge of the tub and stood, giving me an unencumbered view of her.
Her entire body was flushed, her nipples tight, and goose bumps dotted every inch of her skin like the freckles and tiny tattoos scattered everywhere.
She was so fucking gorgeous, I wanted to spend hours… days…weeks…worshipping her.
But not tonight.
I reached down to drain the water, then wrapped the towel around her shoulders and dried her off. She shifted with each movement, the barest hint of a moan leaving her lips every time I passed over her breasts, across her ass, between her thighs…
Brushing my lips against the tattoo behind her ear, I whispered, “Still needy, bunny?”
She huffed out a sound halfway between a whimper and a groan. “You know I am.”
“Good.”
“What do you mean, good?” she asked, a snotty lilt to her voice.