Chapter 16
sixteen
OWEN
I carried her upstairs like she was made of glass. Allowing her a moment to pee, I went and sourced the biggest, fluffiest towels I owned. She shivered as I ran the freestanding copper bath, one of the few indulgences I’d added when I moved in, filling it with steaming, bubbly water.
‘Too hot?’ I asked, as I held her hand while she stepped in.
‘No, it’s perfect,’ Claire sighed, pink-cheeked and glowing with that freshly fucked perfection.
Not that I’d allowed myself to sink into her.
The temptation had been there with her spread out like a buffet.
It would have been so easy to let my guard down.
But I had the feeling if I slid into her, I’d never be able to let her go.
Though I was fooling myself into thinking that not breaking that barrier would make it hurt any less when she did.
The water lapped up to her chest, and she made a small sound that went straight to my crotch. He certainly disagreed with my decision to hold back. ‘I’ll just go get the kettle on…’
‘Get in,’ she demanded, looking up at me with a no-nonsense grin.
‘You’d be squished up.’
‘Please, Owen?’ The sweetness in her voice undid me.
I took off my boots and stripped, all too aware of her eyes drinking me up. She went quiet for a long, soft second.
‘Oh. My God. You’re…’ She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t have to. The way her eyes widened as they snagged on my still very erect cock said it all.
Climbing in, I settled with my back against the copper and gathered her legs over my hips. The head of my cock floated below the surface, and I tried to will it away.
Her head tipped back against the rim of the bath, and her eyes fluttered shut.
‘Try not to drown,’ I said, which earned me a little laugh that made the surface ripple.
‘I feel like cooked spaghetti.’
‘You currently look like it too.’
Claire rolled her eyes.
Turn around, I demanded, and she did with only the slightest of groans.
I soaped my hands and worked them over her back and shoulders, slow and steady, loosening all the tight muscles.
‘That feels so good,’ she moaned. ‘You’re far too good with your hands.’
‘Are you complaining?’
‘God no. You had me coming with barely a touch. If anything, I’m going to declare you some kind of witch. They should study you and make a manual to teach other guys.’
A little jolt of pride lit up in my chest.
Seemed like both of us could enjoy praise.
I washed her hair next, massaging her scalp as she grew even more languid beneath my touch. Slipping my fingers into the hair at the nape of her neck, I tightened my grip just enough to make her moan before lathering again. I repeated the action until her sweet moans had me even harder than before.
‘My turn,’ she murmured after I rinsed, grabbing a sponge and twisting to face me on her knees. The copper creaked beneath us. Her eyes flicked down, went wide, and then up again to my face with such a delighted look that I almost laughed.
‘Well, hello,’ she giggled.
‘Claire.’
‘I’m behaving,’ she said, which was untrue for about three heartbeats. The sponge drifted lower. I caught her wrist.
‘Not there.’
She cocked her head. ‘Why not there?’
‘Wash,’ I said. ‘Not play.’
She sighed, but obeyed. Chest. Shoulders. The crooked scar near my ribs that got achy in the cold. She took her time, and I had to stop breathing for a second to keep from making a sound that would only encourage her.
The sponge drifted lower again, her wrist grazing the swollen head of my cock.
Fuck me.
She lifted that green-eyed gaze to my face. ‘Do you not want me to?’
‘I do,’ I said, truthfully. ‘But don’t.’
‘Why?’
Steam curled between us. I put the sponge aside and held both her wrists in my hand.
‘Because the last time I gave a woman all of me, she hurt me. She threatened to leak photos if I didn’t give her money to go on holiday with the bloke she’d cheated with.
I’m not ashamed of what I like. But I’m… careful about who I let in.’
‘We’re already being intimate though.’
I nodded. ‘There’s just a bit of me that needs to know I’m building something with someone who won’t use the foundation as a battering ram later.’
‘And you think I will?’ Claire frowned.
‘I think you’re leaving,’ I said, and there it was, the stupid, vulnerable centre of the problem.
We’ve known each other for ten days. You’ll go back to London.
You’ll get your life on track and forget about all this.
I’ll be here, doing the same things and seeing you in all of them.
And it will hurt like hell if I let myself fall for you. ’
‘Sometimes ten days is all it takes,’ she whispered. ‘To make you wonder if going back will ever feel right.’
I ran my thumbs along her wrists, the faint rope patterns warm and reassuring.
She blew out a breath.
‘I’m an eldest daughter. Parentified for years.
The fixer in my parents’ messy lives. Useful before I was anything else.
When I finally left, I cut the strings because I didn’t even know who I was.
I built this whole charade of the successful city woman's life just to hide from who I’d been.
And Marty…’ Her mouth pursed for a moment before she continued.
‘Marty was the Ken to my Barbie. Shiny. Seemingly perfect. Exactly the man who should have been on my arm, but I was always just off to the side. He called it discretion because he was my boss, but he just didn’t want anyone to know about me.
I told myself I could be happy with that for far too long. ’
I wanted, unhelpfully, to go and find Marty and make him eat his fucking balls.
‘Sounds like you really needed the escape from all that.’
‘He came by the flat. Asked Shelly for my number. The timing is… not coincidental. He always comes back for me, and I’ve always folded back into his life like a neat little origami. But it’s time I chose something new.’
‘Like what?’
‘Myself,’ she said simply. ‘Possibly you. I don’t know the magnitude of it yet, but I’m so tired of being unhappy. I just…I like who I am in Otterleigh.’
I let my head tip back against the rim and looked at the ceiling like it might have a better line than me. It didn’t. ‘I like who you are, too.’
A soft smile stole over her lips.
‘So, here are my current facts. I want you. I respect that you’re careful.
I’m not going to try to lever you into anything.
I will absolutely attempt to get you to smile more.
I will also keep asking to touch you because I want to make you scream, too.
Not to mention that thing is a work of art.
You can say no, and I promise I’ll behave. ’
‘Much obliged,’ I said, unable to stop my own smile.
‘And my facts. I want you. I’m going to be slow sometimes.
I will make you tea, fix your latches, and put you in a rope when we both want it.
I’ll be seen with you. I’ll keep what we do for us.
And I’ll try not to assume I know how the ending goes before we get there. ’
She shifted forward, water sloshing against her perfect tits. ‘Deal.’
‘Deal,’ I said.
‘I might not be ready for everything yet, but you could watch…’ My stomach flipped at my suggestion.
‘Really?’ You’d think I’d offered her a private jet with the way her eyes lit up.
‘Really.’
‘Is this just another way to make me all horny and desperate?’ She narrowed her eyes.
‘Yes.’
‘Well, damn you, Owen. You’d best get on with it.’
I fisted my cock below the surface, stroking my hand over its length as she bit her lip, enraptured.
The head was deep red, filled to bursting for her within a few strokes.
‘Do you see what you do to me, Claire?’ My voice grew thick at the awe on her pretty face. ‘How fucking hard you make me?’
She nodded before catching her lower lip with her teeth. ‘It’s so hot watching you touch yourself like that. I’ve never had a guy do it in person before.’
My stomach knotted with pleasure, and I let out a deep groan. Claire inched forward, kneeling close to my cock, but not touching.
‘I can’t use my hands, but I can use my words, right?’ She teased.
‘Yes.’
For a moment, she paused, her eyes focused on the sliding of my hand over my solid flesh. When she looked up at me again, she had entered full brat mode.
Claire threaded her hands behind her back, sticking her chest out. ‘Please, Sir. I need you to come. I want to watch you fill your fist so I can see what it will me like when you fuck me.’
Holy shit.
Her filthy words had my balls tightening.
‘You will fuck me, Sir, won’t you? Tie me down and press that hard cock deep inside my…’
I didn’t even make it through the sentence. Ropes of cum leaked from me as I gripped the edge of the bath with my other hand. I practically fucked the water as her face flushed a deeper shade of pink. Satisfaction flooded her eyes at the effect her words had on me.
‘Well, damn Owen. I thought I arrived a bit early today.’ Her eyes sparkled with devious delight.
‘Not my fault, you brought out the filthy talk and all the Sirs. How can a guy resist?’
My head spun, but the floating mess inspired me to haul our asses from the bath and wrap us up in towels.
‘Are you staying tonight?’ I asked.
‘If you want me to.’
Moving over to her, I captured her chin and gave her a soft kiss. ‘I think I might need you to.’
Her face broke into a sweet grin. ‘Then I’d love to. But I can’t guarantee Meowrse will let you snuggle me.’
My heart skipped a beat, and not for the first time since meeting Claire, I wondered what I’d done to deserve her stepping into my life.
Even if it might not be forever.
Later, before sleep got its hands on me, I said the thing that had been tapping my head since we climbed into bed, and she wrapped her warm body around mine. ‘Don’t think I’m not thinking about you right now.’
She made a pleased little noise into my shoulder. ‘Hard to, when you’re digging me in the hip.’
And for the first time in a long time, I slept easy.