Chapter 23
Hot water sluices over my head and down my back, and the steam is making my breathing heavier. Thank God for this shower. When I bought this place, installing overhead showerheads in every bathroom had been a priority. The bathtubs remain. Large. Luxurious. Unused. I’ve never gotten into that habit. Never understood the appeal of baths.
I brace a hand against the tiled wall and let the fantasies invade. Only they’re not just fantasies these days.
Harper had been in my arms.
I touched her, kissed her neck, and listened to the sweet sounds of her labored breaths as she came around my fingers.
The memory had been replaying in my head since it happened. Yesterday morning, in the little BB room after we woke up. In the car during our drive back to London. While I watched her cuddle the dogs last night, curled up on my couch, in my living room, in my home.
Sleep was impossible last night.
It was always torturous to know she was just a floor down. But now… fuck, I wanted to be in the same bed as her again.
I tossed and turned and wondered if she was using her vibrator, and it was the first time I’d been jealous of a piece of silicon and two batteries. I got up before dawn. Went for a run. But none of it helped, so here I am, abusing the water pressure and aching for Harper.
Her touch, her smile, her body, her lips.
I reach down and stroke my cock. Grip it tight and close my eyes, like I had to in that bed with her, to avoid going off too soon.
Having her hands on me after all these years…
It had been a different kind of torture. Agony comes to mind, but the kind you never want to end.
I stroke slowly. Picturing her with that towel dropped to her waist and her perfect bare tits. Rosy nipples, a flush on her cheeks, and the damp curls cascading over her shoulders.
The image I’d told her I would forget.
I’m a bastard. But right now, there isn’t a smidge of morals left in me, not as my hand moves more urgently, and I see her in my mind’s eye.
I want to make her orgasm again. It’s a need as overwhelming as my urge to come, right now, and I bite down hard on my tongue. My breathing accelerates in rhythm with my quick strokes. The water isn’t great for friction, and it’s just a bit painful, my grip slightly too tight, and damn it if this isn’t exactly what I need at this moment.
She’d been so wet and silky around my fingers, and squeezed me so tightly when she came. Fuck. Based on what she said, I wonder if she’d ever had someone focus on her G-spot like that. It feels like a goddamn crime if she hasn’t.
It is a fucking crime that I hadn’t tasted her.
I widen my stance and pump into my hand like it’s her heat. With my need for Harper pounding through me, my palm is such a poor replacement for her. But it’s something; something I have to do because I can’t go through my day like this. I won’t be able to focus on my work. Haven’t since she moved in, but it hasn’t been like this before.
And now I know what her pussy feels like around my fingers. And I know how it feels to hold her while she sleeps.
I groan as the pressure builds, coiling at the base of my spine. Relief is only seconds away, and?—
“No, Stanley! Stop!” The voice cuts through the blinding haze of pleasure. Her voice. I break off with another groan as the rising pleasure morphs into the pain of no release. Look through the glass shower door to the bathroom…
At Harper, standing there in an oversized T-shirt.
She’s holding one of the walking hot dogs in her arms, her eyes wide… and locked on me.
“Hello,” she says quickly. “Good morning. I’m so sorry, I fed them, and then they went exploring, and he just raced up here. Your bedroom door was slightly ajar so he got in and, and… and… you’re showering.”
I turn to face her. Naked. My cock still painfully hard, jutting straight out, and her gaze drops to it.
And then quickly flits away.
“Yes.”
Harper’s cheeks are burning, her hair pulled back in a messy bun, and she looks so beautiful and so surprised that I have to swallow another moan.
She hasn’t seen me naked before.
Let her look, I think, and take a step out of the shower and onto the plush bathmat. Water drips down my body, and my cock feels heavy, bobbing in the air.
“One second,” she says quickly, still averting her eyes, and drops Stanley behind her, in my bedroom. The next moment, she’s closing the bathroom door.
With her inside the room.
Her gaze fixed on my sink.
“Sorry, again. I’ll keep a better watch on?—”
“Harper,” I say. “You can look at me. If you want to.”
Her eyes find mine. They glitter. And then, they sweep down, over my chest, my stomach, stopping right on my dick.
The pleasure-pain coursing through my system is making it hard to think straight. I hadn’t meant to work myself up, but I had, and damn if my cock isn’t protesting and my balls aren’t aching.
“Wow,” she breathes. “It was so dark at the inn, I didn’t see…”
“No. Neither of us did,” I say. “Next time, I want bright sunlight so I can see all of you.”
Her breath catches, and she takes a step closer. “You were jerking off in the shower?” There’s a hint of curiosity in her voice.
“Yes.”
“I thought it was a ‘before sleep’ thing.”
“Lately, it’s become an ‘all the time’ thing,” I say, watching her watch me. Her gaze flicks from my eyes to my cock. She’s intoxicating.
I reach down and grip myself again. Give my hard-on a long, lazy stroke. “Sleep well?”
“Yes,” she breathes. “Well, not really. But it’s okay.”
“Me neither.”
“That looks…” She takes another step forward. “Will you let me?”
Everything inside of me tightens, and I have to reach out to grab the frame of the shower stall for support. Water is beating down my temple, dripping off my hair, and I can’t think of a single thing to say.
Her smile is everything.
I never thought I’d get to see her looking like this. Eyes warm with desire, a teasing and sensual smile on her lips. But here she is.
My dream come to life.
“Nate.” She draws another step closer. Then she drops to her knees, and I think I might pass out.
“Harper,” I say, my voice comes out gruff. Seeing her here, kneeling before me, and feeling her hands grip my cock… “That’s what I want to do to you.”
“Later,” she says. Her eyes are studying me like she’s never seen a dick before, and I know that’s not true. Know it far too well, but it still does something to me. Does something that she?—
“You’re big. It felt like that, the other night,” she says. Her left hand is gripping my shaft tight, her other playing with the skin of my head.
I don’t think I can breathe.
“But it’s hard when you can’t see properly,” she continues. “I want to…”
And then she takes the tip into her mouth, and everything inside of me short-circuits.
I’d been so close before, and I’m even closer now, and oh my God, the heat of her mouth and the grip of her lips… and the sight—it’s burned into my brain. Her beautiful face, her beautiful eyes looking up at me as her beautiful lips stretch around my cock.
She starts sucking, bobbing gently, using her hand where she can’t reach, and I squeeze my eyes shut. Focus on breathing. Ignore my labored sounds—wheezing, punctuated by groans—that I can’t seem to control.
I reach down and tunnel my fingers through her hair. But I do more damage than good, because that messy bun comes undone in my hand, and wild curls spread all around. Some of them tickle my thighs.
“Fucking hell, Harp… I can’t… you’re too good.” I dare to look down again and nearly come from what I see. There’s a smile in her eyes as she hastens her movements. I want to buck, my hips want to push deeper into that sweet mouth, but I resist the urge until my hand hurts from gripping the shower frame so hard.
This is about her. It should be about her. Her pleasure, what she wants, making her come. I need to put her first in all of this.
But that’s damned hard to remember when it feels like I’m about to come apart at the seams.
She swirls her tongue around my head, and I groan at the sudden spike of heat shooting through me. My fingers tighten in her hair. “Shit. Harper, that was…” She does it again and my words dissolve.
I lose them all.
Until she flicks her tongue back and forth on the sensitive spot beneath my head.
The edges of my vision turn black. “I’m going to come, I can’t?—”
She doesn’t stop. Doesn’t pull back. Just flicks her tongue over and over, and I roar, my fingers tightening on her curls as pleasure overwhelms me. It pounds down my spine, my balls tighten, and I explode. Pulse after pulse, and she never takes her mouth off me.
Stares at me through all of it.
I’m worried I might black out. Maybe I already have. But when I return to my senses, pleasure is still making my limbs feel heavy, and Harper is sitting back on her heels with a Cheshire smile on her face.
I give a hoarse chuckle. “Fucking hell. That was unreal.”
“Yeah? Better than your right hand?”
“Better is an understatement.” My breath is still coming fast. “I can’t believe you swallowed.”
Harper looks a bit embarrassed, but far too smug to let it take over. She shrugs. “I felt like it. You taste good. Clean.”
“You couldn’t have gotten me any fresher out of the shower.” I run a hand through my hair. “Shit, that was unexpected.”
“Thank you very much, Connovan.”
I glance down at my cock, now sated and half-hard, hanging between my legs. Don’t get used to it, I want to say. Instead, I reach for a towel and start rubbing my hair to get the worst of the dripping gone. “You’re talented in so many ways, Harp. You keep surprising me.”
She leans against the sink. “Friends take care of friends,” she says with a tiny smile. There’s color on her cheeks, like she’s a bit shy, too. “Your shower is larger than mine. Oooh, so is your bathtub. Look at that.”
I glance behind me. “Yeah. Not like I ever use it.”
“What? I take a bath at least twice a week here. It’s the best.”
“It sucks,” I say and grin at her. “And not in a good way.”
Harper rolls her eyes and pushes off the vanity. “Wow. Height of wit.”
“It’s early, and my mind was just blown. Give a man a few minutes.” I reach out and grab a handful of her T-shirt. “And where do you think you’re going?”
“To let the dogs out and have my coffee.”
I slide my palms around her, pulling her back to my front. Play with the hem of her T-shirt. It brushes along the tops of her thighs, and I bet she’s only wearing panties beneath it. “What about you? Don’t friends… take care of friends?”
She swallows audibly. “I’m not fresh out of the shower.”
“I’m never going to give a shit about that,” I say against her ear. “But there’s a very conveniently located shower here if you do.”
She starts to turn in my arms. “Maybe it’s?—”
A phone starts to ring in my bedroom, and a few seconds later, a dog barks. Stanley. Left alone in my room.
Harper breaks out of my arms and hurries to the bedroom. I wrap the towel around my waist and follow her.
The hot dog is bouncing around my nightstand where my phone is charging. Ringing loudly. I grab it and watch as Harper lifts the dog, who immediately quiets, now that he’s so diligently brought our attention to the dangerous electronic device.
It’s my assistant. “Hey,” I say. “Did you get the tickets?”
Harper is watching me, holding the puppy close to her. “Yes,” my assistant says. “They were surprised that you finally responded after all the invitations.”
“And you got two?”
“Yes,” she says.
I look at Harper. “Set up a few appointments with the department stores. I’ll also need something from the jewelers. Send me the catalog.”
Harper’s eyebrows rise. Oh la la, she mouths, still smiling.
“On it,” my assistant says. “Anything else?”
“Book a car for the night. I’ll be in the office soon,” I say and hang up.
Harper is giggling, trying to escape Stanley’s kisses. “You’re going somewhere extravagant?”
I raise an eyebrow. “I’m not. But we are. How do you feel about attending a movie premiere?”