Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
Max
I climbed into my shower and gripped my cock as the water ran over me. I gripped it as tightly as I could. I wanted her so badly it physically hurt. So badly that the more I stroked myself up and down, the worse it all became. Maybe the answer was not to do this at all, but rather turn the cold tap on full blast instead. But I couldn’t stop, because with each stroke I was imagining sinking into her over and over again. And each time I imagined it, the closer I got to my release and the faster I went.
“ MAX !”
“Shit!” I slipped on the shower floor and almost fell on my face when I heard her voice at the door. I grabbed the closest towel and wrapped it round me, trying to flatten my erection. Not working. Not working at all. I took another towel and draped it over my shoulder, making sure it hung over the tent that my cock was now making. I pushed the wet hair out of my face and walked over to the door as nonchalantly as possible.
I opened it and she looked away quickly.
“Oh . . . you’re . . . uh . . . Never mind. Never mind.” She turned and started making an escape, but I reached out and touched her elbow, bringing her to a stop.
“What’s up? It must be serious if you’re at my tent at eleven at night.”
“I kind of have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“It’s a mosquito-related problem. But I really don’t think now is the time. You’re wet and—”
“Don’t go. What’s wrong?” I tightened my grip on her elbow, not exactly holding her in place, but making it very clear I wanted her to stay. My cock wanted her to stay too.
“There’s a bite I can’t reach and I’m not going to be able to sleep and I need someone to press it and I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t an emergency, but it is. And for the record, this is not you coming to my rescue either.”
“Of course not.” I stepped back and pulled the curtain aside. “Come in.”
She walked in, eyes on the floor, avoiding my naked chest.
“Sorry to disturb you. I’m sure seeing me here was the furthest thing from your mind.”
Oh, how wrong she was. If she only knew how I’d just been thinking about her, cock in hand, I doubt she would have come to my room.
“Not a problem. Where’s this bite you need help with?” I asked as she shielded her eyes with her hand. I laughed. “Do you want me to put a shirt on?”
“Please.”
“Hang on.” I walked over to my suitcase, pulled out the nearest shirt and slipped it over my still wet body. It clung to my chest, but at least, thankfully, my hard-on had ceased and desisted.
“Okay, where is it?” I asked again.
“Right in the middle of my back, between my shoulder blades.” She pursed her lips and then raised her brows awkwardly.
“Well, you’re going to have to turn round and take your shirt off if you want me to help you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t believe this,” she muttered almost to herself, and then turned round. She pulled the back of her shirt up, but didn’t pull it off.
“Jesus, your back is totally red. What have you done, Ash?”
“I may have tried to get at it with an umbrella, and then rubbed it against the tent pole.”
“God. It’s really bad. You’re going to need some cream on that—your skin is so sensitive.”
“You remember that too.”
“I remember having to empty bottles of after-sun on you every time you went into the sun—you would burn at the drop of a hat.”
“True.”
“I can’t see the bite, though,” I said after scanning her back.
She sighed. “It’s under my bra strap. Don’t ask me how it got there, but it did.”
I stepped closer to her naked back. Red, naked back, but still naked and still more of her than I’d seen in years.
“I’m going to have to undo it.” The words had gotten stuck in my dry mouth and stumbled out with a small stutter.
She nodded and gave me a nervous, “Mmmm.”
I reached for her bra strap and my cock immediately hardened again. Shit, this was so inconvenient. I took the clasp in one hand and unclipped it with total ease, the kind of ease that comes from unclipping many bra straps one-handed. But this wasn’t any bra strap—this was hers. It fell open and her back was completely naked now.
“Can you see it?” she asked.
“I can.” I reached for the bite, but not before taking a total liberty. I laid my fingertip on her back, just below the bite and trailed it up slowly. Her skin pebbled in response, and I saw her shoulders rise as she sucked in a quick breath. I pressed my nail into the bite slowly, running my eyes over her back as I did it. I didn’t want this moment to end, and when it was done, I took another total liberty and trailed my thumb slowly down her spine until it reached her lower back.
“I have some moisturizing cream,” I said, removing my hand from her back.
She remained quiet for the longest time, and then gave an almost imperceptible nod. But it was all I needed. Was I being a total asshole, taking advantage of this situation? Probably. But was it going to stop me? Probably not. I reached into my bag for the cream, but when I saw the label on it I froze. It was a luxury body cream that had been gifted to me by one of the last women I’d dated. She was a model for the brand and had bought me the men’s range. Her almost completely naked body, glistening from the moisturizing cream in that magazine, flashed through my head and there was no way I was going to put this cream onto Ash’s body now. It felt contaminated in some way by someone else.
“Sorry, I must have left it.” I walked back to her and was about to do up her bra strap when she stopped me.
“It’s still itchy. Can you do it one more time, harder and deeper this time?”
I tried to pretend that her saying “harder and deeper” to me had no effect, but my cock immediately disagreed.
“Sure.” I lowered my finger to the bite and put my nail into it, pressed down hard and held it there. “Better?”
“Getting there,” she said.
I did it again, making another deeper cross in the bite and held it there for as long as I could.
“And now?”
“Much better, thank you,” she said, but didn’t move off.
I didn’t move either and waited for her to give me some sort of sign or signal as to what I could do next. And when she leaned back the tiniest bit, I moved in closer. So close that my cock was almost touching her. The tips of my fingers felt on fire. They longed to be tracing her back right now, but that would be taking it too far . . . or would it?
I brushed her back with my finger tentatively. It could have been perceived as an accidental brush, or more, depending on what she was thinking. And when I saw the way her skin responded, the way her shoulders jerked up at the sensation, and then the way her breath came out in one sharp burst, I knew what she was thinking.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Do you want me to stop?” I asked.
“I don’t . . .” Her voice was so breathy I could barely hear her. “I’m not supposed to be . . .” Her words said one thing, but her body said another. Still, I needed confirmation.
“Tell me to stop if you want me to,” I said softly into her ear.
She inhaled sharply and said the only words that I wanted to hear. “I don’t want you to stop.”
I didn’t need any more encouragement. I ran my fingertips all the way down her spine until they reached the arch in her lower back. Her body tensed, as if readying herself for something, so I gave her something . I slowly dipped just the tip of my thumb under the waistband of her shorts. This tiny move felt like the most erotic thing I’d ever done in my life. Nothing had ever turned me on more. Well, almost nothing, because when I dipped it in again and she moaned, I thought I was going to totally lose it.
I didn’t waste any time doing what I did next. I ran my hand from her back, to her side and then ran it round to the front of her, placing it on her stomach. I smiled. Her stomach was a little rounder now. It had been almost indented thirteen years ago, but I liked it way better now. I pulled her towards me, until her back pressed into my chest, her ass pressed against my hard cock and held her in place like that. I lowered my face to her neck and traced my rough skin on it. She moaned and pressed into me, giving me all the invitation I needed. I rested my chin on her shoulder and simply breathed her in for a blissful moment. She smelled amazing, even though there was no trace of that mystery scent from all those years ago. If this was going to happen, I was going to take my time with her. It was eleven o’clock now, and when morning came, I still wouldn’t be done with her. Not even vaguely.
I dragged my fingers around her belly button, fingertips barely touching her skin, but her reaction to it was powerful. She dropped her head back and moaned. My other hand went up to her T-shirt, and in one move I pulled it over her head and dropped it on the floor. And once I’d done that, I gripped her waist between both my hands. It was so small and petite. I remembered that so well. And my hands had grown, and like this, it felt as if I could wrap my hands round her entire waist. I tested that theory, moving my hands to her hips, stretching my fingers round them and pulling her back into me even more. She reacted by arching her back.
There were a few things I could do right now: I could run both my hands up her body and slip them over her breasts. I could run one down between her legs, cup her there, while the other sought out her nipples, which I was sure were hard. I could slip both my hands into her shorts. Use one to push her legs apart and the other to find the spot I wanted to start exploring for hours. But none of those felt right for this moment with her. Having her back to me wasn’t right either. I wanted to see her. I wanted to stare into her eyes and convey to her every single thing I’d been feeling for the last thirteen years. But as I started to turn her, she pulled away.
“Jesus! Shit. Okay!” She pushed herself away from me and stepped back.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m not meant to be doing this.” She gestured to the space between us. “We can’t be doing this . . . can we? ”
I was about to answer her, but she seemed to have started a conversation with herself.
“No, we can’t. No, especially not . . . him . . . no!”
“I’m here!” I held my hand up and she looked at me. She was not wearing her T-shirt, a fact that I think she hadn’t realized and, my God, her bra was completely see-through. The white mesh left little to the imagination, and her hard pink nipples pushed into the material, just screaming to be pulled into my mouth.
“What is wrong with you?” she suddenly asked in an accusatory tone.
“Sorry, what?”
“One minute you’re pressing my mosquito bite and the next you’re touching me and then we’re . . . This should not be happening.”
“I said you could tell me to stop whenever you wanted to.”
“I know! And I have! But that’s not the point, Max.”
“What’s the point?” I asked.
“The point is you’re making it so, so hard to say no and that’s not fair!”
I smiled at her, despite the fact that I could see she was currently battling some sort of internal war.
“Stop smiling at me like that!” she said.
“Like what?”
“Like this is all fun and games when it isn’t, not after everything that happened between us. Not after thirteen years and a mountain of emotional shit.”
I stopped smiling and started nodding. “Sorry, you’re right. This isn’t as simple as two people who are attracted to each other. It’s complicated.”
“Complicated is an understatement. And besides . . .” She started walking towards the door now, as if her internal battle was over and one side had won. She looked determined. “I am on a detox! And you are not healthy for me! You are cheesecake, Max, and I need celery juice.”