Chapter 37
Pen
He doesn't stop until he presses me into the stone wall, right between the two shower sets. My crop top leaves lots of skin exposed, and I hiss at the contact with the cold surface. He doesn't react.
He stares at my lips again. "Do you want me to kiss you again?"
I nod.
"Do you want shower fun?" He asks.
I nod again.
"Do you want me to touch you?"
I nod, more enthusiastically than before.
"Then show me." He puts a hand on the point where my shoulder meets my neck. "Kiss me and show me."
His hand is so large, his thumb circles my throat and makes arches on my pulse. The tone he uses should be familiar, but it isn't. He's always been bossy, but tonight there's a new tone to it that trickles down my spine and sets my nerves on fire.
I spring forward and aim for his mouth. The hand on my neck keeps me back.
He gives me a feral smile. "Try harder."
I gasp. He played me. I shoot my hands forward, fist them on the white fabric of his shirt, and pull him to me. He chuckles like this is a game, and presses himself to me, but doesn't kiss me.
He places both hands above my shoulders, bracketing my head. "Whatever is on your bucket list, I'll do. Because I'm your friend, and I promised I'd do it."
I grab his thick forearm with both hands. "You don't know what's on that list."
"Maybe I won't be as shocked as you think, with what's on your list."
"I see." I'm breathing hard. "We're about to discover things we would have never known of each other, had we not gotten married."
"Pen." He comes so close to kissing me. "Try not to be shocked by what you'll learn about me."
I barely have a moment to give him a last nod, before his mouth is on me again. I close my eyes, enjoying the languid rhythm he sets this time. He trails his lips on my jaw, my neck, and my legs lose their strength all over again.
He licks a patch of sensitive skin. His warm breath follows. I grab the plush flesh above his hips, in a silent request for more pressure. He understands and pushes harder on me. My whole body softens. The building sensations in my body could drop me to my knees, but he doesn't let me.
He turns on both showers at the same time. I gasp.
Bear gives me an open mouth kiss right on my throat, like he wants to eat my sounds. Or me. I cling to his sides, gazing around to make sense of everything. It seems that while he distracted me with his mouth and kept me in place with his body, his hands were busy setting me up for a surprise.
Now we're in a storm of our own making.
"Fuck," I breathe.
"How close is this to what you imagined?"
"Close," I breathe.
My hair is getting plastered to my skin, and he clears my face with gentle strokes.
I get a chance to study him, and the sight has my heart beating a long, steady rhythm.
A small wrinkle marks his brow. His intense eyes gaze at me in very much the same way I gaze at him.
The line of his mouth hints at the concentration with which he traces my face, to then run gentle fingertips over my slick skin.
His fingers catch on the straps of my crop top. He takes it in stride, and pulls at it until the wet fabric slides down my arm.
I stare at his hand on my shoulder. "When I thought of a moment like this, I didn't expect to be wearing clothes in the shower."
"We'll make it naked in here one day." He drops a kiss on my shoulder. His hands travel down my arms.
"We're not getting naked today?"
He smirks. "Still desperate?"
I stare at him. His white shirt is completely drenched.
It sticks to his skin, semi-translucent now, to the point I could trace his tattoos with a fingertip and not miss a single line or curve.
The shape of his chest and tummy calls for my hands, and I revel in the fact that, for the first time ever, I can do as I wish.
I place my hand on his luscious pecs, then run them up his thick shoulders.
"We're moving too slow, Leon."
His lips take on a playful slant. "I have a plan."
"Your jeans are going to be uncomfortably wet."
The path down his body tantalizes my fingers, making me want to slow down, explore everything, touch more. I don't let myself. As soon as I make it to the waist of his pants, I open the button and unzip him.
"Fuck." The sound comes out through ground teeth.
I stare up at him. "Am I making you desperate now?"
"Plenty desperate."
I pull down at the cotton, but it's clinging to him. Not that I don't understand the sentiment.
"Stop," he says.
I take away my hands and he takes a step back.
"Don't undress," he says.
I don't. I watch him get rid of his jeans, and throw them away to the farthest corner by the window.
"This is how far I'm going tonight." He stares me up and down. "But, you? I need to taste you again."
I gulp. My chest loses its rhythm for a moment or two.
"Seems you didn't get enough of it this morning," I tease.
I'm sure he heard the way my voice strained.
A corner of his mouth turns up. I bite my lip. I've seen him in shorts, covering less territory than this, but it's like my brain has forgotten all about how casual that used to be. How platonic. How damn friendly.
There's nothing amicable about the way he takes a step closer to me.
Water keeps falling around us. It rains over my body, and steams up the space between us.
His nostrils flare. "I can smell the products you wear fading away."
I lift my hands to my face. "Is my makeup running?"
He gives me one of those serious, intense looks. "You look stunning."
He lifts a hand and collars my neck with it. I'm sure he can feel my pulse, if I can hear my blood rushing in my ears. It's an echo of the water running around us.
His hand travels down, sliding on my skin. It makes a path between my breasts and over the lace of my top, down my belly, and onto my skin. He hooks his fingers over the waistband of my skirt and, rather than pull me from it, he uses it as an anchor to pull himself closer to me.
I dig my nails on the stone behind me, needing an anchor myself. My mouth opens in a silent request for a kiss and, God. Finally. He kisses me again.
His hands surround my waist. They dig on my flesh. I can lean on him now, and I let my hands travel up his thick forearms, up his biceps, and under his shirt sleeves.
He kisses my neck, journeying down to my chest in short, leisurely moves. One of his hands makes its way up my side and around my ribcage, until his large hand edges the round of my breast.
He runs an arch with his thumb. It passes over my hard nipple, making me shiver.
"I never thought I'd be doing this with you," he admits in a deep voice.
"Me neither, but…"
He lets me collect my thoughts, difficult as it is under the circumstances. Especially so, when his thumb pulls at the edge of my top, and pulls it away to reveal my breast.
"But what, Pen?"
He teases my nipple. Fuck. My eyes close with the power of the tremors going up my body, tingling up my back.
"It feels right," I confess. "It feels like exactly what I need."
"Good," he says, before he drops to his knees.
"Oh my God."
He pulls my skirt up, until it's scrunched up at my waist. His hands come down to grab at my thighs, and his mouth closes on an open mouthed kiss on one of them, then the other.
"Oh, fuck."
He chuckles. "Am I close to what you dreamed of?"
"Yes. Also— not enough." I dig my fingers into his thick hair and pull. "Didn't you say you wanted to taste me again?"
He runs his tongue up my thigh, getting closer to the place where I want him most. "I'm getting to it, Pen."
"Too. Damn. Slow." I pull from his hair, trying to drag him to the right place.
He resists. "Tell me again I'm making you desperate."
"I'm in need, Leon Karlsen." I try again.
He doesn't move. He doesn't even wince at what must be stinging pain from me pulling his hair.
"But are you in need of me?" He asks.
I pant. It's a dangerous question.
I lick my bottom lip. "I'm in need of something I think only you can give me."
The words come out soft, and I'm not sure he can hear it with the white noise of running water around us. He gets a soft smile on his lips.
"Close enough," he says, and closes his lips over my mound.
I buckle. "Shit. Yes. Ah. Leon."
He kisses me. Bites me softly. I immediately lose control of my lungs. My heart follows suit.
His dark eyes lock with mine. Like a man pushing the limits, he dares me with the slant of his brow, and the curl of his lips. With a single finger, he pushes my underwear aside.
"Oh, Pen." He licks his lips. "I'm only getting started."