Chapter 29 #2
His eyes twinkle when he sees the way my body is responding to him but his touch remains soft and intimate, choosing instead to lean forward to place a kiss on my belly that makes my toes curl before he rises to his feet.
He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls us both directly under the spray to rinse off the suds, and my heart beats like crazy—so hard that I think the sound echoes off the tiles—because he doesn’t let go of my waist even as he hands the bottle to me.
His gaze is searing as my trembling hands find his shoulders, rubbing the soap into his skin, mapping his hard pecs, following the now wet soft hair that leads to his happy trail, feeling the way his muscles jump under my fingers when I get too close to his thickening cock.
My face must be on fire when he tightens his arm around me and I look up to meet his dark eyes.
“There it is,” he mutters in a deep voice that sends a shiver through me as his other palm comes up to cup my cheek. “That blush I can’t get enough of.”
His hair is almost black the way it’s slicked back by the water, his stubble darker, his lips wet.
And I’ve never wanted to kiss someone more in my life.
I lick my own lips instinctively and he tenses under my hands as they travel up and up, until they’re tangling in his hair and I’m rising on my toes to get closer.
“I need to feel you, Ethan,” I whisper raggedly, brushing my lips against his. “I want to feel nothing but you.”
A sound that speaks of ache and longing rips out of him as he bridges the final inch separating us and takes my mouth.
The kiss is soft, and hard, and endless. It’s soft pulls on my lips that make me boneless, and hard, claiming licks and strokes that scream of desperation.
But above all, it’s endless, bottomless need. Deep and beautifully painful because it’s a pain that feels impossible to live without.
A pain that steals my breath. That breaks me apart and puts me together.
A pain that feels like aching hope and happiness.
That feels like love.
Realization trickles in slowly, languidly, as Ethan kisses me again and again under the falling water.
It’s not sudden and abrupt, but merely something that’s been sitting there inside me quietly and patiently since the moment I met him, waiting to be acknowledged and set free.
Something I’ve never known, not until now.
I love him. And I think… I think that he might love me, too.
My eyes burn behind my closed eyelids but my tears simply blend with the water raining down on us. My hands tighten on him and I pull my body closer to his, needing more than ever to be as close as possible.
We part for oxygen but I don’t need it. I only need him.
“This is what I wanted to do,” I rasp against his lips, tilting back my head just enough so I can look into his eyes. His kind, warm eyes that have always seen me.
“What, baby?” he asks, brushing my hair back, running his hand down my back, doing everything but stop touching me.
“Before everything that happened tonight, I thought about what I wanted to do the moment I saw you and this is what I wanted to do. I imagined how you would come to pick me up and I would run to you and kiss you until we forgot that we were out in public and not alone.” I swallow hard because despite what actually happened, I can still do it.
I can still kiss him and feel him. I’m still okay and safe in his arms. “I wanted to kiss you and tell you how much I missed you. I didn’t even get to tell you I missed you. ”
I hate the tremble that threatens to bleed into my voice but this time there’s anger in that tremble. Anger for the fear that man caused me, for what he almost took from me just because he felt like he could.
Ethan must sense my agitation and distress because his palm comes up to knead my nape, soothing me, calming me.
“Then this is exactly what happened, my sweet Ollie,” he says with an expression of such open adoration I can’t look away. “I came to pick you up and your face lit up when those sliding doors opened and you saw me.”
My heart picks up speed, my stomach fluttering.
“It did?” I whisper.
“Yes,” he nods. “You saw me and ran towards me, and I scooped you up in my arms and kissed you until everyone around us disappeared.”
His lips brush against mine, his mouth moving on mine gently, making my knees weak.
“And then what happened?”
He smiles down at me and it’s almost enough to make me believe it’s all real.
“Then you told me how much you missed me and I told you that I missed you, too and that I couldn’t wait to come get you.”
“Yes,” I breathe out, hanging from every word he’s saying, letting him sweep me away to the picture he’s drawing.
A picture I yearn for.
“And that’s how we got here. You were tired from work, and we decided to take a shower together and rest for today.
” His forehead drops onto mine in the way he does that I love, and my eyes slip shut.
“So now I’m going to shut off the water before it gets cold and towel you dry before you get cold,” he grumbles out and a small chuckle escapes me, my chest feeling light, so light.
“And after our cuts are taken care of, I’m taking you to my bed where I can hold you all night and feel you breathe against me, and maybe convince myself that you’re safe and sound in my arms.” He lifts my head and my eyes crack open, locking with his. “How does that sound?”
My fingers slip from his hair and slide down to his chest, where his heart beats fast against my wet palms, and my smile mirrors his own.
“It sounds perfect.”