Chapter 6 #2
She said nothing. Just sniffed back the tears that hadn’t fallen.
“I even got that fizzy stuff you like putting in your bath,” he confirmed, a small smile pulling at his lips. “That cupcake-shaped bath bomb thingy.”
Rylee said nothing in response, and all her silence did was ache his heart just a little more.
Xander felt like he had to do something—anything—so he told her, “I think you could use one of those baths right now. I’mma go run the water for you. Cool?”
There was silence and stillness at first, until Rylee gave Xander just a glimmer of hope by nodding her answer.
The moment Xander stood from his spot, Rylee was back to being a ball in bed, pulling the covers over herself.
He glanced at her for another moment, forcing himself to step into her en suite to run the bath in the solo tub beside the stall.
How could I wait something like this out? he asked himself.
Seeing her like that and leaving her alone just didn’t seem like an option.
As soon as the water was running and at a temperature Xander felt was suitable, he dropped the bath bomb, watching it fizz and transform the bath water from clear to powder pink.
He set up the jasmine by her tub, going to her soon after.
“Aight, it’s set up for you,” he told her, gently moving the covers off her. “You ready?”
All she did was nod, sitting up with his help.
Xander scanned her face, sadness etched beautifully on it.
It both broke his heart and put it back together seeing her like that. He hated to see it but wanted to be there to make it right too.
So he undressed her, removing the hoodie that looked several sizes too big for her.
He was removing her leggings when he realized the hoodie was a men’s hoodie.
And it didn’t take long to notice it wasn’t his.
It had to have belonged to Lennox.
He swallowed hard at that assumption, dismissed the thought as he walked her to the water and helped her inside.
Rylee sat back in the tub, closing her eyes.
Xander forced his attention away from how the bath bomb’s suds bubbled against Rylee’s full breasts, instead leaning forward to press a kiss to her forehead.
“I’m gonna set up the tacos for you, aight?”
She’d only nodded, eyes still closed.
Xander handled the setup, even left the room to get drinks.
When he returned and checked on Rylee, he noticed her bathing herself, soaping her body, and that gave him some relief.
After a little more time, he was back in the bathroom, with a towel, helping her out.
Gave her the space to do what she usually did after a bath—moisturize her skin, slip into her cotton robe.
And when she returned to her room and sat on her bed, she spoke her first words.
“I really hate this day,” she admitted, right before biting into her taco.
Xander nodded. “I know.”
They ate their tacos in silence, Xander watching her the whole time.
What he wouldn’t have done to take the pain off her—even for a moment—so he could see the woman he loved happy again, even for just a second.
He’d much rather her chastise him for not only popping up yet again, but for waltzing into her home after using her emergency key without her permission.
Anything but this.
After they finished eating, Rylee said she wanted to lay down again. So, Xander facilitated that, clearing the containers, making her bed, and getting into it with her.
Instead of curling up into a ball like how he found her, she curled up against Xander.
Rylee buried her face in his chest and cried.
Her tears bled through his tee, making him hold her closer to himself.
He held her how she held him—but even tighter.
And he didn’t stop her. Didn’t speak.
Xander just held her close while stroking her back… slowly, lovingly.
Then, he told her, “You don’t ever have to hold it in with me, Snoop. You don’t ever have to do that with me.”
Rylee nodded her understanding, pressing her face even firmer against him, fisting his shirt until her sobs transitioned to her just sniffing back her tears.
They laid there, Xander rubbing her back, loving the feel of her in his arms, but hating why they were in that position.
She was hurting, and there was nothing he could do about that.
And that was a fact that made him want to speed up time so she could get past this day.
The hand that fisted his shirt moved beneath it.
Xander didn’t mind. It wasn’t anything new.
Rylee loved running her hands up and down his stomach, her fingertips gliding along the ripples of muscles there.
But soon her soft touches turned to caresses, something Xander’s body noticed before his mind could process the shift.
He lowered his attention to her hand, and it was like as soon as he paid that hand attention, Rylee stopped herself.
She was pulling her hand from under his shirt when he pressed his hand on top of hers, stopping her from moving it.
“Why’d you stop?” he asked low.
Rylee sighed, shaking her head.
He wanted to push, get her to say what he suspected. Instead, he chose to be direct for the both of them.
“You deserve to feel good, Rylee.”
Xander’s eyes were on her, focused on the top of her head, but kept his attention there as if he were looking into her beautiful eyes.
“And if you wanted me to make you feel good right now… I could do that.”
With that, he moved his hand under his shirt, placing it against hers again.
He encouraged her to move it in the same caressing pattern she was doing before she stopped herself.
She looked up at him, her eyes red, just as puffy, probably even more than they were when Xander first arrived.
The sight alone made the corners of his eyes prick with tears.
“I’m here for you in whatever way you need me to be here for you,” he reminded, eyes locked with hers. “Whatever way. You understand?”
Rylee’s eyes darted between his for a beat, maybe two, before she slowly lifted herself from her resting position to climb up Xander—only stopping when she softly pressed a kiss to his lips.
Xander always understood that cue.
A kiss… then a twist… him on top, or taking control in some way.
But that day, he just laid there and let Rylee move at her own pace.
He kissed her back as she straddled him.
Let her dip her hand into his boxers to pull out his erection in one smooth move.
Not rehearsed. Just a routine they’d developed between them that felt lived-in.
The only difference was that instead of reaching for the night table’s drawer like she usually did, she just moved the hem of her robe out of the way so she could guide him in between her wet walls.
Xander groaned the more she rested her weight on him.
It was the first time he’d felt her with nothing between them, and he bit his tongue on purpose to keep grounded in the new feeling.
He grunted in rhythm as Rylee rolled her hips, pressing her hand to his chest for leverage.
Her eyes were closed, mouth slung open, and her head tipped back, surrendering to the motion. The feeling.
He watched it all, noticing as the goosebumps graced her skin in waves, like a video of a timelapse from day to night.
“Mmm-hmm, take what you need, baby,” he groaned beneath her moans. He held on to her waist as she pressed into him, shuddering from the sensations he could feel building, by how her walls flexed around his stiffness.
“Come here.” He sat up with her, pulling her legs on either side of himself in their seated position.
She felt different to him. And no, not because there was nothing between them.
Rylee felt more open. Vulnerable.
Which made him feel more protective of her… and even more available than usual.
In his heart.
With his body.
They kept their eyes on each other, her lips parting just like her breasts, full and rising with every upward thrust he met beneath her rolling hips, framed by the fall of her open robe.
“Do I feel good, baby?”
She moaned and nodded slowly.
“Good. That’s good.” Xander cradled the side of her face in his hand, maintaining his rhythm, and loving how steady her eyes were on him. “You’re allowed to feel this good and I’mma always make sure you do. Just let me.”
Her brows relaxed into their perfect arches. Her breathing escalated.
Breasts trembling along with the rest of her frame had Xander putting more power in his upstrokes.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you,” he returned. “Every part of you.”
The moment those words left his lips…
“Ooh, Xander!” Rylee shouted, desperate moans following as her eyes rolled back and her head dropped forward.
Xander caught her face, lifting it to press a kiss to her, leaning her back until her back hit the mattress, and positioning himself between her thighs.
As soon as he slid back in, he lost himself.
They lost themselves.
In each other.
In the moment.
And after all that friction they built between them, just as Xander felt that familiar pressure rise—more than ready to pull out—Rylee tightened her thighs around him, hooking her ankles at his back, and bringing her lips to his ear.
The rush was too fierce and came so fast that Xander’s words were caught in his throat.
The need to tell her he was coming and to pull out vanished… replaced with the insatiable need to go deeper. Go harder.
Rylee’s moans in his ears. The suction of her walls trapping him in warmth.
She kissed his neck and ran her soft hands down his back, fueling him to keep going, leaving Xander with only one option…
To come.
His jaw dropped. Mind went blank. Body took over his actions.
His hips instinctively knew what to do as he coasted through thrusts, his release peaking.
Rylee held him close to her the whole time, making him bare his teeth as his only hope not to rocket off that bed as he pounded in then out in uncontrollable repetition.
When his frame stiffened, every bone in his body working in concert to get him to his end, Rylee pulled him down to her, crashing her lips into his… undoing him completely.
The sounds from him were unrecognizable.
So was the feeling.
Raw.
Untethered.
Absolute bliss.
Comfort like no other.
And there wasn’t a damn thing he wanted to change about the moment…
Except that it ended.
Xander caught his breath against her, then, conscious of his weight on top of her, rolled off and landed on the pillow beside her.
Their routine—except this time, things were… different.
He pulled Rylee to him, and she pressed her head to his chest.
There were no words at first.
And none were necessary.
The rhythm of her heart had slowed.
The sniffling had stopped.
The moment had done its job.
And to Xander, that was all that mattered.
The room was quiet after. So quiet they could hear cars passing outside of the brownstone.
Xander’s mind was everywhere but the present.
In the afterglow of fullness.
In the warmth of Rylee’s skin to his skin.
“I didn’t think you could be here for this part,” she said in a whisper, gaining his attention again in their silence.
“I didn’t think anyone could fix that feeling… make me feel something other than defeated today.”
“I didn’t come to fix it, baby,” he told her, kissing her forehead and leaving his lips there.
“I just wanted to be here while it hurt so you weren’t alone with all that.”
Rylee held him tighter in that instance, saying nothing.
Again… not needing to.
A short time later, she was drifting off to sleep in his arms… leaving Xander awake, his eyes fixed on her ceiling.
And in that moment, without even thinking about it,
He decided to accept every and anything that came with loving her…
Including her undying love for another man.