Chapter 20 Grant
Present Day
When I’m finally able to get off the phone and step back into the kitchen to get Taylor another pill, she’s staring off into space.
After all these years, she still takes my breath away.
Even with her hair in a knot on top of her head, baggy sweatpants, and an oversized shirt, she’s still the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.
Still the hottest woman on the face of the planet too. Hell, the universe.
As comfortable as she looks right now, I know she’s in pain and needs to get moving or she won’t make it to Ivory’s for lunch.
“Here.” She jolts slightly, not realizing I’d come back in the room.
When she looks up at me, I hand her the pill and a glass of water, taking the coffee mug from her and placing it softly on the table behind me, then I hold my hands out to help her off the couch.
“Let’s get you in the bath.” I wait as Taylor unwraps herself from the blanket she’s tucked into and moves the heating pad off her lap.
She passes me the empty water glass, and I put it down beside the coffee mug.
“I can stand on my own, ya know?” The sass means she’s feeling a little better after a cup of caffeine.
“Just let me help you.”
“No funny business.”
When I only watch her as she walks down the hall to her room, she lifts a brow at me and says, “You coming or am I drawing the bath myself?”
God, I wish I was coming. This self-imposed no orgasm rule is killing me. By the time we reach whatever breakthrough I’m hoping for, I don’t even know if my balls will be intact.
Ducking into the hall bathroom, I grab the new bubble bath and salts I stashed under the sink, hoping the combination works at soothing her cramps.
A chuckle tumbles out of me at the sight of her waiting for me expectantly, sitting on the closed lid of the toilet when I walk into her bathroom. All bark and no bite.
“What’s that?” she asks, pointing to the bag in my hand.
“Can’t have a bath without bubbles.” I crank on the hot water and wait until the steam starts to rise. Plugging the deep soaker tub, I dump a heavy amount of bath salts into the bottom of the tub and swirl them around, hissing at the water temperature.
Taylor laughs from her perch, and I cut her a look, playfully. “What did you think would happen, dummy? You turned it all the way to hot.”
“It only works if it’s super hot.”
“Are you planning to burn my skin off?”
“So much sass.” I dump the bubbles in next, the lavender aroma instantly filling the air. Once the tub is halfway filled, I turn on the cold water so it will mix nicely and cool down the water without making it too cold.
“Do you need me to get you anything?” I ask her. She shakes her head. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”
It takes all my willpower to walk out the door and leave her. All I can think about is her undressing and sinking beneath the bubbles. The sounds that will come out of her mouth when the warmth seeps into her skin. The sight of her covered in nothing but suds.
“Grant,” she calls to me when I cross the threshold back into her bedroom. Turning, I take in her soft smile and weary eyes from the pain, “Thank you.”
“Anything for you, Stella. Take your time.”
To distract myself from the desire coursing in my veins, I make quick work of freshening up the common area.
I drop the coffee cup in the sink, wipe down the counter, and put away the remnants of breakfast. Moving back to the living room, I unplug the heating pad and fold it on top of the coffee table.
The blanket gets folded and tossed over the back of the couch the way Taylor likes it.
Looking around, I take in all the small changes that she’s made to the space. The candles in the center of the table. The flowers in the kitchen. The books stacked up on the shelf in the corner. Her shoes in the entryway and her bag hanging on the hook.
It’s all the things I’ve missed. The combination of us.
A phone chimes from the couch, and I find her phone tucked between the cushions. She likes to listen to music or a book when she takes a bath, so before I can talk myself out of it, I grab a bottle of water from the fridge and move back to her room.
I’m playing with fire. I know it, and yet, I can’t stop. Knocking on the doorframe, I wait until she says I can come in. When I do, the error of my ways is staring me straight in the face—holding a vibrator.
“I was wondering if you’d come back,” she taunts me with a smug grin.
Holding up her phone, I try to keep my eyes on hers and not on the barely covered parts of her body I’m dying to look at, as I say, “You left your phone in the living room. I thought you might need it?”
“Why? So I can watch porn?”
I choke at the image those words conjure up.
“Music,” I cough out, trying to clear the fog in my head.
She waves the small waterproof bullet vibrator. “Care to tell me what this is?”
“Orgasms help with period pain.”
“I know that.” She points the vibrator at her chest and then points it back at me. “How do you know that?”
“I told you, I did some research.” Orgasms are proven to relax the muscles and soothe cramps in some women. I wish I knew whether it was a proven method to help Taylor, but I wouldn’t mind testing the theory.
She swirls her hands through the bubbles, lifting a brow at me. “And you, what, thought you’d help me out?” Her eyes rake slowly down my body.
I shift uncomfortably, unsure how to respond to that and urging my dick to calm down when her penetrating gaze reaches my crotch.
I’d love nothing more than to help her with it.
As much as I’d like to claim her, to make her mine again, we’re skirting around the edge of what this all means, and I can’t allow myself to go there until I know it’s real.
Until I know I won’t lose her again. Because if I let myself give her everything and she changes her mind, I won’t survive it.
When I still haven’t answered her first question, she meets my eyes again and continues, “What happened to ‘the only one who makes you orgasm is me’ rule?” She deepens her voice to imitate me.
Who am I kidding? It won’t make a damn bit of difference if I fuck her or not. My heart is already involved. That last barrier won’t change anything.
“I can make an exception. Unless you’d rather not.”
Her eyes heat me from the inside out. Again, She drags them from my head to my feet, intentionally stopping on the bulge in the front of my joggers. “What if we made it a mutually beneficial arrangement?”
“What do you propose?” My cock is already hardening at the swell of her boobs peeking out above the bubbles. Each intake of breath pushes them higher, almost giving me the view I want but teasing me instead.
“You do you, and I do me.” She shrugs like she didn’t just suggest we masturbate together.
A pained whimper falls from my throat. “Tay.”
“Come on, you’re as desperate for release as I am. I felt your dick under my feet earlier, and I can see how hard you are from here.”
“Having you here has me hard as fuck all the time.”
“Didn’t think that through did you, hot stuff?”
“Wouldn’t have changed a thing. I want you here.”
She swallows thickly. Fuck it.
“You want to play? Let’s play.” Reaching behind my head, I grip the collar of my T-shirt and pull it over my head. Her eyes latch onto the ring strung on the gold chain around my neck.
In a breathy whisper, she asks, “Do you always wear that?”
“Every single day.”
“Come here.” She rasps, tears brimming her eyes.
“No.”
“No?” She rears back in surprise.
“I’m not going to touch you. You’re going to get off to the sound of my voice and the feel of that vibrator on your hot cunt and I’m going to get off on watching.”
She bites her lip, considering, then challenges. “Fine. Do your worst.”
“I plan to. Move the bubbles. Let me see what I’ve missed.” Dipping my thumbs into the waistband of my pants, I drop them and my briefs in one move and step out of them on my way to the tub.
“What are you doing?” Her eyes flare but she pushes the bubbles around in the water, revealing her tits.
“Getting comfortable for the show.” I sit on the ledge opposite her head so I can see her full body submerged in the water.
The rosy pink of her nipples has my mouth watering.
What I wouldn’t give to suck them into my mouth the way I know she likes.
As the bubbles part from the swipe of her arm, I see her toned stomach leading to the apex of her clenched thighs.
Her legs are pressed so tightly together, I know she’s pulsing with need.
“At least get it wet for me?” She holds out the neon vibrator with a cocky smirk. I forgot what it was like challenging her in bed. Taylor was never one to back down when it came to sexual gratification.
“With pleasure.” I reach out and take it from her.
The second my fingers come in contact with hers, my cock twitches and electricity sparks up my arm.
I maintain eye contact with her, open my mouth, and put the small device inside, coating it with my saliva.
Her eyes flare and the pulse at the base of her throat intensifies.
Instead of taking it out of my mouth, I pull her hand closer and spit it back into her palm.
“Now open your legs.” I spit into my hand and wrap it around my already leaking cock.
“Yes, sir.” Her legs fall open revealing her waxed pussy with a landing strip, leading to what I desperately want to sink into.
“Taylor,” I growl and pump my fist one time.
“What?” she asks, mocking me.
“You know what.”
“This is your show, Daddy. I’m just doing what I’m told.”
“Goddamnit, Taylor.” She’s going to fucking kill me.
“Do you want me to put this wet vibe on my drenched pussy?” The whirring sound when she turns the vibrator on and dips it slowly beneath the water has me squeezing my shaft in anticipation.
“Stop testing me.”
“Or what?” she challenges and runs it along her pubic bone.
“That’s it. Tease yourself with it. Don’t touch yourself yet. I want you desperate for it.”
“I’m already desperate,” she confesses on a breathy gasp.
“Serves you right. Run it across the other side, draw a triangle over your skin.” I don’t look away as she drags the vibe down to the top of her slit.
“Stop.” She freezes and locks eyes with me.
“Tease, Tay. Don’t touch that to your clit yet,” I command.
A pink flush blooms on her chest and up her neck.
“I need it.” She rotates her hips but moves the vibrator away from her clit.
“Now you know what it feels like.” I pump my hand again, hanging on by a thread. “To want something so intensely, but it being just out of reach. Withheld from you when you need it most.”
“Don’t be cruel,” she gasps.
“Not cruel, baby, you’ll get to come soon. But first, I’m going to make you work for it.”
“Grant, please.”
“I love it when you beg for me. I missed that sound so much. Do you know how many times I’ve imagined you on your knees for me when I jerk off?
How many nights I’ve wished it was your pussy squeezing my cock instead of my hand?
Tell me, Tay, did you wish it were me when you were playing with yourself? When someone else had what was mine?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“I always pictured you.” She continues edging herself without me having to direct her. I watch as she moves the vibe over the inside of her thigh, close but not quite touching her center.
“Damn right, because your pussy is mine.”
“If this belongs to you, then your cock belongs to me.”
“Fuck yeah, it does. Branded it for you too.”
“What?” she croaks, in a lustful haze.
Standing I lean over her chest and show her the tattooed star at the base of my shaft beneath the piercing she loved.
“Fuck.” Her hips tilt up, seeking the vibe where it rests above her core.
“Circle it around your clit,” I command. She obeys. With each pass around her clit, I allow myself a stroke.
“Who owns your pussy?” I demand.
“You,” she cries as her legs shake.
“Not yet.” I pump harder and faster. “Match my pace. Faster.”
“If I go faster, I’m going to come.” Her pants drive me past the point of no return. My balls tighten and heat spreads through me.
“Hold it to your clit.”
“Grant,” she screams, pressing the vibrator onto the bundle of nerves and I lose it.
“Fuuuck,” I groan, and come all over her chest.
“Yes!” Her body recoils with her shout. Water sloshes over the edge of the tub and onto the floor as her orgasm hits her.
“Good girl, come for me like I’m the one fucking you. Give it all to me.” With her eyes on mine, she reaches up and slides her finger into the wedding band dangling between us, holding tight as she rides the wave.
I love you.
Swallowing down the words I desperately want to say, I ask, “Are you okay?”
“Are you?”
“Fine.”
No, I’m not. This was a terrible idea. I knew my heart was too involved and that being physical in any capacity would only make me want her more. The problem is, I don’t know if she wants me, and that is almost too much to bear.
“Grant . . .” Her finger slips from the ring and the reality of the boundary we just obliterated crashes over me.
“I’ll leave you to finish your bath. I need to get to the office anyway.”
Her defeated sigh follows me all the way to my room, where I jump in a cold shower and try to forget the need still pulsing through me.
It’s impossible.