14. — rain. #3
He stood up and backed up before helping her down. She put away the lidocaine spray but paused to watch Nico in the mirror behind her when she straightened to her full height again.
“I don’t know,” he said, like he was scrolling on his phone and not gazing upon the swell of her backside, “but I don’t think you need the heels for that ass, Frankie.”
Heat washed her cheeks.
“What was that shit earlier about periods and weight, anyway?”
Her blush deepened for a different reason now. “How much of that did you hear?”
“Enough that I’m concerned.”
“Fuck off,” Frankie muttered, turning around fast to leave and poking him with two fingers against his chest, “eavesdropping is a bad habit of yours, Nico.”
“Hey.”
He slammed the bathroom door closed before she could leave and snatched her right back to her spot locked with her back against the vanity.
His hands found the edge of the counter, holding tight and locking her in as he leaned closer.
Something akin to fury, but it looked a lot like passion, too, found her in his unwavering stare.
“Fucking right I worry about you,” he said low and dark, “ever since I watched you do to yourself what you did that night. Did you think I brought you those cinnamon rolls you like from a place thirty minutes out of my way every night I showed up at your place for nothing? Oh, and that iced coffee I bring you in the mornings? Vanilla protein powder added, every single time. Girl, if I ever find out you’re doing that shit to yourself again, you and me are gonna be reevaluating what we want together. Do you hear me?”
She did all she could, nod.
His hands found her face then, and he pressed kiss after kiss to her jaw, chin, and lips until she started kissing him back. He caught the single tear that fell from her eyelashes with the pad of his thumb, swiping it away before it could do any damage.
“None of that,” he joked, “or Carina will have my head.”
She ignored that.
“I haven’t been doing anything. Just so you know.”
He nodded, that stare of his drinking her in again. “Oh, trust me. I know. And I love it.”
That felt a lot more like I love you.
“What I wouldn’t give right now for thirty seconds alone with you behind a locked door in that dress,” he added.
She grinned. “You’re so bad.”
“Hey, no sex needed. That’s the rule.”
Her resolve weakened.
Hell, what resolve?
Frankie reached over and twisted the lock on the doorknob. “Thirty seconds. Locked door. Me in this dress.”
Nico shook his head, letting out a slow breath as his gaze stayed nailed to hers. “Baby girl, don’t you test me...”
“Thirty seconds,” she repeated.
That time, it sounded like a challenge. Even she heard it.
And damn, he took it.
“Hike that fucking dress up.”
It took him twenty-five seconds. Twenty-five seconds that she somehow managed to count, three fingers thrusting into her and curling forward, and the husky promise of something amazing.
The orgasm that found her with her body jammed between him and the vanity, silk pulled high between them, was unreal.
He’d never done that to her before. Even her own fingers couldn’t.
And whatever throwaway fun she had dry humping in the front seat of her ex’s car couldn’t compare.
“Oh, my God, oh, my God, what the fuck—”
“Just let it go for me, trust me,” he breathed against her cheek.
It started deeper. Higher. Her whole lower half flexed when it came on in a rush.
Nico pulled back then, out of the way, while still rubbing her clit. She understood why he’d taken his jacket off and rolled up his sleeve. Water hit the floor. As his massaging moved lower, it fell in rivulets from his wrist.
Or—
“Is that pee?”
She couldn’t think enough to be ashamed of what had just happened. Between the intense shivers, her shaking legs, and Nico clouding her vision, she didn’t know what to say or do.
He caught her with another searing kiss.
“Just making you rain,” he said, grinning against her tender lips. “Don’t you know how good that means it was?”
Oh, yeah. She certainly felt that.
“I’ll always clean it up. And you.”
Jesus.
“That’s gonna go past thirty seconds,” she replied.
“Fair point.”
At that statement, he pulled her away from the counter, picking her up entirely and setting her back down apart from the puddle on the floor.
He used the hand towel to wipe her down, helping her out of a soaked silk thong that he pocketed like it was nothing and had just shoved aside to get inside her earlier.
Nico pulled her dress down and threw the hand towel to the floor after, standing up straight while she fixed how the fabric laid across her hips. He twirled his finger, a silent command for her to spin.
She did.
“Perfect,” he praised. “Not a drop on you.”
God, that did something to her.
“I fucking love you,” he uttered.
Frankie blinked. “W-what?”
Like he had also realized at the same time what he just said, Nico glanced away. “Yeah, uh, I do. But just don’t, okay?”
“Don’t say it back?”
He said nothing.
That hurt.
“Whatever, Nico,” she muttered.
“Hey, Frankie, please—”
His words cut off as she unlocked and flung open the door. Not because she’d opened it, but rather, from the person waiting on the other side.
Arms folded, smirk in place. Ink vibrant under the hall lights.
“Go,” she heard Nico hiss behind her.
Frankie listened, not even acknowledging Marco as she headed directly past him.
“Hey, little brother,” Marco Russo said as she departed, his grin deepening as his gaze moved to the person she left behind. “Well, if this isn’t déjà-fucking-vu, huh? It’s always bathrooms with you two.”