Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Bea
“Lean back,” I said when I was convinced I’d gotten all the paint out of Bax’s hair and had scrubbed the wall behind him so it wouldn’t get dirty again.
He did as I asked, and I reached for the clean washcloths I’d brought from the laundry room. I set a pile of three on my thigh and grabbed the white one on top. When I leaned over the tub’s edge and dipped the cloth into the soapy water between his spread thighs, Bax shifted away from me.
He was trying to be a gentleman, but deep down inside, I wanted his caveman tendencies to come out. I wanted him to drag me into the tub by my hair and get me wet in more ways than one.
Note to self: Don’t go so long without human contact and sex next time, Bea. It turns you into a shameless, horny bitch.
The intimacy of the situation floored me. No man had ever let me be so close in such a vulnerable situation. Granted, I couldn’t remember ever being in a situation this delicate, but it spoke volumes about Bax’s character that he’d let me in so quickly. He barely knew me.
I didn’t know him either.
Actually, maybe I did. I knew his grief and how it added shadows to his happiness no one else could see. And I knew his daughter because I’d been her in another life.
“Bea?”
“Hm?”
“You okay?”
His concern for me zapped me out of the trance I’d gone into, and craziness came out of my mouth when I looked in his eyes. “What would you do if I slid my hand beneath the water again? If I touched you, what would you do?”
He froze. “I’m not sure.”
“Because of your wife?”
He nodded once. “Yes.”
“And Athena?”
He relaxed and began to breathe again. “Yeah.”
“I won’t,” I said. But oh, how I wanted to.
Athena had become a safety blanket for Bax. That was painfully plain to see, but I wasn’t meant to be the one who stole that comfort away from him. I knew the cost too well.
But he whispered, “I want you to touch me.”
I searched his nervous blue eyes, and he searched mine too. But did he really want that? Because I wanted to touch him so much, I ached inside.
One more slow dip of his head told me yes.
Could we allow ourselves a moment to give into this insane connection? Seriously, where had it come from? But any longer than that, and I would be risking ripping the blanket away forever.
Grabbing the bottle of body wash from the edge of the tub, I poured a little onto my washcloth, then dipped the cloth in the water again and worked up a lather in my hand. Bax watched like my fingers were little cobras ready to strike.
When I lifted the cloth to his clavicle and pressed it softly against his skin, his head tipped back against the wall, hands gripping the edges of the tub.
His eyes rolled closed, and he drew in a breath slowly between his teeth.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched his cock twitch beneath the surface of the water, the useless bubbles long gone now.
The man was the definition of sexy. The way he didn’t hide his sex from me, or his attraction to me, even though he had no clue what to do about it, was the most alluring thing I’d ever witnessed.
My mouth watered to taste his skin, but I knew that would be pushing things too far.
Most of the paint had run off his chest when I rinsed his hair, but I dragged the warm cloth over his skin slowly anyway, and he opened his eyes.
Somehow, seeing his unguarded vulnerability gave me courage, and my rag traveled lower. Molding the palm of my hand over his pec above the washcloth, I pressed gently with the tips of my fingers, and he moaned quietly.
Silently, I slid onto my knees between the john and the side of the tub. The extra washcloths fell to the floor, and I rubbed lower, letting the slippery fabric ride the ridges of his tightened abdomen, and Bax’s breaths came faster.
“Bea?”
“Shh,” I whispered. Dragging my eyes from his hard, wet chest, I looked right into his soul and admitted, “Don’t talk. If you talk, I’ll kiss you. The sound of your voice is makin’ me insane right now, and I’m barely in control. I don’t think you want me out of control.”
“ Please ,” he begged.
I froze. Did he want me to stop? “Please what?”
“Kiss me.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
The washcloth floated out of my hand, and I leaned further over him, bracing my hand next to his on the far lip of the tub, and moved closer.
His fingers brushed against mine, and my hair fell between us, the yellow ends soaking up the water left from my cloth and plastering themselves to his chest.
I hovered above him, and his breath shook as it flowed jaggedly out of his mouth—the mouth that I was currently imagining on my body, with his warm lips and hot tongue doing things to me I hadn’t felt in ages.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“Then kiss me,” he whispered, and he gripped my ribs, spread his hands wide over my shirt, and steadied me above him as I licked my lips and touched them to his.
He groaned, and heat pulsed between my legs when his tongue slid over mine.
But I was afraid. Afraid that I’d never wanted anyone as much as I wanted Bax Lee.
Funny that, because not an hour ago, I still thought I hated him.
But now that I’d realized I didn’t, maybe all he wanted was my hand and my tongue.
Maybe his wife was in the room with us. Maybe she was the one always on his mind and I was just a stand-in.
I couldn’t be special to him, not with her shadow pulling at my happiness too.
Besides, I’d only been here a day, for crying out loud. That in itself was enough to scare the crap out of me. I’d never been so attracted to someone I barely knew.
None of it mattered. Bax, no matter how alluring, was off limits to me.
But I moved my hand beneath the water again anyway.
When the smooth skin below his navel made way to coarse hair, I paused.
“Don’t stop, Bea,” he whispered into my mouth. “Make the ache go away.”
I tilted my head and lifted my dry hand to his face, rubbing my fingertips over his scruffy cheek while his tongue, like wet velvet, soothed my own ache with every delve and dip into my mouth.
The pads of his fingers dug into my ribcage, raging desire rose deep inside me, and I slid my hand into his hair and gripped it so hard, my fingers hurt.
My other hand searched even lower beneath the water, and when his hard-on bobbed against my knuckles, I twisted my wrist and gripped his length in my palm.
He filled my hand completely, and he moaned and rolled his hips. The shallow water lapped at his skin in little waves, splashing quietly against the sides of the tub, and the black garbage bags covering his scratchy plaster cast rubbed and stuck to my arm beneath the hem of my T-shirt’s sleeve.
“Feels so good to be touched by you,” he breathed, and he pulled away from our kiss. His head lolled on the wall behind him, and he watched me, his eyes like a clear, cloudless sky.
“Are you sure ?”
“Yes, Bea. More.”
The warm bath water allowed my hand to pump smoothly while adrenaline pulsed through my bloodstream.
I wanted to give him more. Wanted to build him up and jump off this cliff with him.
I wanted to feel his cum spill over my fingers, wanted to watch how the pleasure I gave him changed his face.
Would he close his eyes when he came and clench his jaw?
Or would his gaze stay on mine so that I could really see what he looked like when he let go?
Drawing the hardness of his cock through my closed fist over and again, I squeezed and pumped gently, then let his soft skin slide back down the palm of my hand.
I kissed him again, our tongues moving in rhythm with my hand working him, until I was moaning into his mouth and pressing my thighs together, but then we heard the kitchen door creak open and clap closed, and a familiar female voice called out.
“Bax? Son, where you at? I’m back from my retreat, and I brought chicken.”
Rushing to dress a man twice my size with wet skin and only one leg to stand on was a skill I never knew I’d need.
“It’s my mom,” Bax whispered. “Jesus, how embarrassin’.” But then he raised his voice and aimed it at the bathroom door. “Yeah, Mama. I’m in the bathroom. Be out in a sec.”
Whispering back, I said, “Yeah, I got that. I met her last year.” I’d never forget Mervella Lee’s gruff smoker’s voice, but Brand had told me she’d recently quit.
Still, the sound of her bustling around Bax’s kitchen was an unwelcome interruption.
“Want me to hide in here?” I asked as I reached up on my tiptoes to towel-dry the droplets of water dripping down the back of his neck from his hair.
“No way,” Bax said, watching my eyes as I placed my hand on his chest for leverage so I could rub faster. “If you go out there with me, she’ll leave sooner. If you hide, she’ll be here all night.”
The non-paint-covered Wile E. Coyote pajama pants I’d snagged from his laundry basket when I went to find the cup and washcloths fit over his cast easily, and when he was fully dressed in them and a clean black T-shirt, I opened the bathroom door and walked ahead of him into the kitchen.
Bax’s mom’s eyes flared when she turned from the open fridge and saw us together, but she didn’t address me directly. To Bax, she asked, “Who’s this?”
“Mama,” he said as he lowered himself into a kitchen chair at the table and set his crutches against it, “this is Bea. She works for Brand.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” she said and she walked over to kiss his cheek.
“Your brother sent you a nurse? How are you, honey?” She looked at me when she said it, at the apron I’d found hanging on the back of the laundry room door, which fell to my knees and was now covered in wet, yellow splotches, but then she focused solely on Bax, like I wasn’t even in the room.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you hurt yourself.
I would’ve come sooner if someone would’ve called me.
I had to hear it from your sister this mornin’ when she stopped by the trailer to make sure I’d gotten home from Montana. ”
Bax tried to hide a guilty grin, and I laughed right out loud at her fawning over him like a five-year-old with a skinned knee.
“Uh no, Mrs. Lee,” I said, “Brand didn’t send a nurse. I’m the forewoman at Lee Construction. We met last year when you visited.”
Finally, her full scrutiny landed on me.
With her hands on her hips, she looked me over, seeming to question something about me, possibly why I’d just been in the bathroom with her son who was not my boss.
She must’ve come to an answer, because then she forced a smile and turned to close the refrigerator.
“Oh, that’s right. Your name’s Sweetie, ain’t it? I do remember a woman who worked for my son.” Under her breath, it sounded like she said, “Seems my other son has a sweet tooth when it comes to women.”
Did she think we couldn’t hear her?
“ Mama ,” Bax warned.
“My name is Bea,” I reminded her, but I had a hunch she hadn’t actually forgotten that fact. “And I’m the person in charge of makin’ sure your house gets built.”
She didn’t like that. She scowled. Did the woman ever smile? “What happened to the man who did that job before?”
“Man?”
“Zach or Zeke or somebody.”
I sat in the chair next to Bax’s, watching his mom carefully and how she tried so hard to hold on to the way things used to be.
“You mean the guy who quit and started up a rival company and then tried to steal Brand’s crew?
His name is Zach Brinley, and he’s the reason the position was open when I applied… two years ago.”
“Oh,” she said.
Yeah, oh. I was picking up what she was putting down.
I was a woman, so surely I couldn’t do the job, right?
I remembered getting that gist from her when she and Abey visited, and I distinctly remembered how much it had pissed Abey off.
Brand told me his mom changed her tune somewhat after she and Abey had a “come to Jesus” moment, but seeing her now, I wasn’t so sure how much she’d changed.
But for Athena’s sake, I hoped I was wrong.
Maybe her prickly disposition didn’t have anything to do with sexism or bigotry.
Maybe it was about seeing Bax with a woman who was not his wife.
It wasn’t like we were making out right in front of her or even touching, but the undercurrent from what we’d just been about to do hung heavily in the air between us.
My attraction to Bax was like a live wire, zapping and buzzing around me. I thought I could even hear it crackling until I realized the sound was coming from an old box fan in a living room window, blowing cool fall air into the house.
“Well, I guess I’d better go,” I said, untying the apron and pulling it off. I hung it over the back of my chair when I stood. “It was nice to see you again, Mrs. Lee.”
“Oh, mm, you too.” Yeah, that had sounded like the equivalent of “oh, bless your little heart” when it oozed like rancid honey out of a southern woman’s mouth.
“Wait, you’re goin’?” Bax asked with a faint hint of panic. He leaned forward, like he wanted to reach out for me, and the pleading look in his eyes begged me to stay.
I smiled, mischief lifting the corners of my mouth even when I ordered them to stay down.
“Your mom’s here, so you don’t need my help anymore.
Besides, I have a lot of work to do before the crews get here in the mornin’.
” I flashed a toothy grin before I said, “If you need help later tonight, you know where I’ll be. ”
My unspoken invitation had Bax reaching beneath his kitchen table, probably to adjust the hard truth inside his pajama pants, but then his eyes slid over to his mom, and he flopped back against his chair in defeat.