Chapter 17 #2
“And I realized how much you mean to me. Things have been fast with us, but they’ve felt…
right. I wondered what you were doing. How you were.
If you’ve had a lot of annoying customers, if you were coming over to my condo.
If you were eating all right. You name it, I thought it.
I know I’m a lucky bastard, and if you can handle my job, me leaving for unknown amounts of time here and there, then I can do no less than bend over backward to make your life easier and full.
So…that means if you want me to keep the beard, I will.
If you want me to shave, I will. It makes no difference to me. ”
“Marshall,” Kenna whispered, extremely touched.
“Don’t cry,” Marshall ordered. “I didn’t say any of that to upset you.”
“Major fail,” Kenna said with a sniff, wiping the tears from under her eyes.
Marshall squeezed her neck, where his hand still held her possessively, and said, “Look at me, babe.”
Kenna took a deep breath and looked up at the man she’d fallen head over heels for. She should’ve known she was in love when she’d missed him so terribly. She’d never felt so much for a man. Ever. She’d gone a week once without talking to one of her boyfriends, and it hadn’t fazed her in the least.
“You’re the most capable woman I’ve ever met.
I have no doubt you can do whatever you set your mind to.
The fact that you’re with me is something I’ve been pinching myself over for the last six weeks.
You’ve got me in the palm of your hand. All you have to do is say the word and I’ll give you anything you want. ”
“You. I want you,” Kenna replied without a second thought.
“Thank fuck,” Marshall breathed.
Kenna was surprised to see the relief in his eyes. How could he not know that?
“Come on. Help me scrape this crap off my face, then we’ll see about getting something to eat.”
Kenna nodded, and he gave her nape one more affectionate squeeze, then bent and picked up the bags she’d been carrying. After he’d oohed and ahhed over the things she’d bought for him, they put everything away and headed for the master bathroom.
Kenna had left some of her things in his bathroom, since she’d been going back and forth from here to her apartment.
Nodding toward the counter, where she’d put her toothbrush, toothpaste, and lotion to the side of one sink, he smiled.
“I love seeing your shit in here.” Then, looking around the room, he added, “I think the best way to do this is if I sit on the side of the tub. It’ll be easier for you to reach me. ”
“But hair will get all over the floor,” Kenna said.
“Yeah, so?”
“So it’ll have to be swept up. Then vacuumed to make sure we got it all.”
“And?” Marshall asked. “We’ll make a mess, then we’ll clean it up. Not a big deal.”
“Okay,” Kenna agreed, liking his laid-back attitude. “But why don’t we at least put a trash can under you to catch as much as we can.”
He nodded, and Kenna grabbed the small plastic trash can from under the sink and put it on the floor between his legs as he sat on the edge of the bathtub.
Marshall then held up a pair of very sharp-looking scissors, handing them to her handle first, and said, “Madam, if you would do the honors.”
“Um, I have no idea what I’m doing,” Kenna said tentatively as she took the scissors from him.
“You can’t screw it up…well, unless you stab me with those. Just hack away at the hair. Get as close as you can to my face. The shorter it is, the easier it is to shave off the rest.”
“Okay, but if I stab you and you bleed out on the bathroom floor, don’t blame me,” she joked as she stood in front of him.
Marshall reached up and took her wrist in a loose grip. “I trust you,” he said solemnly.
Kenna swallowed hard and nodded. It wasn’t as if she was actually cutting his hair in some kind of style. She couldn’t mess this up…unless she cut his face. Mentally grimacing at that image, she took a deep breath, then got to work.
She started with the easy stuff, the hair hanging down from his chin, snipping it off and letting it fall into the bin. Carefully, she cut off more and more of his beard, until she got to a point where she had to put the scissors right next to his skin to get as much hair off as possible.
“Relax, Kenna, you’re doing fine,” Marshall told her.
She nodded, still tense.
It didn’t help when she felt his hands grip her hips. She looked down. “What?” she asked, thinking she’d done something wrong.
“Keep going,” he urged.
Kenna snipped some more hair—and luckily had paused to inspect her work when his hands snaked under her T-shirt and caressed her bare skin.
She squirmed and reminded him, “Ticklish.”
His touch immediately firmed, but she still froze as his hands roamed.
“You done?” he asked, knowing full well she wasn’t.
“No.”
“Well, don’t take all night,” he teased. “I’m thinking we have other things to do.”
And just like that, the mood in the room changed, electrified.
Kenna’s nipples hardened under her shirt, and since they were at Marshall’s eye level, he definitely noticed. His hands slipped upward, pushed under her bra, and cupped both her breasts.
Kenna closed her eyes and moaned as she put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself, careful not to poke him with the scissors.
“You are so damn responsive,” he muttered as he kneaded her flesh.
“It’s just you,” she said honestly. Kenna couldn’t remember reacting like this to any other man’s touch. All Marshall had to do was breathe and she was putty in his hands.
After a moment, Kenna said his name in almost a whine.
It was his turn to take a deep breath, then he stood, startling Kenna. He removed his hands and reached for the scissors. Then he pulled her over to the counter.
Kenna watched quietly as he made quick work of removing the last bits of hair he could with the scissors. Then he grabbed a can of shaving cream and slathered it on his face, his movements quick and economical. He picked up a razor and asked, “You want to do the honors again?”
Kenna’s eyes widened in horror. “No,” she said emphatically.
Marshall chuckled, then got to work shaving off the rest of the facial hair he’d grown in the last six weeks.
The thought of wielding a razor anywhere near his face made Kenna shudder, but she watched in fascination as he quickly did what he’d likely done thousands of times in his life. She snuggled up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as she watched him in the mirror.
When he took a break to rinse the razor, she grinned and slid her hands under his T-shirt.
His gaze immediately met hers in the mirror. Even with his face half covered in shaving cream—which should’ve looked ridiculous—Kenna was turned on. He was a beautiful man.
Her fingers roamed upward until she reached his nipples, which she began to play with. Pinching and flicking. They immediately hardened, and Kenna couldn’t help but press closer to his back.
“You want me to finish this?” he asked.
She grinned. “Yes.”
“Then you’re going to have to move your hands.”
Move her hands? She could do that.
Slowly, she ran her palms down his flat belly and left them resting just above his waistline. He made a few more swipes with the razor before she made her next move.
Marshall wore a pair of gray sweatpants, which should be illegal. Well-endowed men wearing sweatpants were a turn-on for most straight women, but the sight of her man, in his sweatpants, made Kenna want to throw them all away so no one else could see what was hers.
The thought wasn’t even startling. Marshall was hers—just as she was his.
She quickly slipped her hands under the elastic waistband and got her first feel of his cock.
It was half erect already, but as soon as she touched him, he hardened, lengthening in her hand as she tightened her grip around him.
“Fuck,” Marshall groaned when she caressed him.
He tolerated her touch for another moment before leaning forward and aggressively shaving the rest of his beard off.
He was much rougher than Kenna would’ve dreamed of being, and she’d opened her mouth to tell him to be careful just as he threw the razor into the sink.
He reached over, grabbed a towel and swiped it over his face, removing the remnants of shaving cream before throwing the towel onto the counter.
He pulled Kenna’s hands out of his pants before turning. She had a split second to admire his clean-shaven face—much happier, now that he looked more like the Marshall she remembered—before his lips landed on hers.
Then all she could think of was trying to get even closer to her man.
She tilted her head and hitched a leg up as they kissed.
Marshall spun them both, lifting her in the process, and Kenna found herself sitting on the counter.
He didn’t stop kissing her as he shoved her legs wider and stepped between them.
With a hand on her ass, he pulled her to the edge of the counter, so his cock was pressed right where she wanted it most.
Their kiss was messy and uncoordinated, and the hottest thing she’d ever experienced. His hands went to the hem of her shirt and he took his mouth off hers just long enough to say, “Arms up.”
Kenna didn’t even think about protesting.
She was one hundred percent in for whatever he had planned…
as long as it ended up with them both naked.
Her ponytail holder came out as he whipped her shirt over her head, but Kenna barely noticed.
Her hands went to the back of his head as he leaned over to suck on the mounds of her breasts plumped over the top of her bra.
His hands were busy at her waist, unbuttoning and unzipping her shorts. He glanced up at her and ordered, “Lift your hips so I can get these off.”