Chapter 11 Amber
amber
Seeing the big soaker tub made me a bit bolder than I’d usually be. After the intense year I’d had where I’d had one singular focus—taking some time just for fun felt like a bold new adventure.
Nerves sung under the bubbles.
As varied as my relationships had been, I’d never been the one to push them forward. I’d always been the one who was pursued. And twice now, I’d leaped into the fray with this man. I just hoped I didn’t scare him away.
The hot water slowly rose, hiding me in the foamy bubbles.
Tate stood in the doorway, his hands fisted at his sides, the T-shirt dangling from his fingers.
The urge to babble and deflect rose inside me like the steam coming off the water. I used every trick in my personal arsenal to look unaffected as I gathered bubbles closer to tease around my breasts. The tight tips were still just above the water as excitement and wariness thrummed through me.
God, don’t turn me away.
He set the shirt on top of my pants on the tall hamper beside the sink, then turned back around. His sea glass eyes locked on me as he pulled his tight black T-shirt over his head.
Whoa.
I’d thought the tight costume from the parade was impressive, but it had nothing on what had been hiding beneath.
It was rare to see a man without tattoos all over, but Tate was pure bronzed skin with a bloom of freckles across his shoulders.
Muscles on muscles over a few more muscles flexed under the chest hair that dusted his pecs and endless abs.
The men I’d been with tended toward the esoteric brains with soft skin and even softer bodies.
This... My mouth dried.
There was nothing soft about Tate.
Music from the living room drifted in like a distant melody that had always hummed just under the surface for me. Yearning. The song matched everything I felt.
I’d been alone for what felt like forever. Even before Julian had demolished our relationship.
Finally, Tate moved closer. His fingertips dipped into the water near my feet. He made lazy little circles through the bubbles as he skimmed the roundness of my knee then trailed over to where my arms were under the water.
His eyes practically glowed in the low lights of the room. When he got to my breasts, he drifted around them making my breath back up into my lungs. He moved behind the tub. It filled one whole corner of the bathroom. “Is this what you want?”
“I wouldn’t have—” I broke off with a hiss as his hand sunk into the water to cup one breast possessively.
“Just making sure.”
First one, then the other, he learned the shape of me under the water until I was shifting in response. Then his touch was gone and I craned my neck and got an eyeful of just how massive Tate Reynolds really was.
His jeans rode low on his hips, the top snap undone.
My mouth watered. Instead of coming closer, he reached into a cabinet and pulled out a few candles. He set them along the floor beside the tub then hit a remote and the room went golden. There were more of them on the ledge of the high window above us.
“Done this before?”
His low laugh made me shiver. “I like a bath. Working on this Wonderland project has been a lot of manual labor. Sometimes a hot shower isn’t enough. Pretty sure women don’t corner the market on relaxation.”
I dipped lower into the water until my chin touched the rapidly dissolving bubbles.
He walked around the tub again, a bottle in hand. The scent of eucalyptus and the forest made a lazy trail in the water and mixed with the steam in the air. He flicked the overhead lights off, leaving us in soft light.
Instead of getting rid of his jeans, he tossed a towel down and knelt beside the tub. His gaze drifted over my knees that lifted out of the water. The bubbles were rapidly melting under the addition of the oil and I felt much more on display.
What exactly had I been thinking with this stunt?
He sunk his hand and arm into the fragrant water, lazily smoothing his hand over the top of my foot to my ankle, then back down to rub the arch of my foot.
My heart kicked in my chest as I hissed out a surprised sigh. He moved up to my calf, then back down and repeated the process. The worry melted under his endlessly patient touch, but in its place was an awareness that left me humming.
Each inch was gained achingly slow until I was ready to pull his hand to where I wanted him most.
As he stroked the sensitive skin of my inner thigh, he changed the map and took a detour to my hip and up my belly. He shifted up to the head of the tub and curled me toward him.
My fingers found his freshly shorn curls and lightly danced my fingers around his ear to the back of his neck. “You’re making me insane.”
“Good. Maybe you’re almost at the same level as me. Looking at this beautiful body in my space. Opening just for me.”
For now.
The words intruded and I pushed them back.
I was a planner at heart, but right now I wanted to live in the moment. I didn’t want to worry about what was next. To have a world of problems and projects waiting for my attention. I needed to just enjoy this man in this moment. For as long as I was able.
I hissed as he pinched my nipple between two knuckles. “Stay right here with me.”
“I am.” I firmed my grip on the back of his head. “But this bath could fit you too.”
He lowered his mouth to mine and the steam and warmth wrapped us in a space out of time. The kiss started off soft, but both of us had been slowly turning up the heat from hum to throb. His mouth was far too good at making me forget who I was. When he broke the kiss, I was panting up at him.
He stood and stripped off his jeans.
My whole system stuttered to a halt at the hard length of him standing proud from his body. I couldn’t help but reach for him, drawing him closer to the tub as I rolled onto my knees and out of the water.
He stared down at me, his eyes burning in the firelight.
I took him in hand, lifting his shaft to cup my lips around the girth of him, dragging my tongue along the underside as I took my time tracing the veins that pulsed under my tongue as he lengthened even more for me.
I met his gaze as I took the tip of him into my mouth learning the shape of him with my greedy tongue.
He fisted his hands at his sides. “Amber.”
Not Ambrose.
For him, I was just a woman. Just Amber.
It made it easier to let myself go. To take him deeper into my mouth and take a slow breath through my nose as he invaded me in every way. He was far bigger than anyone I’d been with before and I worked my jaw to show him how much I liked it.
His jaw flexed and the way his beard had been trimmed today had taken away the boyish rounded bulk to make him look more intense. And as he stared down at me, I wanted all of that untamed Tate tonight.
The man under the kindness and generosity.
Both of us knew about responsibility and pressure. Here, it could just be us.
I gripped his thighs, the muscles locked as I took him deeper. I hummed around his length as the water churned around me with each bob of my head.
“Fuck,” he ground out and I could tell he was holding back.
I pulled him free from my mouth and grabbed one of his hands to bring it to my face. “More.”
“Amber.” His throat worked and his Adam’s apple bobbed.
I took him deeper, my hips undulating with each thrust into my mouth. The soft water making choppy waves around my hips added to the hunger rising between us. When I took too much and my eyes streamed with tears, I saw the excitement flash before he pulled back.
None of that.
I didn’t want him to hold back.
People held things back from me all the time. Time and money, they were fine with, but to give me this? The want and the need that showed me the true man. I craved that connection.
I tightly gripped the base of his cock and sucked him harder and when his fingers sunk into my hair, I felt the rush of lust curl between us. He growled out my name and fucked my mouth, his nostrils flared with need.
For me.
Fuck yes. Only for me.
For this moment, I could just be a regular woman with needs.
The heat of the water and the intensity between us made my head spin a little, but I didn’t stop. I wouldn’t stop until I felt him break for me. I sucked and licked, the dirty, needy sounds of it ratcheted up my own excitement.
I’d never allowed myself to let go like this.
To chase the lust drunk liminal space. Where there was nothing but matching needs and no ego.
His fingers slipped around my neck to grip my throat. “If you keep that up.”
I licked under his shaft to the heaviness of his balls. “You’ll what?”
His grip firmed a little and the kick of the thrill coated my thighs. God, I was wet from just watching him lose it for me.
“I’ll come down that pretty throat.”
I cupped my tongue around his flared head, massaging where I’d learned he liked best. “Do it.”
“Goddammit, Amber.”
I opened wider and he slid down deep. Full to the brim with him, I groaned as he pulsed into me. The little bit of air restriction made my head spin and my pussy throb. But I took him all, swallowing him down like liquid gold.
“Fuck,” he said on a gasp, his chest heaving.
His grip eased as he scooped me out of the cooling water and into his arms. On our way out of the bathroom he snatched a towel off the bar and wrapped it around me then cradled me against him.
His mouth was like a fever on mine, his tongue deep as his cock had once been. I sucked that too, greedy in ways I couldn’t define. “I’ll take care of you,” he said against my lips, against my throat.
He spread me out on his lake-sized bed, crawling over me with his big body.
The hair of his chest grazed my sensitized breasts.
I was so restless under him, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
Making him break made something come alive inside of me.
The power of it activated a mercenary desire for more.
I tried to roll him over, but he was so damn solid.
He grinned down at me. “Do you want to be on top?”
I nodded.