“Do they expire?”
“I think they’re probably fine.”
Penny swatted his left cheek. “‘Probably fine.’ Exactly what every woman wants to hear.”
“I’m kidding. I’ll check. And if they’re expired, I’ll go get new ones.”
“I have some in my room.”
Brett laughed out loud. “Well shit, Penny. Lead with that.”
As soon as she walked through the door, Brett turned and pulled her tank top over her head. “I’ve wanted to do this every single time you’ve walked into the kitchen wearing your yoga clothes.”
“You barely looked at me when I walked through the kitchen in my yoga clothes.” Penny’s pulse quickened as she crossed her arms and pulled her sports bra off, lifting her arms as Brett assisted in slipping the fabric over her hands and dropped it on the floor.
“Self-preservation.” Brett drank her in, his fingers trembling as he skimmed them over her skin, taking his sweet time. She closed her eyes and leaned her back against the wall as her breath quickened and her heart thundered in her chest.Pure bliss.
Brett leaned in and tugged on the waistband of her shorts. His breath was hot against her skin. “You weren’t kidding. These aresoaked.”
Penny laughed against his lips and ran her fingernails over his back. “I can’t believe you pulled me into the pool.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t get in in the first place instead of just standing up there barking orders like you owned me.” He pulled her damp underwear over her hips, and she stepped out of them. His breath caught as she pulled the bow loose on his swim shorts, and his hands gripped her hips. “Shower with me?”
Penny nodded, and Brett led her into the bathroom. Her shower was nice, newly renovated in stone with a rain shower head, but Brett’s? He had a double head and wall sprayers. “How did I not know this existed?”
“Would it have changed anything?”
“Absolutely. I would’ve used this every day while you were at work.”
Brett groaned. “That would’ve killed me. Knowing you were here naked while I was talking to Dr. Asshat on the job site.”
“I wouldn’t have told you.” Penny drew lazy circles over his lower back as he checked the water temperature.
“I would’ve sensed it.”
She snorted. “Because you can tell when a naked woman’s been in your shower?”
“Since it happens literally never, I guess I can’t speak to that.” Brett stepped into the hot spray and pulled her with him, snaking his arms around her waist and cinching until their bodies fit together like puzzle pieces. “No, I was wrong. I can tell.”
Penny grinned. “You’resurea naked girl’s in your shower right now?”
“Positive.” Brett lowered his lips to hers, and warmth seeped into her as her entire world shrank down to where their bodies blurred together. Hot water cascaded over her chilled skin, blending with Brett’s fingertips, sending ripples of pleasure through her from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes.
She felt the stone under her feet. The sigh of his breath against her lips. The tense and release of his hands as he explored every inch of her.
This wasn’t anything like Danny or Jeremy. Physical intimacy with every guy she’d been with had been about doing thingsright. They directed the show, and she did her best to follow the play-by-play. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed some parts of it, but it had never been like this. It had never felt like they wantedher. Not her body or the things she could do for them, but her.
Brett touched her like he wanted to make each second last. Likethiswas the end goal, not where he hoped it led. Which of course, made her want to lead him there so bad, she ached. Each time Penny reached for him, he redirected her and whispered, “I want to touch you a little longer.”
In the last fifteen years of her life, Penny had never once reached the point where she couldn’t wait another second, but she was standing on the precipice. Brett grinned against her lips as she very clearly communicated this fact, then finally dropped his hand.
Penny arched against him as her whole world exploded in a symphony of colour and light. She clung to him like he was the only thing keeping her from free falling, and maybe he was. She was butter on a cast-iron pan. Ice cream on a hot summer day. Wax under a flame. “Brett, you don’t—”
“The sooner you accept that I want to do this, the less time we'll have to waste from here on out.” His voice was rough in her ear.
Penny would’ve laughed at her own words being repeated back to her in that moment if she could’ve done anything but suck in a ragged breath. She thought of crouching down and helping him put on his shoes. Of wiping the sweat from his brow as he worked to straighten his knee against the towel.
He’d trusted her in his most vulnerable moments, and the least she could do was do the same. Penny forced her mind to take a back seat as she folded against him and left everything safe, everything sure, everything she thought she knew in the rearview mirror.
