“Good. It was consensual on both sides.”
She breathes out a sigh of relief, and when she lets go of her face, she reaches out to toy with the M on my chain.
“So why’d you freak out then?” When I don’t immediately answer, she nudges my foot with hers. “C’mon, Ryder. One of us has to be the grown-up and talk about their feelings, and we know it’s not gonna be me.”
This time, her teasing breaks through my spiral, and I huff out a laugh.
“Mabel,” I choke on her name, needing to reach out and cup her cheek to ground myself. “I’ve wanted you since I was seventeen years old. I’ve thought of nothing, no one but you for ten years, and when I finally get you, I miss it all. We kissed, you know? In Las Vegas. You and I kissed—something I could only dream of happening—and I missed it because we were drunk. We got married, and again, I’m drunk and missed it. This morning, we got off together, and we’re both half-asleep. I almost missed that, too, and I just…I need a second. I need to stop missing things, because I never thought I’d get a chance to have you, Mabel. I don’t know how long I’ll get to keep you, and I just want to savor it, okay?”
“Oh, Ryder,” she whispers, nuzzling against the palm of my hand. Her hands sneak out and snake around my waist, and she cuddles in close. “I don’t want to miss any more of us, either.”
“There’s an ‘us’?” I pretend not to hear how desperate and pathetic I sound.
“Yeah, Ryder. I might not know exactly what we are, but there is most definitely an ‘us’.” Mabel tilts her face up, her brown eyes zeroed in on my lips, like her sole focus is kissing me, and this…this is so much more erotic than anything that happened in her bed. I lean in, ready to meet her halfway, when she ducks out of my hold and spins towards the sink.
Uh…what?
I gape at her through the mirror, and Mabel, brat that she is, winks as she wets a pink toothbrush.
“We’re about to have our first sober kiss, Rye Bread. Did you think I was going to attack your mouth with morning breath?” She starts to brush, and I crowd her against the sink, grinning as my thickening cock presses against her supple ass cheeks.
“I thought the whole ‘I’ve been chewing on cloves of garlic for eight hours’ thing was your natural mouth scent, I wasn’t going to say anything,” I tease, then double over when she hits me with an elbow to the gut.
After she spits the toothpaste into the sink and wipes her lips—a sight that should not be sexy but has me blowing out an unsteady breath anyway—Mabel turns and hoists herself onto the ledge of the counter. Her fingers dance along the marble in slow, deliberate strokes, and I’m mesmerized.
I’m beyond mesmerized—I’m so goddamn turned on by the movements of her hands that I’m afraid I might lose my mind and come again before she ever even touches me. Mabel spreads her pretty thighs just enough to fit me between them, and I take advantage of the space, stepping in close and placing her gorgeous, delicate hand on my chest,where my heart is thumping wildly beneath my ribs.
“You,” I whisper, dipping my face until the tip of my nose brushes hers. “You’re the only one who makes me feel this way. The only one that makes me feel like my heart might beat right out of my chest.”
“Ryder,” she breathes. “Kiss me, please.”
“My wife gets what my wife wants,” I smile, and finally, my mouth descends on hers, the sleepy warmth and scent of her skin enveloping my senses. Her lips are sweeter than I could have ever imagined, plump and pliant, teasing me in butterfly-soft strokes. I want to be good, patient, to take what she gives me and be grateful for the opportunity, but a decade of aching of the woman in my arms has made me greedy. I sink my teeth into her bottom lip, nibbling until she gasps, her parted lips making way for my tongue. Mabel’s hands come to my face, her palms gliding over my morning stubble as our mouths collide and leave my body molten, raw, pulsing with desire. She hooks her feet behind my back and yanks me forward into the cradle of her hips and my cock jumps, attempting a prison break from the towel. I press forward, grinding against her pussy, and the friction causes the towel to fall, leaving me naked and dripping.
A flurry of images flashes through my mind, clearas day, like memories just waiting to be made. Me, standing here in this bathroom, a red-headed baby on one hip, my razor in my free hand. Mabel watching us from the bathtub, soaking her muscles and rubbing a hand over her full, round belly. The two of us sitting in the snow, holding the hands of our children as they balance on their first snowboards. Limbs tangled together under a layer of blankets while we cuddle in bed. Fingers interlocked, sweaty foreheads pressed together as I thrust inside her, whispering promises of love between waves of pleasure.
“Ryder,” Mabel moans my name as her soft, silky hand trails down my chest, over my abs, through the short hair of my groin until she wraps it around me, squeezing and stroking and?—
“Mabel,” I gasp, jumping back out of her hold before I embarrass myself for a second time today. Both my mind and my body are getting way too far ahead of themselves.
“I’m sorry, I thought?—”
“Don’t be sorry. You thought right. I just…” I take a moment, massaging her supple hips in my hands as I try to catch my breath. “Before we go any further, I have to tell you something. I’ve never done this before.”
“Done what? Fucked in a bathroom? Neither have I. I mean, not in this bathroom, anyway.” Mabelsmirks, and I squeeze my eyes shut, pulling in a deep, cleansing breath. It’s truth time.
“I haven’t done any of this before.”
When I open my eyes a second later, Mabel is staring up at me with confusion and disbelief written all over her gorgeous face. It takes all of my strength not to lean in and kiss the adorable crinkle in the middle of her forehead.
“What are you saying, Ryder?”
“I’m saying, you might as well call me Mary because, honey, you married a virgin.”
20
THIS IS MY CIRCUS, THOSE ARE MY MONKEYS
RYDER
