After a moment, she nodded, her lips still wrapped around my fingers.
“There’s no more pretending what we have is wrong,” I told her and then withdrew my fingers so I could tease her lips with mine. “I’m yours, Av, and it’s only a matter of time before you admit you’re falling for me too.”
She blinked, lips parted like she didn’t know what to say.
She didn’t need to.
“Let’s get you cleaned up, baby,” I said as I helped her to her feet. “I’ll meet you in the bathroom.”
She nodded and moved slowly toward the door.
I took the sheets and cleaned up the mess we’d made as best as I could before putting new sheets on the bed and throwing new blankets on top, ensuring it would be clean and comfy for her after the shower.
When I walked into the bathroom, Avery stood in the middle of it.
“You okay?”
My words seemed to pull her out of a trance, and she blinked when she met my gaze and nodded. “Yeah.” She fiddled with her fingers. “I was just waiting for you.”
At first, I wasn’t sure what to say. Not once had Avery let me shower with her, even though we’d had our parents’ house to ourselves. I assumed she needed the space and time to process how she was feeling, to process the twisted fact that she was not only fucking but falling for the last person she should’ve been with.
“Let’s get you in there,” I finally said.
After the water warmed, I helped her into the shower.
“Shit!” she exclaimed once she got under the stream. “Why is it so cold?”
I stuck my hand under the water. “It’s warm.”
“Not warm enough,” she remarked.
I couldn’t help but laugh as she turned the hot water up until it was so hot, I felt like I was in a sauna. “Damn, baby,” I teased. “That water is hotter than Hell.”
She laughed and reached for some soap. She froze.
Her soapwas in my shower, the sweet vanilla scent that haunted me every day.
I waited, watching as it sank in for her.
“You have my soap already.”
“I do.”
“Did you know I was coming?”
“Well, I was hoping you’d eventually accompany me here, but to be honest, that’s not why I have your soap.”
I fought a laugh as she turned and looked at me, one eyebrow raised, her eyes full of confusion.
“I told you I was obsessed with you, Av,” I clarified, stepping closer to her, making her look up through her lashes at me. “I loveeverythingabout you.” I leaned down, pressing my forehead to hers. “Even the way you smell drives me goddamn crazy. I couldn’t have you here with me, so I needed the next best thing: to surround myself with reminders of you.”
“What did the other women think when they spotted the bottle of soap?” she joked. “Did you let them lather themselves up so they’d smell like me?”
I slapped my hands against the wall of the shower, caging her in, our mouths nearly touching, our breaths mingling as the hot water splashed everywhere.
“You’re the first woman I’ve ever brought here, Av,” I confessed. “I never brought anyone here, and even if I had, I never would’ve let them use your soap.”
I ran my fingers into her roots and tugged, crashing my mouth to hers, claiming her fully with my kiss, shoving my tongue past her lips. She gasped into my mouth as I pushed her against the cool tile, and it had the exact effect I wanted. She arched her body into mine, pressing her chest against me.
