“By the sink.”
“Right, the little brass bowl.”
Carter, who had longer arms, leaned out of the shower and secured a condom. He ripped it open, and Fen snatched it from him and rolled it on. She meant to take her time with it and tease him, but she only managed a little bit of that before she got impatient. Teasing was all well and good, but she wanted him inside herright now.
He lifted her up, holding her easily in his arms. His strength was an astonishing turn-on, and so was the feeling of his entire length and width against her, hard as steel for her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he slid himself inside her.
“Fen…” Her name came out halfway between a gasp and a growl.
She couldn’t reply. Her face was buried in his shoulder, her fingers clenching on the bulging muscles of his upper arms. She too was gasping, her heart hammering. Little shocks of pleasure went through her at every thrust, increasing and increasing until they became a wave of sheer bliss that took her apart. A moment later, he was crying out her name, his head thrown back, his chest heaving. Then they both went still, slipping from ecstasy into the afterglow.
She leaned against him, breathing hard and letting her heart rate slow, as he held her tight and the hot water cascaded over them both. She had never felt so meltingly relaxed. He bent down and kissed her, and she turned her face up to his and kissed him as if under a tropical waterfall.
“So,” Carter said, nudging her hand between his thighs. “Before I build the prototype, how do rate the product?”
“Eleven,” Fen said promptly.
“The scale only goes to ten.”
“Exactly. Eleven.”
“Hmm. Could be hard for the prototype to live up to the original.”
“Yep. Especially if the owner of the original also does shampoos.”
“Subtle,” Carter remarked as he reached for the little bottles, offering her each to sniff in turn.
She chose a honey-colored concoction that smelled like cinnamon and apples. “This one.”
“You’re making me hungry. Hungrier. You’re sweet as honey.”
“Not sweet as a pawpaw?” she teased.
“Thankfully, no. Close your eyes.”
She closed her eyes and let him shampoo her hair. He rubbed the scented shampoo into her scalp, massaging every inch of it with his fingers. It was an incredibly sensual experience, and one she didn’t want to have end. After he rinsed the shampoo out, holding his hand to her forehead so none of the suds would get in her eyes, he repeated the massage, this time with the matching conditioner.
Fen opened her eyes. “It stays in for a while. Let me do you now. Kneel down so I can get your hair.”
He knelt on the shower floor, head tilted back, throat exposed. It was an incredibly trusting posture, especially since he was nude. She wondered if he was trying to make it up to her for having kept so much from her earlier.
Like he had done for her, she offered him sniffs of the shampoo bottles. He vigorously rejected one with a classically masculine “green” scent. “Smells like a swamp.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said, though she grinned as she replaced it on the shelf. “But I’ll also be staying away from green and grassy and watery scents for the foreseeable future. How about this one?”
He tried out the bottle she offered him, breathing in the notes of bay leaf, amber, and orange peel, then nodded. “Yes, I like that. No swampiness at all.”
As she applied the shampoo to his hair, she remarked, “We should start a shampoo line. We can call it Dry Land.”
“‘Sick of the swamp?’ Dry Land will waft you away to a world where absolutely nothing squishes, squelches, or croaks!’” His advertiser’s voice broke into a sigh of sheer pleasure as she ran her fingers through his hair, making little circles on his scalp with her fingertips. “That feels incredibly good.”
“To me too.” His hair felt like liquid silk. She gave him a good long massage, then applied conditioner. “Stand up.”
He stood up, and she had him select a soap. He chose a rich brown cake with notes of whiskey, black leather, and nutmeg. “This is definitely a Dry Land soap.”
“An excellent choice.” She rubbed it against her hands, then caressed him from head to toe. It was an enormous pleasure for her to get to touch him like that, feeling the swells of his muscle and the angularity of bone, discovering all the parts of his body. It was both sensual and very intimate. When she was done, she tugged him under the showerhead and let the water rinse him clean, conditioner and soap and all.
They put their arms around each other, reveling in the warmth and closeness, his head bent to touch hers. Fen could feel their hair mingling and flowing together under the falling water. When they kissed again, a few drops of hot water slipped into her mouth.
