I slipped in after her, keeping my distance and sitting across the tub from her. The warm water felt so good on my aching back muscles, and the lavender and honey-scented bubble bath that I’d picked wrapped around me. I leaned back and closed my eyes, relaxing into the bath for a few minutes, and letting the buoyancy of the water soothe me.
I loved a good bath; Matteo and Theo often joked that I was part mermaid because of the sheer number of baths I took when I had the time. There was nothing like soaking in a tub of hot water and just kind ofbeing. I couldn’t bring work into the bath with me, heck, I was so clumsy that I couldn’t even bring my phone for fear of dropping it into the water and ruining it.
So, taking a bath was one of the few ways that I could unwind without feeling like I needed to be working. Tibby was obviously not used to taking baths, she shifted across from me as she tried to get comfortable but it was clear that she had trouble just sitting in silence. It was as if I was feeling her thoughts start to ratchet up again, and that was definitely my cue to begin telling her my story.
When I opened my eyes, she was playing with some of the bubbles in the bath, nibbling on her lower lip as she concentrated on gathering the bubbles into large mounds in front of her. It was clear that she was trying to let me relax, I realized, but she was practically vibrating out of her skin in order to do so. She definitely wanted to ask me about my past but was letting me relax first and the sheer sweetness of it made something twinge inside of my chest. I sat up and pushed some bubbles in her direction to get her attention.
Her multicolored eyes flicked up and crinkled as she offered me a little smile, her pink lips upturned and she said: “I didn’t want to bug you, you looked like you were super relaxed.”
“I was, is it hard for you to sit still in a bath?” I asked, wanting an honest answer from the omega.
Tibby shrugged, the water sloshing away from her shoulders and breasts enticingly and I forced myself to look at her face, “I’ve never really taken baths. The tub at my apartment is way too small for all of this,” she gestured to her body, “and I’ve never been very good at sitting still.”
She was like Theo in that way, he absolutely hated baths and would usually only take them with me if they involvedotheractivities. He also tended to fidget when we had to wait anywhere: doctor’s offices, the DMV, at restaurants. He was lucky he was so handsome, and that his impatience was more endearing than annoying.
“My parents died when I was fifteen years old,” I might as well get started while the bathwater was still warm. “They were on a private plane from Europe, flying back for one of my piano recitals.”
Tibby looked like she wanted to say something, so I just powered on, wanting to get it all out before I lost my nerve. It wasn’t often that I had to share this part of myself, all of the people I’d wanted to know about it already knew. But, I wanted Tibby to understand me, more than anything I wanted her to understand I knew how she had felt when she’d shifted from upset to angry earlier.
“I can still remember going to the funeral and sitting up front with my grandparents. The looks of pity and sympathy felt like little knives and I ended up running out of the funeral and hiding in an office for the rest of the service.” Even though my grandparents never held it against me, it was still one of my greatest regrets in life. I wish I could go back in time and force myself to stay and say one last goodbye to my parents. To say that I’d miss them every day and to say thank you to them for raising me for fifteen years.
“After that, my grandparents moved me into this apartment and raised me, giving me anything and everything I could want or need. But even now, twenty years later, I still get looks of pity when I tell people this story.” I moved through the water until I was right in front of Tibby, “I know it feels awful to get looks of pity, especially since I’m pretty sure you grew up in a living hell, but human beings are always going to react that way to bad things. We can’t help it.”
It was something I’d had to come to terms with as an adult; people were always going to be sympathetic or pity me for losing my parents at such a young age. But I also knew that I had more in my fifteen years with them than a lot of people had with their own parents.
I reached out for her, wanting to touch her again and feel her soft skin under my fingers. “Please don’t think badly of us because of a knee-jerk reaction. We all understand being looked at with pity in some way or another. We want to learn more about you. One, so that we can better protect you and, two, because we like you.”
Tibby’s freckled cheeks reddened with a blush, “I like you too.” She said it so quietly that I thought that I was imagining it, but all of my doubts about her response flew from my head when she leaned forward and gently pressed her lips into mine. Her kiss was tentative at first, but I was having none of that and I slid my hands behind her neck and drew her into me, burying my fingers in her damp, red curls.
Tibby’s surprised little gasp was the same as mine as I felt her soft body meld with mine, her breasts pushing against mine as I deepened the kiss, using my teeth on her plump lower lip and swiping my tongue along it, asking for entry. She groaned, and her hands seemed to finally figure out what to do, resting at the juncture where my hips met my waist. She had little hands and fingers that dug into the flesh, her nails biting into my skin as we floated together to the center of the tub, letting the water keep us afloat.
My alpha instincts were revving to take over and go even further but I had to force myself to break off the kiss, reminding myself again that this was supposed to be a comforting bath.
Tibby’s eyelids fluttered as she realized that the kiss had ended, her eyes looking a little hazy as she came back into herself. Her fingers slid away from my waist, and she held them between her breasts as if realizing that she’d been gripping onto me so tightly.
“Sorry,” my voice was raspy now and had the echoes of a growl to it. “Was that too much?”
Tibby shook her head from side to side, almost violently, “No, I liked it. It was just....”
“Different?” I provided.
“Different.” She agreed.
I had never been around an omega like this before. Prior to Tibby coming to stay with us, the only interactions I’d had were with omegas that I was representing, and that had been few and far in between. There weren’t a ton of omegas working in corporate America, and I could probably count on one hand the number of omegas that I’d worked with.
Being around Tibby’s strawberries and cream scent was completely intoxicating, especially when it sharpened with lust. Her scent tingled across my skin like tiny jolts of electricity, and I nearly gave up on my plan to make this bath a comforting one and go full speed ahead.
Tibby’s next yawn completely checked my ardor and I remembered that she’d woken up screaming less than an hour ago and was probably completely exhausted.
“Come on,” I tugged her towards the bathtub stairs, “Let’s dry off and get you back to bed.”
We toweled off fast, still curiously perusing each other’s bodies again with our eyes. At the bottom of the basket, I’d brought in another pair of pajamas for her, they had little bats on them. While we were out at the store, Tibby had only picked out pajamas with silly prints on them, much to our collective amusement. Upon closer inspection of the pajamas, I couldn’t help but laugh when I realized that the bats were holding little beer cans.
“What? They’re cute.” Tibby pulled them on and began to run her fingers through her wet hair to work out any of the knots that had formed during the bath.
I said nothing, simply grinning as I pulled my brown satin nightdress back on over my head, followed by the matching robe.
Once we were decent, I flipped the latch that would empty the tub and opened the door, entering the bedroom which was dark once again. The room was empty except for the person laying on the bed.
