“Let’s get out,” she says, her hands massaging my neck as we pull apart.
Of course, she knows the angle put a kink in my neck. And her fingers really are magical on my muscles.
I lean forward to let her out first, and she smirks at me as I watch her dry off. It’s so damn sexy.
“Come on, baby. Your turn.”
I climb out of the water more relaxed than I remember ever being, and she wraps me up in an oversized towel. She dries me off, and I still can’t believe tonight is about Misty servicing me. It’s awe-inspiring, and also a little selfish.
I want to tell her that there will never be anyone for me but her. That nothing Chanel has ever done holds a candle to Misty. Over a decade with Chanel means little when I think about the time I’ve had with Misty. It’s just so much more than I ever thought there could be with Misty. She’s given me everything I wanted and even things I didn’t know I did.
Tonight was supposed to be the night I told her how I felt. I’d made it my mission, but saying it after what I found out doesn’t feel like the right time. I don’t want this to tarnish what we have. The moment. I want to look back and remember it without any pain associated to the night.
“I can return the favor,” I offer as we walk into the bedroom.
She tosses me a pair of boxers, and they smell like her fabric softener. She washed our clothes together.
“No.”
“No?”
All she has on is an oversized T-shirt she stole from my house during our week together and a pair of panties. God, she looks good, and she climbs into bed and holds the covers open for me to climb in with her.
“You’re the one being taken care of, remember?”
“It’s not a problem. Trust me—”
“You take care of people around you all the time. Let me do this for you, baby,” she whispers and pulls me to rest my head on her chest. “Just you.”
Closing my eyes, I sigh. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Anything you want. You’re allowed to be upset and angry. You can yell and shout, if you want. Even cry, if it helps. What happens here stays between us.”
“You wouldn’t hold it against me?”
If I ever cried in front of Chanel, she’d hightail it out of town faster than I could blink. Even at Johnny’s funeral, I had to keep myself in check. I didn’t want to push her away because I needed her comfort.
“Never,” she whispers and runs her fingers through my hair, massaging like she did in the bathtub. “I want to be your rock while also being your safe place to land.”
This makes me smile. “I like these soft places to land,” I say and nuzzle my face into her chest.
Misty giggles. “I’m sure you do. I need you to know you can depend on me as much as we depend on you.”
“I’ve never had that before. Except for Johnny, but that was nothing like this.”
“Glad to hear it. We might be having a different conversation if it was.”
Smirking, I play with the hem of her sleeve. “Johnny taught me how to be a man.”
“Yeah?”
“He taught me how to fight. Play football. Ride a motorcycle. And he bought me my first box of condoms at thirteen.He made sure I knew that saying they’re too tight to put on was a bullshit excuse that would never fly.”
Her laugh makes me lighter. “So many guys tried to say that, but I once had a health teacher put one on her head to show it would fit a dick.”
“And you still didn’t use them?”
Misty snorts. “This was after I was already pregnant.”
