“It’s really hard to miss the giant dick jabbing into my side,” I tell him with a grin.
“Entirely your fault.”
I give his chest another kiss and then sit up. Taking the soap from him, I say, “My turn.”
“I swear sometimes you just try to see how hard you can make me.”
I don’t deny it. Instead, I grab the soap, give him my best innocent smile, and ask, “So where should I start?”
Niki looks like he’s torn between wanting me to touch every part of him and wanting to make things easier on himself byinsisting we just get out and go straight to supper. I take pity on him and switch places with him so I can start on his shoulders. My legs wrap around his waist and he grabs my calves while I start to dig my fingers in, rubbing all the tension from his neck and shoulders.
“Jesus, that feels good,” he groans, dropping his head to give me better access.
While I work out the knots, I lean down and kiss the tattoo on his shoulder. It’s shaped like a skull, but it’s all in zeros and ones, the design fractured like it’s glitching. It’s incredibly well done, and I’m not sure why exactly, but there’s something so sad about it.
“What does this mean?” I ask him, working my fingers lower so I’m getting into his upper back and the tense muscles in between his shoulder blades. “The repeating numbers, what is that?”
“It’s binary.”
I laugh. “You say that like I should know what that means.”
He looks over his shoulder and gives me a wink. “It’s the language of computers.”
“So this actually spells something out?” I take a closer look at all the numbers, but there’s no way in hell I’ll ever be able to decode it. “What’s it say?”
“The same word over and over again. Nobody.”
I press my lips to the sad image and then I kiss every inch of it. “As long as you know you’re everything to me.”
With his head still turned to the side so he can see me, he says, “I hope you always feel that way.”
“I always will,” I say, and I hope he can hear the confidence in my voice, because there’s a lot in life I’m not all that sure about, but this is not one of those things. When it comes to Niki, I’ve never been more certain of anything.
I cup his face, pulling him closer so I can kiss him before I start rubbing his back again, wanting him to feel as relaxed as possible. I may not be able to spoil him with money, but I can spoil him like this. With my hands running over his sculpted body, it feels more like a gift to myself, but I can tell he’s enjoying it, so I keep going. I massage him from top to bottom. He lets me, only stopping to give me an amused look when I insist his thick shaft also needs a bit of love. By the time I get to his feet, he’s resting with his head back, looking like he’s minutes away from sleep. I’ve never seen him look so at ease. Even when he’s relaxed, he seems like he’s carrying around more than his fair share. I get the impression he’s very hard on himself, and I’m hoping I can help ease that burden for him.
He smiles when I kiss the bottom of his foot, and then he groans when I slide up between his legs and rest my chest against his. His fingers dance along my back, and when the water gets too cold to ignore, he gets out to grab me a fluffy towel. While I get dressed in a comfy pair of yoga pants, he pulls on a pair of black sweats that sit low on his hips and a white T-shirt. He notices me staring and grins.
“Feel free to stay just like that,” he says, eyeing my bare upper body.
I think about it, but I’m kind of cold, so I eye his closet and ask, “Can I borrow one of your hoodies? I promise I’ll take it off again later.”
He walks over to his large closet and turns on the light. “Help yourself, baby. You can have anything you want.”
Excited, I step in and look around. I’m not surprised to find it organized. Everything is folded on a shelf or hanging up, and when I spot one of the black hoodies I’ve seen him in before, I grab it to show him. “This okay?”
He nods while I slip it on. It’s way too big on me, but it’s the kind of soft that only happens when you’ve washed a shirta million times. I pull the neckline up and take a big inhale, disappointed when it just smells like detergent and not him. Unsatisfied, I take it off and hang it back up before walking out into his bedroom. He watches me with curiosity but makes no move to stop me when I find the hoodie he’d been wearing earlier and put that one on instead. This time when I give it a sniff, I’m rewarded with the subtle spice of his cologne and the scent that’s just him. The only way to describe it is that it smells like home to me, familiar and safe and perfect.
“Better?” he asks.
I open my eyes to see him staring at me. “Much,” I tell him. “The other one didn’t smell like you.”
When I see his sweet smile, I pull him closer and kiss him. Before it can lead to both of us getting naked again, I say, “Food. I really need food. We need to replenish calories before we burn them off again.”
He grins and scoops me up. “In that case, let’s order a ton so we can replenish again in the middle of the night.”
We decide on pizza, and the menu is too much of a temptation for my empty stomach, so we end up ordering a few different ones, plus a large order of cheesy bread, and to assuage my guilt about all the greasy food, we add in a Greek salad that’s big enough for us to share.
As soon as it arrives, we both fix a huge plate and carry it to the couch. Niki scoots the large square ottoman over and as soon as I’m settled, he grabs the remote and sits down next to me. I see the corner of his mouth quirk up when I scoot in even closer so we’re touching. This is the first time we’ve gotten to really hang out like this, and I plan to make the most of it. We choose a comedy we’ve both been wanting to see but haven’t had the time to yet, and then we relax and do what thousands of other couples do on a nightly basis. We eat and laugh and watch a movie together. It seems so simple, but it feels like such a huge thing.
