In the steam and the heat, I bury myself into him, my desire concentrated and dizzying. He reaches behind me and fills his palm with soap. I pull back as he smooths it across hischest, under his arms. I don’t exactly know why but it makes me smile.
‘What?’ he laughs. ‘I wasn’t joking about needing a wash. This wasn’t just some ruse to get you in here and ravish you.’
He pulls me in and presses his slippery body against mine. ‘More than happy to be ravished,’ I murmur.
He considers the statement for a moment, then reaches for the dispenser again, holding my gaze.
Then he slides both palms together and places them on either side of my neck before gliding them slowly along my collarbones, over my shoulders, down to my forearms. When he reaches my hands, he runs his fingers over the top of my knuckles, interlocking them briefly.
I stand, immobile and woozy from the meandering heat of his hands as they begin to work on my back, snaking over my shoulder blades before meeting in the middle at the top of my spine. Every nub of my vertebrae feels sensually alive as he skims downwards to the crease of my butt.
Over the course of some timeless period, my head lolls in a haze of heat and desire. Every inch of my body soaped and smoothed. Each little dip and crease. The soft skin behind my knees. The delicate underside of my elbows. The flesh inside my thighs. He lifts my arms above my head, allowing jets of warm water to wash away the bubbles.
Then he turns around and he pushes the little bottles of shampoo away from a shelf at the side. They clatter onto the tiles before he lifts me up onto it, making me gasp.
The inside of my knees graze his hips as he dips his head and draws my breast into his mouth. The way his tongue plays with my nipple causes his name to slip out of me, entirely involuntarily.
‘Oh Sam . . .’
I want to kiss him on the mouth again but can’t let him stop. The dilemma proves immaterial when he finally sinks tohis knees. I press my back into the tiles as the water cascades down the muscles around his shoulders and he presses his lips against the inside of my thighs. I run my hands through his hair, teasing the wet curls as he sinks his mouth into the silky folds between my legs.
My breath catches as his tongue softens and swirls. I tilt my pelvis, rolling in towards the pleasure. I’m barely able to think straight as my senses fall inwards like a free diver, while the sound of water and bliss builds in my ears, until I am gasping in waves of rushing pleasure.
Chapter 52
We spend the whole night cocooned in a duvet as soft as a cloud, limbs entwined as we make love endlessly, pausing only for sweet nothings and minibar biscuits. Throughout the whole time, I have the title of that old John Meyer song humming in the back of my head. ‘Your Body is a Wonderland’. There isn’t an inch of him I don’t want to explore. The skin beneath his bicep. The gentle warmth of his scalp. The contrasts of his torso, taut muscle fibres concealing soft organs beneath. By the time shards of early sunlight push through the curtains, the streets below still empty and silent, I am starving.
‘I wonder what time we can get breakfast?’ I ask.
‘Can’t imagine what’s made you suddenly so hungry,’ he whispers, as his lips meet mine for the thousandth time.
Part of me is prepared to ignore my groaning stomach in favour of this, but in the end we drag ourselves to the restaurant on the basis that even when we return we’ve got hours before check out at 11am. I’m yawning as we head back upstairs and Sam opens the bedroom door for me to enter.
‘I’m going to be exhausted today,’ I sigh, stepping in. ‘I wish I was getting the train straight back. You don’t mind the fact that we’re going back separately, do you? It just makes more sense than me making a separate journey to see the letting agent. I need to sign a few papers.’
I kick off my shoes and head into the bathroom to get some lip balm. All this kissing takes its toll.
‘It’s a nice apartment, just around the corner from where we used to live in Balham. Close to the tube too. We should put a date in the diary for you to come and stay, you know. Once I’m settled, I mean.’
I walk back into the room and slide my hands around his waist, pressing my face against his back. I am expecting him to turn around and kiss me. Just like we have been doing all night. But when he doesn’t move, I am already starting to loosen my grip as he removes my hands from his waist and heads into the bathroom.
I watch with an uneasy feeling as he closes the door. I consider starting to undress again, but the idea that the sight of my bare flesh might have the same effect as last night suddenly feels like an assumption too far. I unbutton the top of my shirt instead and arrange myself in a sexy but hopefully subtle enough way.
When he returns, he doesn’t look at me.
‘Is everything all right?’
‘Hmm? Yes. Sure.’ He smiles, but not with his eyes. He unplugs his phone charger.
‘Sam?’
When he turns around and I see his expression, my stomach twists. I instinctively rise to my feet but as I go to step forward, something stops me.
‘What’s the matter?’ I ask softly, reaching out to hold his hands.
He looks at them for a moment before giving them a gentle squeeze. Then he releases them and backs away. He sits on one of the chairs by the window as I lower myself onto the edge of the bed opposite.
‘I’m going to lay my heart out here,’ he says. ‘I wish you weren’t leaving.’
