“I want to.”
I closed my eyes and let her work, trying to ignore the way my pulse jumped every time her nails scraped lightly against my scalp. This was just Kelechi washing my hair, right? Nothing more. But my heart was threatening to burst out of my chest, my nerves wrecking havoc on my breathing.
When she tipped my head back to rinse, I opened my eyes and caught her looking at me with that quiet, unreadable look she got sometimes.
I grabbed the bar soap and returned the favour as I ran it along her body, over her shoulders, her back, her breasts, and the familiar curves I already knew by memory.
She leaned into my touch, and I felt that familiar tightness in my chest that I’d been ignoring for weeks now. The one that showed up whenever she laughed at my jokes, or fell asleep against my shoulder during movies, or looked at me like she was seeing something no one else ever had.
“Turn around,” I said, more gruffly than I intended.
She did, and I let my hands explore the curve of her back, the swell of her hips. She gasped when my fingers found sensitive spots, and the sound shot straight through me.
“Marley,” she said quietly, and when I looked down, she tilted her head back to meet my eyes. Water ran down her face, and I couldn’t tell if there were still tears mixed in.
“Yeah?”
“Nothing,” she said after a moment. “Just… nothing.”
But the way she was looking at me didn’t feel like nothing. It felt like everything we couldn’t say.
When the water started running lukewarm, I turned it off. We dried off in relative silence, and I tried not to think about how natural this felt, how right. How much I wanted to do this every night for the rest of my life.
Fuck.
We moved to the bedroom, and she climbed into bed first and held the covers open for me.
I slipped in beside her, and she curled into my side.
“Better?” I asked, my voice carefully neutral.
She nodded against my bare chest. “Yeah. Better.”
But as I wrapped my arms around her and listened to her breathing even out in the dark, I knew nothing about this was simple anymore.
If it ever had been.
“Merry Christmas, babe,” Kelechi’s voice drifted into my head. Kisses followed right after, trailing across my cheek, down my neck, then over my breast.
Briefly, I thought I was still dreaming, until I felt her hand cup my bare pussy. My hips lifted on instinct, my thighs falling open as a groan ripped from me.
“Fuck,” I moaned, arching into her palm. The boldness in her touch made my chest clench with something heavier than lust. This was my shy girl, the one who hid behind blushing cheeks and smart retorts, now waking me with her hand between my legs. “You’re naughty,” I whispered, eyes flicking open to find her grinning.
“I am a fast learner,” she murmured, pressing her lips to my nipple before rolling it gently with her tongue. Her fingers rubbed tentative circles over my clit, shy in motion but brave in intent.
Pleasure tightened low in my belly, but I forced myself to stay still, to guide her instead of taking control. Too many times, lovers had forgotten me, treated my body like an afterthought. But not her. Not this girl.
She was watching me, learning.
I caught her wrist lightly. “Slower,” I said, my voice sounding unrecognisable in my ears. “Feel me, don’t just rush it.”
Her eyes lifted to mine, wide but eager, and she nodded. She dragged her fingers lower, parting my folds, exploring my every reaction. When one finger slipped inside my slick heat, my breath punched out of my lungs as my hips jerked instinctively.
“Like this?” she whispered.
“Yeah, baby. Just like that… fuck… slide it in deeper.”
Her tongue licked over my breast again as she eased her finger inside me, hesitating before pushing in all the way.
