CHAPTER 27
Nick
“I disappointed you.”
“No, Jannie.” Nick pressed a kiss to Jannie’s forehead. “You could never disappoint me.”
Lying in his arms with her head on his shoulder and her leg draped over his thighs, she tried to get closer, even though it was physically impossible.
Nick’s gut churned. Tomorrow, she would have to leave since she was scheduled to work on Monday, and everything inside him rejected it with all he had. His gut also churned for another reason: her visit to his club, which ended up freaking her out.
Bad idea, Kent. Bad.
All the way home, she remained silent, wordlessly staring out the window. Unable to think of anything to say, at one point, he took her hand. She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t respond with her usual warmth.
That hadn’t been the case when, after feeding Rolf and taking him out for the night, she gently shooed him out of the bedroom where he had followed her. She closed the door behind the sad-faced dog, then turned to Nick, took him by the hand, and led him straight to the shower. There, she quickly undressed him and herself, then guided him into the stall, making him sit on the built-in bench as she worked shampoo into his hair, drawing a groan from him at the feel of her fingertips massaging his scalp.
After thoroughly scrubbing his body, she nudged him under the spray, running her hands over his shoulders, back, and ass, helping clearthe remaining soap. All the while, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she wanted to wash the evening and the club off him.
There was one part she didn’t wash. Passing him the soap, she nodded toward his groin, and he obliged her, lathering himself, his gaze flicking from his hardening length to her face, watching her watch him touch himself.
And when he was done, she handed him the shampoo, and he returned the favor, except he had her turn around and washed her there, too, his fingertips slick with soap, languidly stroking back and forth. Under the spray, her palms pressed against the tile, she had a gentle, rolling orgasm that had her moaning softly, the sound echoing off the walls.
Later, in bed, she straddled him, taking his hands to place them on her breasts, her freshly washed silken hair grazing his chest as she bent to kiss him tenderly while she rode him, slowly, slowly.
She kept him on the edge for a long, long time, her gaze piercing him with a trace of sadness that made his throat go tight with the feeling that this was her goodbye.
He hoped to hell she didn’t intend it to be forever. Hoped that the side of him he had revealed tonight hadn’t completely put her off.
“What are you thinking?” he dared to ask.
She traced his pecs with a fingertip. “That I let you down.”
“You? Letmedown?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head. “Impossible.” He was silent for a beat. “Tell me how you felt tonight.”
She stayed quiet for so long that he thought she wouldn’t respond. He wanted to kick himself for putting her through all that on their last night together.
“I … don’t know.” She swallowed. “Honestly. I don’t know how to put it into words.”
He nodded. “Maybe I should have started with something less intense.”
“Started?”
“Or maybe I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have taken you there at all.”
“Don’t say that.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
She smoothed a hand over his abdomen. “What does … that stuff… do for you?”
That stuff? She couldn’t even call it what it was.
He paused to consider carefully. Really think. What had the lifestyle given him? He tried to find the words to explain but realized he couldn’t because his entire dive into it had been an exploration—a years-long search that had led to disappointment after disappointment, and then a dead end. But what he’d learned along the way had opened possibilities that, with the right partner, could prove extraordinary.
