Page 96 of Necessary Cruelty

Twenty-Nine

I scrubat my body with the excruciatingly hot water and rose-scented soap. Like I can wash away whatever part of Zaya feels like its stuck to my skin.

It was fucking stupid of me to set all this shit up. I told the vineyard staff to make it nice, but I didn’t know that would mean covering literally everything in roses. I have no idea what stupid urge drove me to make things nice for her, but I need to get my shit together.

We aren’t in love. This isn’t some tragic story about star-crossed lovers. We have a deal, and we just need to put up with each other until the deal is done.

No more of this romance shit.

I hear it when the door opens, but initially assume that the latch didn’t catch and a gust of wind blew against it. But when the shower curtain parts and a slim body slips in behind me, the last thing on my mind is the breeze.

“What the fuck?”

“I don’t want you to use all the hot water,” she says lightly. “My hair takes forever to wash.”

Which does nothing to explain why she is shoving herself in behind me butt naked.

“This place has dozens of rooms. They don’t run out of hot water.”

She snaps the curtain shut. “Thanks for the bit of trivia. I clearly don’t know as much about luxury accommodations as you do.”

Her tone is sarcastic, but teasing. Miles away from the moody anger I saw downstairs.

I have no idea what to make of this.

“I got here first.”

She shrugs and reaches for a bottle of rose-scented shampoo. “I know you never learned to share in kindergarten like the rest of us, Cortland. But it’s never too late for a lesson in the basics.”

If any other girl looked at me like this, opened up her hot mouth to smart off like this, I’d bend her over and smack her ass a few times. I can practically hear the wet slap of flesh because the water on her already heat-reddened skin will hurt that much more.

I’ve got a lesson for her. It’s hard as a rock and about to be inside of her.

For about a minute, I try to ignore her. I scrub my face and rinse it off in the water spray where I can’t see her naked body or hear anything aside from my own thoughts.

I feel her eyes follow me like a burning on every inch of skin her gaze touches. It lingers on my chest and the flat plane of my abs before coasting down to my dick that is so hard it’s almost painful.

When I lean back and swipe the water from my eyes, Zaya is still staring at my dick.

I wonder if I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole in Wonderland, or maybe Earth had an alien invasion when I wasn’t paying attention and Zaya got body snatched. Those are literally the only explanations I can think of for this surreal situation.

Especially when she turns, giving me an unfiltered view of her luscious ass and looks coquettishly over her shoulder. “Will you get my back?”

No matter how much weight this girl loses, and she has already lost way too much, that ass never changes. Round. Soft. The perfect size to fit inside my hands if I want to pick her up, spread her legs, and force her down onto my cock.

I force those thoughts away as I reach for the soap. When my hands glide over the sharp lines of her back, all I can think about is gripping that flesh in my hands as I sink inside of her.

My shower gel coated hands skim over her back. Her smooth, dark skin feels even softer under the water than it does normally, glistening and flushed from the heat. Every time I look at her, I discover something new.

Like the way that curls in her hair tighten and define before she has even stuck her head under the water, twisting like some living thing. I used to sit behind her in English class and would study the back of her head, trying to count how many different types of curl I could find there. Each one is entirely unique, like snowflakes. Beads of water catch on her eyelashes, making her look like some seductive water nymph emerging from the waves.

Even if I spent the rest of my life studying every facet of her face, I’d probably never lose interest.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her naked, especially in the light with no part of her hidden away. Yes, I’ve fucked her. Eaten her out. Held her down and dragged my dick across the soaked lips of her pussy through her panties, whispering filthy things into her ear, until we both came.

But I’ve never just looked at her like this, especially without any timeline to stop doing it.

We have hours here. Days, if we want them.

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