Page 28 of The Moment We Know

That would be her justification, anyway, if she had to defend her actions. In the meantime, though, she was going in.

The small space was a little steamy, but Paige immediately spotted David in the shower. His back was to her, his head bent, and he had one hand braced against the tile wall as he engaged in what was clearly self-love with the other hand.

No wonder he hadn’t heard her knock.

Fascinated, she watched him jerk off for a moment through the clear shower door, taking in his concentrated effort, the fluid, even strokes; she’d never seen him do this, but it looked like he was pretty good at it.

On silent feet, Paige bypassed the tub on her way to the shower door, opening it just enough to pop her head in. Not surprisingly, he remained unaware of her presence, so she cleared her throat and said, “Excuse me.”

His hand came to an abrupt stop and he slowly looked over his shoulder, his expression one of fabricated innocence. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she returned with narrowed eyes.

“Did I wake you up? I was trying to be quiet by showering in here.”

Instead of responding to his obviously thoughtful gesture, she glanced pointedly at his hand, which was holding his cock in a tight grip. “What are you doing? I thought the rule was no self-love. So, unless you’re just really washing the hell out of your dick, you have some explaining to do.”

David tilted his head, innocent expression still firmly in place. “Actually, the rule is no self-love unless the other person is ‘present’, and technically you were present …in the apartment.”

“Are you serious with that bullshit loophole?” Paige asked, not mentioning that the sight of him masturbating had been extremely erotic, or that she would’ve liked to see it from the front.

“Yes. To the serious part, not the bullshit part,” he was quick to clarify. “I woke up with a very persistent hard-on and when I got in the shower, it wouldn’t go away, no matter what I thought about. Abused pets on those ASPCA commercials. That time I had food poisoning. Taking a puck to the balls during a floor hockey game when I was ten. This—” he sort of waved his erection at her, “—just wouldn’t go away. I had no choice but to—”

“Slither through a bullshit loophole and rub one out while I was asleep in the next room, none the wiser?”

“I object to the word ‘slither’. I wasn’t slithering. And it’s not a bullshit loophole. But even if it was, I had to get rid of this.” Again, he waved his erection at her. “Otherwise, it was going to make driving really uncomfortable,” he said. Then at the look of confusion on her face, added, “It’s a thing. If you had a cock, you’d understand.”

Paige was glad she didn’t, if it had the power to negatively affect one’s driving. “So, were you going to tell me about this breach in our agreement, if you’d gotten away with it?”

“Honestly, probably not. Mainly because I wasn’t doing it for pleasure. I was doing it for the release.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Yeah, a big one.” He met her eyes over his shoulder. “Complete honesty, right?”

“Right.”

“I would’ve loved to have had sex with you almost every day when we were together, but that didn’t happen for reasons I didn’t understand then, but do now. So, quickly rubbing one out in the shower before you got up in the morning or after you fell asleep at night, was the only way I didn’t lose my fucking mind. That was release, not pleasure. And that’s the difference.”

A wave of sadness washed over Paige at his blunt words. To be wanted that much was a gift and it was a gift she hadn’t been able to appreciate, let alone reciprocate. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know. But I can still be sorry that you were reduced to that.”

She slid her panties down to the floor and stepped into the small enclosure. His eyes gathered heat as they travelled over every inch of her body before she wrapped her arms around him from behind, pressing her breasts against his back and her cheek against the tattoo of her face.

“Are you really mad at me?” David asked.

“Not as much as I was. But my feelings are a little hurt that you didn’t wake me up to help you with your ‘persistent hard-on’.”

“Believe me, it crossed my mind because you’re the reason I had it to begin with, but you were exhausted last night. And you’d said you wanted to sleep for ten hours, so … I was letting you.”

Paige stepped around him enough to see his face as the spray of the shower rained down on them. “I appreciate that. It was very sweet of you to let me sleep, but I’m awake now, so hand it over.”

“Hand it over? You mean my cock?”

“Yes. I’m in charge now.”

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