Page 94 of Unbreakable Love

I had my fresh clothes in hand and was turning toward the door, when Penny whispered, “Wait.”

“What do you need?”

She glanced at the clothes on the dresser, back at me, the clothes in my hand. For a moment, I considered this was too fast, too much for her. Maybe she’d be more comfortable in her own home.

Then her lips curled at the corner, mischief and nerves battling for first place in her expression. “We could share? The shower, I mean, not the clothes.”

Wow. Damn. That wasn’t what I expected. My body liked the idea. A whole hell of a lot. “Penny… I want that, I do, but we don’t have to do anything tonight. And?—”

“How very sweet of you to care about my virtue and my comfort, Gavin. It is, I appreciate it. But what if that’s what I want?”

Then nerves of my own be damned as well. I’d give her anything she ever asked for, especially if it was me.

“All right then. You got it.” I reached for her and slammed my mouth to hers. Screw the taking our time and relaxing and watching a movie. We had the entire night for that.

I dropped my clothes and pressed my hands to the sides of her neck. She hummed into my mouth and met me with equal passion, equal need as I stepped backward into the bathroom. I flinched from the brightness and only stopped kissing her long enough to turn on the shower.

“Holy crap.” Penny gasped. She gaped, wide-mouthed and wide-eyed while she took in my bathroom. “This is, well, crap. This bathroom is a thousand times better than mine.”

“I renovated everything when I moved in.” And a large bathroom was necessary. I had a huge soaking tub, mostly because Josie might have been little when we moved in, but I figured someday she’d want bubble baths… which she loved these days. The shower was a walk-in at the far end, all glass walls, and as those walls started steaming with the heat from the water, Penny’s cheeks turned crimson.

“We could both fit in there,” she said, pointing at the tub.

“We could. Another night, though?”

“Okay.” She nodded and then licked her lips. She might have wanted this, but I was pretty certain she needed me to take the lead.

Slowly, so she couldn’t miss my intention, I gripped the bottom of my shirt. She’d had her hands all over my chest one night that now felt like years ago and I couldn’t wait to have her hands on me again.

As the shirt fell to the floor, that bottom lip made its way between her teeth again.

“Nervous?”

“A little. Mostly excited, and I think I could stare at your chest all day long.”

“You have a way of making me feel good. Come here.”

She stepped toward me, and I turned her around so she was facing the mirror. Leaning forward, I gathered one of Josie’s hair ties and then gathered Penny’s hair into my hands.

“I can do it,” she whispered, our eyes meeting in the mirror.

“I know.” I kissed the shell of her ear and received a quick inhale from her. “I know you can do probably anything you choose to do, but let me?”

“Okay.” Her hands twisted together in front of her while I gathered her hair. This time, I doubted it was nerves, but relinquishing her lifetime of taking care of herself to someone else. Oh, the things she’d need to get used to.

I worked quickly but paused long enough to kiss the back of her neck, barely exposed through the high collar of her sweater. Once her hair was up, in a messy knot at the top her head, my hands went to the hem of her sweater. “Can I?”

“Please,” she rasped. Her chest rose and fell with quickened breaths, and I took my time with her sweater, moving it up slowly, exposing her abdomen, brushing her warm and soft skin with my knuckles until she had to lift her arms. She disappeared for a moment and then reappeared, turning around and facing me.

She rested her backside against the counter and admitted, “I’m a bit nervous.”

I loved that she trusted me like that. Trusted me with her honesty and her vulnerability.

“We can stop. If it helps, the first time we have sex, I’m not making love to you in a shower.”

I wanted her relaxed in a bed, spread out so I could enjoy every blasted inch of her, but even wanting that, I was having a hard time not tearing off her simple cotton bra to see and kiss and lap at the nipples and breasts I’d only barely touched.

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m okay, and I want it, but that doesn’t mean I’m not nervous.”

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