Page 137 of Bake the Town Red

I’m not a crier. Hate it, actually. It made Al laugh when the stupid tears dropped without my permission.

“Let it out,” he demands.

Al is gone. Has been gone for seven years.

Tyler’s here, instead. He kisses my tears when they streak my cheeks. When my chin wobbles.

“I’m your family.” He grabs the soap bottle again, squeezes, brushes his thumbs on my nipples. “The only remaining one. They were great people. They loved you. And they’re gone. They’re not coming back, sweetheart.”

He splays his hands on my breasts, rubbing soap on theMinetattoo. Moves his deft hands to the sides of my breasts, feeling their weight in his palms. Feelingme.

It’s hard to pay attention to how nice and comforting it is. It’s hard because he says things no one’s said to me in years. Or ever.

Before Tyler stormed into my life again, I had every intention of forcing him to see reason. Eventually. I knew I’d do anything to get him out of his own head and have him back, this time for good.

Hearing him say he’s my family—my family—that’s something I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dreams.

“I’ll lose a part of them if I sell the place.” I sigh, my shoulders sagging. “I could’ve moved out by now. For the past two years, I could’ve afforded a better apartment.”

“I know, Dahl.” Tyler guides me to stand beneath the spray of the shower, washes me clean andbam. We’re back against the wall. “The lines stretching outside your shop mean you can afford areallygood one.”

He lathers soap on my pussy. Massages the short hair. I stay motionless, my pulse kicking up at the sight of Ty grabbing a razor.

“I’m so proud of you for it.” The cascading water highlights the muscles on his chest and arms. “Of the successful woman you’ve become. The one I always knew you would be. A phoenix rising from the ashes. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met. The most caring one.”

He’s strong. His chest is wide. The veins in his arms are delicious. He’s all man. An attentive man. He hasn’t forgotten I like my pussy shaved.

“I couldn’t move out of there.” I pout, trapped between arousal and bad memories. “It would gut me to think anyone else lives there. I had good memories there too.”

Tyler kneels before me, spreading my legs. Right foot right. The left one to the left. He nods while dragging the razor over my lips that are already swollen for him. Says nothing while he flicks his eyes from my pussy to my face.

“They’d ruin those, whoever moved in. They’d taint the bedroom where Ian and I told each other scary stories after bedtime.”

Tyler taps the razor on his shower’s tiles. He examines it, makes sure the blades are clean before running it in the area over my clit.

“Mom and I baked cakes together.” A low, insistent throb has my clit hardening. My knees are weak. I don’t stop talking. Tyler has to understand where I’m coming from. Even when I want to burst out of my skin with how hot I am for him. “Dad taught me how to carve a turkey when I turned ten. Have I told you that?”

“Yes, beautiful. Don’t move.” Tyler shaves the other side of my pussy. Kisses it. He parts my lips and drags the razor until I feel clean and raw. “Good girl.”

“Too many memories, good ones, were—oh,fuck, Tyler.” He discards the razor, and his face is buried in my pussy. His tongue licks the sensitive area, and I’m so high I think I’m levitating. “That’s so inappropriate.”

“What is?” His thumb nudges against my tighter hole, his eyes gleaming from below.

“Licking me while I’m talking about my dead family.” My mouth scolds him, the rest of my body encourages Tyler by arching forward. Opening up. “Inappropriate.”

“And I fucked my fist while you were in there destroying Ben.” He cocks an eyebrow, shoving his thumb into my ass. “That’s inappropriate too.”

My palms immediately go to his hair. Gripping, pulling, dragging him to me. I genuinely thought he’d be disgusted by this part of me, of what I do in the bakery. I don’t just stick a knife in someone’s throat. I don’t shoot them. I enjoy what I do and it’s sick.

But Tyler’s not grossed out. He likes it. Tyler likes it so much that he came.

I have to have his mouth on mine. Yet he won’t budge.

“Tyler,” I beg. “Can you please fuck me?”

“We’re fixing our housing problem first.”

Except we’re not fixing anything. His fingers spread my lips. His mouth assaults my pussy, my lips, my clit. He flicks his tongue on my clit, his thumb fucking my ass. It goes on forever, this beautiful torture.

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