Page 31 of Sweet and Salty

I want to lay claim to him.

I want to cling to the way he makes me feel…safe and desired and taken care of in every aspect I never knew I needed.

But it was one night…

Well, two nights, if I’m being technical, and then that moment at the gala…

My heart flutters as all the times we’ve been intimate races through my mind, but it’s also the in-between times—coffee dates, lunches, and silly conversations, feeding Gregory together, and all the texting—that also has my heart doing flips.

I make a mental note to text the group chat later. I need my girls’ wise council, and until then, I’m content to put all my analyzing on the back burner. I don’t have anything to feel guilty about, despite the fact that he’d been hired to protect me. We had a semi-relationship before the professional messiness came into the picture, and we were two consenting adults who’d been safe, and that’s all that mattered.

I blow out a breath, rinsing off and doing my best to switch off my mind?—

“Can I join you?” Owen’s voice sounds just outside the shower, making my heart do another flip.

I catch my startled breath, excited nerves tangling beneath my skin for all of two seconds before I crack open the glass door.

“Definitely,” I say, swallowing hard when I see him step into the shower, gloriously naked, his beautiful body on full display in the bright light.

Mine is too, and I resist the urge to cover myself. He’d seen and kissed plenty of me last night, no reason to get self-conscious now.

“Good morning,” I say when he steps close to me, his eyes trailing the length of my body.

“The best morning,” he says, his hands gliding over my hips to draw me closer. He brushes a light kiss over my lips, and I melt into the embrace. “You look amazing soaking wet, Kitten,” he says, smirking down at me as he gently spins us, letting the water stream over the back of his head and down his body.

I take my time eying him, watching the hot beads of water roll over his inked skin. “You do too.”

His strong hands glide over my body, smoothing around my back and up and down my spine. The touch is both comforting and electric and has all of my senses firing up.

“You should’ve woken me up,” he says, bending down to kiss me again. “I would’ve loved to see you all soaped up.”

A warm shiver races down my spine, and I tip my head to give him better access to my neck. He lightly grazes his teeth over the sensitive skin beneath my jaw, and heat pools in my core.

“I didn’t know what to do,” I admit, slightly breathless from his slow, dominant touches. “I’ve never been in this situation before.”

He draws back to look down at me, an easy smile there. “Never woken up naked next to your security detail before?” he teases.

I grin, then shrug. “Basically.”

“I’ve never woken up next to a client before,” he says, moving to kiss me again. “Or the kitten who seduced me on the rooftop of my own club before either.”

I laugh. “You seduced me.”

“No way,” he says, his hands roaming over my ass and squeezing it with just the right pressure. “Your voice, your eyes, that mouth…” He dips down, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth. “Hooked me from the first second.”

A flush streaks through me, making the already steamy situation that much hotter. Fucking hell, how is this my morning? Being touched and teased by a strong, sexy-as-sin man like him?

“Can you bite me again?” I tease. “I think I might still be dreaming.”

Owen gently nips at my neck, the pleasure-laced pain grounding me in the very real present. “You’re the dream,” he says, shifting closer, and I gasp at the hard length of him pressed against me.

I move my hands over the plane of his chest and the ridges of his abdomen as he turns us so the water is hitting us both from the side. “I don’t know,” I say, still exploring him. “You’rethe one who told me you’d steal my soul when I asked if you were a Carolina Reaper,” I continue, grinning up at him. “And I’m fairly certain that’s what you’ve done, because I feel like I can stay right here forever and not miss a thing. So, maybe I am dreaming.”

Owen’s smile is infectious, the molten look in his blue eyes enough to have me blushing again. “As long as you don’t think I’m a nightmare, I’m good with however you want to see me.”

“You could never be a nightmare,” I say, reaching down between us to slide my wet fingers over his hard length.

He jolts into my hand at the touch. “Some people think I am,” he argues. “My line of work, it’s not exactly a walk in the park.”

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